From: David Virtue
Subject: Islam & Christian Persecution: Will London burn too? - by Patrick Sookhdeo
Will London burn too?
by Patrick Sookhdeo
THE SPECTATOR
November, 2005
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, has
warned recently of 'sleepwalking our way to segregation'. Although he
was not speaking principally about Muslims, they have become perhaps the
most dominant group in British society. Divided along ethnic and
sectarian lines, Muslims are nevertheless united by their creed, their
law and the powerful concept of the umma, the totality of Muslims
worldwide.
The process of migrating and establishing a Muslim community in a
non-Muslim context has an important place in Islamic theology. The word
hijra is used to describe such a migration, in particular the migration
of Mohammed and his followers in ad 622 from Mecca, where they were
persecuted, to Medina where they established the first Islamic state.
Eight years earlier another hijra occurred when Muslim refugees found
freedom of worship in the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia.
Muslims see the establishment of a Muslim community in the UK as a
contemporary hijra. But an important question concerns which 7th-century
hijra they compare it to: the hijra to Abyssinia in which the Muslims
became contented and loyal subjects of a Christian king, or the hijra to
Medina where they seized political and military power.
While the Muslim scholar Imtiaz Ahmed Hussain has indicated that he
looks to the Abyssinian model, many other Muslims seem to look to the
Medinan model. A book published in 1980 by the Islamic Council of Europe
gives instructions for how Muslim minorities are to work towards
achieving domination of European countries through a policy of
concentration in geographical areas.
The Muslim writer Amir Taheri, tackling the question of 'Why Paris is
Burning', described how France's policy of assimilation began to fail
when (Muslim) immigrants grouped themselves in concentrated areas. The
resulting alienation, says Taheri, opens the way for radical Islamists
to promote religious and cultural apartheid. Some are even calling for
Muslim majority areas to become like an Ottoman millet, i.e., to
organise their own social, cultural and educational life in accordance
with their religious beliefs. In parts of France, says Taheri, a de
facto millet system is already in place, seen in Islamic headdress,
Islamic beards, Islamic control of the administration, and the
elimination of cinemas, dance halls and shops selling alcohol and pork.
The Muslim community in France is well on the way to becoming a millet,
a state within a state. The only substantive goal still outstanding is
the implementation of Islamic law (Shariah) instead of French law.
Muslims in France have by and large rejected the concept of the
integration of individuals and are working instead for the integration
of communities. The same is happening in the UK, where the concept of
multiculturalism has long been popular.
Two other Islamic principles are important subjects of debate among
contemporary Muslims. The first concerns 'sacred space'. Islam is a
territorial religion. Any space once gained is considered sacred and
should belong to the umma for ever. Any lost space must be regained -
even by force if necessary. Migrant Muslim communities in the West are
constantly engaged in sacralising new areas - first the inner private
spaces of their homes and mosques, and latterly whole neighbourhoods
(e.g., Birmingham) by means of marches and processions. So the ultimate
end of sacred space theology is autonomy for Muslims of the UK under
Islamic law.
Radical Muslims hope for the re-establishment of the Caliphate,
abolished by Atat=FCrk in 1924. The possibility of a Southern Europe
Caliphate and a North Sea Caliphate has been raised.
The other important principle is the classic Islamic division of the
world into Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam), where Muslims rule, and
Dar al-Harb (the house of war). The sinister name for non-Muslim
territory indicates that Muslims have an obligation to wage war until it
becomes Dar al-Islam. There is much debate within Islam today as to
whether or not the West is Dar al-Harb. Non-Muslims can be thankful for
alternatives such as Dar al-Sulh (House of Truce) and Dar al-Ahd (House
of Treaty).
Some radical British Muslims used to believe in a 'covenant of security'
which forbids Muslims living in the UK from engaging in military action
within the country. Preposterous though it seems, they believed that,
were it not for this 'covenant', they would be duty-bound to attack the
majority community. Most now believe the covenant to be null and void
because of the UK's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the most radical of all hold that the covenant of security applied
only to Muslims who had sought refuge in Britain, not to those who were
born here. In the words of Hassan Butt, 'They [the British-born] owe
nothing to the government. They did not ask to be born here; neither did
they ask to be protected by Britain.'
In Britain we already have many examples of Muslim violence. Some are
within the community - ethnic violence such as Kurds against Pakistanis
in Peterborough or so-called 'honour killings'. Some are between Muslims
and other communities such as the blacks vs Asian Muslims in Birmingham
or the armed black Muslim gangs in south London threatening to kill
those who will not convert to Islam. Will we see the same patterns of
sectarian violence as in Pakistan, the homeland of so many British
Muslims? Shias and Sunnis killing each other, and the persecution of
Ahmadiyyas by Sunnis?
Most alarming of all is the prospect of Muslim secessionist violence in
the UK as in Kosovo, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere
(Huntington's much-reviled 'bloody borders of Islam'). Now this is
happening - apparently - in France. A radical Muslim preaching at Hyde
Park Corner on 6 November called for what had happened in France to be
repeated here. He urged all Muslims to move into Muslim areas, after
which any Churches would be expelled. He told his audience that Europe
had once been Muslim and called on them to make it Muslim again.
Many British cities already have concentrated Muslim communities.
Conservative estimates based on census returns indicate that Bradford
had a Muslim population of just under 49,000 in 1991, rising to over
75,000 in 2005. But Sher Azam, president of the Bradford Council of
Mosques, claims that 100,000 Muslims in Bradford attend mosque each
week, suggesting a total Muslim population in Bradford far in excess of
this. Whatever the true figures, it is clear that within a few years
Bradford and many other British cities will have Muslim majorities. It
is also clear that the often quoted figure of 1.6 million for the total
British Muslim population must be a gross underestimate.
Islamic enclaves would be defined by Islamic values, education,
politics, religious practice and above all law. They would be 'cleansed'
of any non-Muslim presence. This cleansing is already beginning by means
of threats and violence to isolated churches in Muslim majority areas.
Even Islamic law is already semi-established, in that a multitude of
Shariah councils and Shariah courts exist which deal with family issues,
effectively creating an unofficial parallel legal system within the UK.
Unless the multiculturalist policy - which has been indirectly
facilitating the separatist agenda of radical Islamists - is reversed
immediately, we shall wake up and find we have sleepwalked into a
situation of apartheid and segregation. If we sleep long enough, we may
even wake up to find that, like Paris, London is burning. Or that we are
living in an Islamic state.
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