|
Moving Forward After 07/07
 Last week the northern towns of England
became popular for all the wrong reasons. Images were beamed around the world
of so called terrorist streets of Dewsbury, where Mohammed Sidique Khan and his
wife Hasina used to reside. In Leeds it was no different where the media circus managed to portray the
Beeston area as one of severe unemployment, depression and high criminal
activity where the home grown terrorists roamed the streets, free to spread
their vile poison.
Click here to add your thoughts to this article
The bombing was condemned immediately by us and other organisations, and
rightly so, as one of true barbarity and evil. The bombers made no distinction
as to on whom they inflicted their rain of terror, whether it was faith or no
faith, man or woman, young or old. Thus hundreds were caught in their blind
rage and sadly over 54 people lost their lives.
Just because the bombers names are closely associated with Muslim names, sadly
Islam got the blame. Just because they resided in towns where there was a large
percentage of Muslims, Islam got the blame. In fact every organisation said the
bombings had nothing whatsoever do with the Islamic faith. It was quite simply
a criminal act. Period.
However, it is now time for the community to move forward and take action to
take steps as to what can be done to stop a tragic incident like 07/07 ever
occurring. Many ideas and suggestions have been put forward, by leading groups,
MPs, faith centres, etc. some have issued a fatwa calling all bombings as an
act not akin to Islam (BMF), dialogue with extremists was proposed (by Sayeeda
Warsi) and some have said extremism needs to be rooted out (Shahid Malik, MP
for Dewsbury), while others have called for more openness from the Muslim
community. All of these points are fair and need to be carefully considered and
discussed.
However, what we would like to address is that, for our Muslim community to
seriously move forward, unity is needed. We feel we must discharge terms, as
modern, extreme and put aside our petty differences and work together as one Jamah.
There are many organisations that are unique and provide a much valued and
needed service in the community, and thus, we need to recognise such
organisations and work together to stop re-inventing the wheel.
Above all we seriously ask our faith centres to work with the youth. Allow them
to express their views whatever they are and allow such dialogue to take place
rather than going underground. We should be proactive in dealing with issues that
affect many of our youth, employment, education, drugs, alcohol etc. A forum to
discuss foreign policy should be available and let us not just limit this to
Muslim lands i.e. Bosnia, Darfur, and Afghanistan but worldwide. The doors of our faith centres needs to be wide
opened, in fact when was the last time we invited our indigenous work
colleagues over? Have we got anything to hide in our mosques? Of course not.
Then why are we so reactive and not proactive?
A leadership and mentoring programme would also help the youth, thus we are
pleased to say that our mentoring proposal is ready in its draft form and we
hope in the coming months that it becomes a sound project from where we can all
benefit and work together. We think that if the professionals amongst us gave
at least a minimum of 2 hours each month for the correct guidance and
leadership for those who are younger or more inexperienced then we can
certainly make progress. As an old saying goes:
"The progress or decline of a nation depends on the spirit and consciousness,
the upbringing and education, given to its young". So, while nations that have
brought their young up well are always ready for progress, it is impossible for
those who have neglected their young to take even a single step forward.
Our work is certainly cut out and we think we need to sort our own house in
order before anyone else. Comments like those of Margaret Hodge who at a recent
ethnic minority conference cited:
"That it is
unacceptable that a quarter of the 150,000 Muslim graduates in Britain are out of work because of barriers in the labour market" And further
"...Just 76% of Muslim graduates of working age are in jobs, compared with the
overall graduate rate of 87%"
These statistics are certainly worrying and more needs to be done. However, the
onus lies on us all to help each other and work together and put aside our
differences. We sincerely hope that you can help the youth of today for a
better tomorrow. Above all by helping them to use their energy and resources in
the correct way and thus becoming ambassadors for Islam rather than social
misfits.
Click here to add your thoughts to this article |
