[Assam] Along with others, Assam should see the reward the fair and generous British society is reaping by letting such people and ideation to flourish in Britain. All Assamese need to research into materials to understand such phenomenon to stay on guard.

[Bartta Bistar]

September 7, 2007
Hardline takeover of British mosques
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402973.ece

Andrew Norfolk

Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic
sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims
to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found.

Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and preaches contempt for Jews,
Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the spiritual leader of the
Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement, which gave birth
to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of Britain's 1,350
mosques, according to a police report seen by The Times.

The Times investigation casts serious doubts on government statements that
foreign preachers are to blame for spreading the creed of radical Islam in
Britain's mosques and its policy of enouraging the recruitment of more
"home-grown" preachers.

Mr ul Haq, 36, was educated and trained at an Islamic seminary in Britain
and is part of a new generation of British imams who share a similar radical
agenda. He heaps scorn on any Muslims who say they are "proud to be British"
and argues that friendship with a Jew or a Christian makes "a mockery of
Allah's religion".
Background

   - Speech: Infinite Justice
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402218.ece>


   - Riyadh ul Haq sermon on 'Jewish Fundamentalism' in full
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402173.ece>


   - Speech: The Globalised Suffering of the Muslims
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2401855.ece>


   - Speech: On Our Responsibilities as Muslims
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2401708.ece>


   - Speech: Imitating the Disbelievers
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2401603.ece>

Related Links

   - Homegrown cleric who loathes the British
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2402998.ece>


   - Movement fostered by fear of 'imperial' rule
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402997.ece>


   - Riyadh ul Haq sermon on 'Jewish Fundamentalism' in full
   <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402173.ece>

Seventeen of Britain's 26 Islamic seminaries are run by Deobandis and they
produce 80 per cent of home-trained Muslim clerics. Many had their studies
funded by local education authority grants. The sect, which has significant
representation on the Muslim Council of Britain, is at its strongest in the
towns and cities of the Midlands and northern England.

Figures supplied to The Times by the Lancashire Council of Mosques reveal
that 59 of the 75 mosques in five towns – Blackburn, Bolton, Preston, Oldham
and Burnley – are Deobandi-run.

It is not suggested that all British Muslims who worship at Deobandi mosques
subscribe to the isolationist message preached by Mr ul Haq, and he himself
suggests Muslims should only "shed blood" overseas.

But while some Deobandi preachers have a more cohesive approach to
interfaith relations, Islamic theologians say that such bridge-building
efforts do not represent mainstream Deobandi thinking in Britain.

The Times has gained access to numerous talks and sermons delivered in
recent years by Mr ul Haq and other graduates of Britain's most influential
Deobandi seminary near Bury, Greater Manchester.

Intended for a Muslim-only audience, they reveal a deep-rooted hatred of
Western society, admiration for the Taleban and a passionate zeal for
martyrdom "in the way of Allah".

The seminary outlaws art, television, music and chess, demands "entire
concealment" for women and views football as "a cancer that has infected our
youth".

Mahmood Chandia, a Bury graduate who is now a university lecturer, claims in
one sermon that music is a way in which Jews spread "the Satanic web" to
corrupt young Muslims.

"Nearly every university in England has a department which is called the
music department, and in others, where the Satanic influence is more, they
call it the Royal College of Music," he says.

Another former Bury student, Bradford-based Sheikh Ahmed Ali, hails the 9/11
attacks on America because they acted as a wake-up call to young Muslims.
This, he says, taught them that they will "never be accepted" in Britain and
has led them to "return to Islam: sisters are wearing hijab . . . the lion
is waking up".

Mr ul Haq, the most high-profile of the new generation of Deobandis, runs an
Islamic academy in Leicester and is the former imam at the Birmingham
Central Mosque. Revered by many young Muslims, he draws on his extensive
knowledge of the Koran and the life and sayings of the prophet Muhammed to
justify his hostility to the kuffar, or non-Muslims.

One sermon warns believers to protect their faith by distancing themselves
from the "evil influence" of their non-Muslim British neighbours.

"We are in a very dangerous position here. We live amongst the kuffar, we
work with them, we associate with them, we mix with them and we begin to
pick up their habits."

In another talk, delivered a few weeks before 9/11, he praises Muslims who
have gained martyrdom in battle and laments that today "no one dare utter
the J word". "The J word has become taboo . .. The J word is jihad in the
way of Allah."

The Times has made repeated attempts to get Mr ul Haq to comment on the
content of his sermons. However, he declined to respond.

A commentator on religious radicalism in Pakistan, where Deobandis wield
significant political influence, told The Times that "blind ignorance" on
the part of the Government in Britain had allowed the Deobandis to become
the dominant voice of Islam in Britain's mosques.

Khaled Ahmed said: "The UK has been ruined by the puritanism of the
Deobandis. You've allowed the takeover of the mosques. You can't run
multiculturalism like that, because that's a way of destroying yourself. In
Britain, the Deobandi message has become even more extreme than it is in
Pakistan. It's mind-boggling."

In some mosques the sect has wrested control from followers of the more
moderate majority, the Barelwi movement.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities said: "We have a detailed
strategy to ensure imams properly represent and connect with mainstream
moderate opinion and promote shared values like tolerance and respect for
the rule of law. We have never said the challenge from extremism is simply
restricted to those coming from overseas."

   - Have your say<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/#comments-form>
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