Militant Secularists & Faith

Baroness Warsi has again spoken about something which has not been spoken about in the public sphere. The issue of faith in the public arena and where policy making and policy shaping may be involved with faith. For those who will feel that faith and politics / public policy should not mix, I am afraid to say that historically they have mixed and will always mix to lesser or greater degrees depending on the personal and political motivations and drives of politicians. Let us also not forget that organised religion still wields wealth and power, from the Vatican to the Religious structures in places like Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan and many other countries.

The speech made at the Vatican by Baroness Warsi raises something important. The fact that there are secularists that believe that using debate is a way forward to countering what they regard as the 'irrational beliefs' of religious people is a perfectly reasonable stance to take in our country, though one that I would not completely agree with. Debate is positive and should be protected, though outright abuse, attacks against faith from prejudiced positions based on limited facts and accepting hate against faith groups since they may be seen as somehow inferior are what we all need to stand against. This was what I believe, Baroness Warsi was trying to outline. A breed of militant secularists that simply try to out-shout and talk over others and who believe that not giving others with different views on faith the space to talk is unacceptable. It is this intolerance and authoritarianism that was being outlined. It is neither helpful nor acceptable and it is damaging to the very public position that they are trying to re-inforce.

In light of this, whilst we need to carry on with a public discourse on the role of faith in our country, the least we can do is to give others the chance to talk. We may not agree, but by God, the Almighty, our common humanity (whatever you want it to be), we need to accept that we all deserve some basic respect and dignity. Let's try and maintain that basic premise.

Responding to those who conveniently hide their hatred of anything Muslim

Recently, we (www.faith-matters.org) launched a booklet on the Righteous Muslims which looked at the history of those people deemed to be Righteous by Yad Vashem and who had saved Jews and others from death by their actions. They did this without the promise of money, personal gain or through external pressure applied to them. They did this because it was right and they did this driven by ideals that were based on values shaped by their faith in Islam.

The launch of the book produced postings on this site suggesting that the book did not describe those who had collaborated with the Nazis. As if the booklet in 32 pages was to take a critical approach to the complex arena of the role of all Muslims in the Holocaust and with postings even suggesting that the individuals could not be driven by Islam and their faith and that they did so because they just wanted to protect people. Increasingly, the dehumanisation of Muslims and the demonization of Islam is pervading its way into the minds of people who should know better!

There were even suggestions that Muslims should feel a collective guilt on the Holocaust, which was just plain wrong. The collective guilt was and should be felt within Europe where some governments did nothing during the Holocaust even though they knew that the extermination camps had been developed and a systematic plan to exterminate people had been triggered within the Nazi administration. Furthermore, the much used example in postings on the Mufti of Jerusalem did not represent all Muslims and some of the postings continued to support a blanket assumption that all Muslims cannot be trusted due to the actions of the Mufti of Jerusalem. I would seriously questions the motives and the basis of these assumptions and statements and the actions of the Righteous Muslims are a clear counter to that.

The aim of the booklet was to look at a brief snapshot of some of the stories of the Righteous Muslims. It was also to give the wider public and those within Jewish communities an understanding of these deeply shared histories between Muslims and Jews and to shine a light on a few of the roots of social justice that existed during this catastrophic time in Europe’s history. In fact, the e-mail responses from individuals within Jewish communities on the booklet has borne this out and many have suggested that they simply did not know about these facts and were heartened by them, rather than the negative light always shone on Muslim and Jewish relations.

A further aim of this booklet was to develop a sense of understanding within Muslim communities, so that they gained an awareness into their own histories. Histories that included people like Ali Sheqar Pashkaj who saved Yeoshua Baruchowic or Destan Balla and Lime Balla who saved the Lazar brothers; or Selahattin Ulkumen who saved the lives of 50 Jews on the island of Rhodes. It is also hoped that some within Muslim communities will be inspired to take an interest into their history and research the role of Muslims since this has been a neglected area and which has thankfully been supported mainly by Jewish investigators and researchers like Robert Satloff and Norman Gerschon. The actions of these investigators and researchers has protected these stories and for that they should be truly commended.

The actions of communities within the Holocaust has always been an area which has had to have been dealt with sensitively for fear of alienating communities or pigeon holing them 65 years later. As I suggested before, the actions of some Muslims (a small minority) in the Second World War were wrong and no doubt some made choices through agreement with Nazi ideology, through ‘just going with the flow’ or through pressure that was applied to them by the Nazis to join up. Furthermore, some joined because of local and regional disputes that were long standing and which the Nazis cynically manipulated. It seems that the politics of local and regional issues and other pressures had over-ridden the social justice element that is strongly a part of Islam.

Yet, this is not the whole view and the shrill voices that attempt to caricature Muslims by regarding all as being in agreement with the Nazi war machine, purposefully fail to look at the whole picture. That the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims fought on the side of the Allies and many millions fought in the green fields of France, through to the swamps of Burma. Many lost their lives in Italy, France, Tunisia, Egypt and Albania and the list goes on. Those that choose to be selective in their analysis of Muslims fail to look at the dearth of evidence which showed that many Muslims were driven by the desire to do what was right and which was driven by their faith in Islam and a strong sense of social justice that was shaped by it.

We hope that this booklet provides the inspiration for its readers to research the area of the Righteous Muslims further. We also hope that it provides hope and inspiration to Jews and Muslims around our shared histories, even in the darkness of the Second World War and the Holocaust. We also hope that the memory of those Muslims, who inspired by their faith, local codes of honour and a strong sense of social justice, lives on. Their histories should be an inspiration for us all.

The Righteous Muslims booklet can be downloaded on http://www.faith-matters.org/resources/publicationsreports/171-righteous-muslim

Appointment as Advisor to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Interfaith and Tackling Radicalism and Extremism

Can I firstly congratulate and thank the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, on his bold vision to appoint Cllr Meral Ece and I as advisors. My new role as of this week is to advise the Leader on issues related to the fields of interfaith and preventing extremism and radicalism.

Over the last 6 years, I have worked around building good community relations through interfaith projects which have attempted to promote commonalities between faiths, whilst then looking at and understanding key differences. These have been done through the prism of building resilient communities and more recently, my work and insight into the Preventing Violent Extremism agenda strengthens my belief that the scourge of radicalism, extremism and terrorism needs to be defeated wherever and whichever community it is found within. This in my opinion, does not mean labelling faith groups like Muslim communities, though it means working with them to promote mutual tolerance and understanding whilst weeding out the purveyors of hate. These purveyors of hate do nothing for the faith that they purport to be from and make issues more difficult for others within their communities. We must also not forget that Islam and Muslims have been in Europe for over a millennium and they are part of Europe's history.

This is not to say that radicalism and extremism are only relevant to a few communities. Through my work I have found the scourge in many faith groups, yet we must not forget that faith plays a strong role in social action in our country and has shaped social justice within our local areas.

My appointment also means that we, the Liberal Democrats, understand the importance of interfaith work and that it should be mainstreamed within political discourses and debates. This is a very important first step and there are no such advisors within Labour and the Conservatives around this area.

Nick said that he was going to be bold and put forward a vision of a diverse Britain. I realise that his vision is based on social justice, fairness, tolerance and openness. I believe in that and these ideals are fundamental to ensuring that we all have equal access to resources and opportunities within our lives.

Notes to Editors

A short biography of Fiyaz Mughal is below:

FIYAZ MUGHAL

Fiyaz Mughal was part of the Working Groups that made up the Extremism Task Force which was convened by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, after the 7/7 bombings.

He is an accredited national Peer Mentor with IDeA on preventing violent extremism.

An Oxford City Councillor in 2002-2004, Fiyaz is now a Councillor in the London Borough of Haringey and was also the Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats from 2002-2006. He was also appointed as one of a number of Deputy Presidents for the Liberal Democrats in 2006 and was one of the party's Prospective London Mayoral candidates in 2007.

Fiyaz founded Faith Matters (http://www.faith-matters.org.uk/) in 2004 and works on interfaith, conflict resolution and Preventing Violent Extremism programmes within faith communities in the UK and internationally.