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.

Pakistan Is imploding!

So what is happening to the country of my father's birth? (Well actually, he was born in pre-partition India and his father and him saw the effects of the colonial partition of India. The mass killings and the trails of human misery who were uprooted and who moved from one country to another were the results of the lines drawn by India's colonial masters.)

When Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the father and founder of Pakistan, put forward his vision of a modern Pakistan, he never imagined that nearly 60 years on, the country is on the verge of imploding politically and socially. Having just seen off the dictatorial ex-General Musharraf, Nawaz Shariff's Pakistan Muslim League and Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, both have track records that are far from ideal. Mr Shariff was exiled in Saudi Arabia on corruption charges. On the other hand, Mr Zardari, the husband of murdered previous Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was previously known as Mr 10% on account of his cut in financial and political deals. Some in Pakistan now refer to him as Mr 20%! Who says crime does not pay?

Yet, this political instability is supporting the military and law and order vacuum in some parts of the country, particularly in northern tribal regions like Waziristan. The Taliban is resurgent and allied to this, bombs have been killing civilians on the scale of attacks in Iraq.

All of this is leading Pakistan into an abyss from which I believe that it will not recover from for decades to come. With covert CIA operations taking place on the ground within Pakistan and with the Taliban openly resurgent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan is fast looking like a failed state. The real problem though is that stability in Pakistan is essential since an unstable country means that the region could be pulled into a catastrophic war. This is made worse due to the fact that Pakistan holds between 50-70 nuclear missiles, whilst India's nuclear arsenal is in the region of 200-300 missiles. Each country can destroy the other many times over.

For a British Muslim who is proud of my country and who believes that hard work pays within the United Kingdom, I feel a sense of sadness that if my father had been alive, he would have been depressed at the state of his country of birth. Pakistan is far from the vision that Jinnah wanted. The cancer within needs to be cut out and this includes corruption, the lack of leadership, extremism and more importantly, the manipulation of political structures for the sake of personal gain. Both of the current political leaders can easily be accused of this. I just hope they do the right thing and move on! Pakistan needs a new start; in fact it deserves that.

Getting Rid of the Politics of Fear

The politics of fear has been something that has been constantly present within the Middle East and rarely does the politics of bridge building get a chance whether it is through the press that hungrily looks for the ‘negative angle’ or whether it is through politicians who want to keep the status quo in place.

It is this politics of fear that has played a role within the Middle East for centuries and whilst there is a legitimate basis for many of the historical crises, the ingrained response of fear now shapes the language, discourse, outlook and character of governments in the area. Some of the Arab Governments blame the militarism of Israel whilst Israel blames Arab states for the military positions that it takes. The politics of fear within this complex relationship merely feeds off each party, like a bad marriage where each partner cannot really do without each other, yet where there is some twisted comfort.

Like any bad marriage, (for it is a marriage of neighbours based on history, geographical location and resources), there are a few routes to take. These routes may involve complete separation. It may involve mediation towards separation or it could include the continuation of a relationship based on some guidelines and frameworks; a kind of learning process where each partner learns to take a step back and think of the implications before acting, thereby creating a cessation in the cycle of abuse.

For those on all sides who have lost loved ones, rationalism and bridge building are far from the mindsets of relatives. Anger, pain and depression beset many and there are many in Gaza and the West Bank who undergo these emotions. Then there are those within Sderot, Jerusalem and other towns who grieve, who feel the same elements of grief and pain. These people who grieve cannot be asked to look at the future. They alone know their grief and they alone know the loneliness of placing their loved ones into the earth. The graveyards of Gaza are full with the early bounty of the dead and those within the West Bank, Sderot, Jerusalem and other towns and cities slowly take up the dead, cut short in their lives. Yet there are those groups like Combatants for Peace who through grief have learnt that there is another way than the gun and an alternative to the politics of fear.

The history and the dialogues of each community in the Middle East, of Arabs and Jews, or Muslims, Christians and Jews will always be seen through lenses that look upon the same events at different angles. Mix that differentiation with the politics of fear and the future looks bleak. There is therefore only one way forward. A route emancipated from fear is the only way to respect the futures of all communities in the region. The politics of fear is not the domain of one community and politicians and spin doctors have seen the vast potential of it within the region. The public relations battles continue, waged with ferocity and where ultimately the truth suffers.

My wish is simple. That we do not get caught up in accepting fear since it is something that feels familiar in discussions around the Middle East. The best decisions are free of fear, free of pressure and internalised reactions. In the end, you and I have a duty to each other, a bond of common protection and a respect for basic human rights. That being the case, we owe it to ourselves to liberate our thoughts so that a genuine peace based on mutual respect and acceptance can take place. Without that, we are part of the cycle of hopelessness and despair which hang around discussions on peace within the Middle East and between Israel and Palestine.