Bismillah [hidayahnet] UK - HMD - your responses!

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:23:28 -0800

 
 
as-salaamu 'alaykum everyone,
 
Well, didn't you all have a lot to say in response to UNSPUN's recent two postings concerning the Holocaust Memorial Day! By a factor of three to one you seemed to agree with the MCB's decision not to attend the HMD. Below we print a selection of your replies - including one from Imam Sajid - the Brighton Imam who attended the HMD.
 
The fallout from the decision of the Muslim Council of Britain not to attend the HMD continues in the Jewish press. The Feb 4 2005 edition of the paper The Jewish News contains a ferocious attack on Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the MCB by the Jewish columnist Clive Lawton. The current issue (Feb 11) of the Jewish Chronicle contains on page 5 a laudatory article about Imam Sajid (no surprises there) while on page 27 there is another full-blooded attack on the MCB this time from Daniel Finkelstein - who also happens to be the Associate Editor of The Times. He also attacked the MCB in The Times a couple of weeks ago, as we reported here at the time.
 
Over the past couple of years UNSPUN has sent numerous alerts out about Islamophobia in the media. A key thread running through our postings is that most of the Islamophobia in the British media is - according to our analysis - deliberately created and whipped up by supporters of Israel. Alhamdulillah, the last few years has seen the emergence of several key Muslim bodies including the MCB, MPAC and MAB who have been willing to stand up to the Zionists and their bullying. This has clearly worried the pro-Israel lobby in the UK...
 
salaams,
 
Moderators,
 
UNSPUN
 
[A Selection of Your responses to the HMD debate]

EA:  I am a 56 year old who had my tertiary education in England. 2 of 3 children are currently studying in a university in England. My eldest is a medical doctor doing her post grad there. Firstly, I must record my gratitude to all at UNSPUN and everyone associated with your excellent work and may you be more than rewarded for them. Our family often discuss your e-mails and programmes and they act as one of our links to Islam/the Ummah in relations to the world at large and vice versa. Apart from the estimated 6 million Jews, 'the Holocaust had claimed the lives of an estimated 6 million Jews, between 200,000 and 800,000 Gypsies, 200,000-300,000 disabled people, 10,000-25,000 homosexuals, 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, up too 3.5 million non-Jewish Poles and 6 million other Slavic civilians, as many as 4 million Soviet prisoners of war and up to 1.5 million political dissidents.' (Guardian Weekly, January 21-27, 2005.) Together with the 'other genocides and mass killings and systematic 'ethnic cleansing' including in Rwanda, Bosnia and Chechnya - where it still continues on-going slaughter' as noted by you, there are the newer on-going crimes against humanity in Iraq and Palistin. No one people has a monopoly on these unimaginable sorrows and memories. No one people should be allowed to. I read that 2 imams (I don't quite understand their title 'imam') and 2 other Muslims from Islamic organisations (representing their organisations?) attended the HMD. They owe a duty to share with us their decisions to attend. If not surely they must answer to their members and the imams to the congregations.
 
SA: I think the Muslims in Britain need to have a united front. Some Muslims in certain positions are being pressured to attend just to enhance their own positions, as you mentioned those people in your e-mail that attended. And these people rarley bring up and issues about the plight of Muslims other than 'Whites' OR 'Jews'. I think our Mosques could have taken this role. Sadly the Mosques here and everywhere across the world rarely ever discuss any 'worldy events'. There are very few Mosques that discuss all the things that is happening in this world and relate this to the Quran and Sunnah and inform their masses. Anyway that is the problem with us Muslims, we really do not know what Islam is really about.
 
JD: Please note that BARONESS UDDIN did not attend any programmes related to these events. [UNSPUN Moderators: Yes, we pointed this out in our posting. No Muslim parliamentarian attended - although we have since learned that Fiyaz Mughal, a would-be Muslim MP for the Liberal Democrats did also attend.]
 
MA: it does not help us as muslims to talk about political things which we have no control over.... it is better that we spend this time learning more about our deen and practicing it and doing more things which are more beneficial to us.
 
BK: Thank u 4 the piece on HMD. Not surprised at all about the 3 who attended . I almost knew they would. We should know more about these people and all those mentioned in your piece. Not just when they posit themselves on the other side of the MCB ( deliberate or not) . We should know more about what they do all the time- just one observation, Jalil sajid seems to be the leading person engaging in Interfaith with the Jewish community with strings attached- never to criticise Israeli policies, accepting to follow and never to lead . And to recruit more and more "moderate" muslims to join him. Am in favour of interfaith activities as lond as we are respected , dont follow any hidden agenda and be allowed to put our case no matter how unpallatable this may be. But is not Jalil sajid a leading and founding member of MCB. I do not wish my name to be quoted on any of your statements although you can on the substance of my arguments. [UNSPUN Moderators: We understand that Imam Sajid is the Secretary of the MCB's Mosque and Community Affairs committee. However, he says he attended the HMD in his personal capacity.]
 
MD: I think the MCB's stance is admirable....I cannot see any of its affiliated organisations taking objection to it. I however did not entirely feel this way to begin with...having done some research on HMD (see http://www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk/default.asp) it is evident that a number of the stated aims of the Day are to do with ensuring that atrocities like the Nazi Holocaust are not repeated.  Yet we know such atrocities have happened in the recent past and are happening now. It therefore makes sense to acknowledge these, in addition to the Nazi Holocaust. Wider and clearer communication of the above I feel would have helped our
community and the wider community understand the reasons for the MCB's action since the inception of HMD.
 
AF: My response and approach would be slightly different. Let's face it.HMD is going to be on horizon for a long time. The forces at work are never going to let this going go, as you rightly mentioned it is an industry, with full support of governments and when the government machinery is at work, it works miracles. I think we should attend HMD events for inclusiveness and showing respect to all those who died. Not attending sounds arrogant and whatever the justification, it gets drowned in the sea of negative press coverage.
 
DM: Why not have a Jenin Holocaust Day on the same day as HMD? The Muslims  could do this on their own all round the world and wear arm bands etc. Afterall,  some people want to remember Auschwitz, why not Jenin.
 
Roslima: I fully support the MCB stand not to attaend the HMD. As Muslim, we should united in putting our stand together and tell the world.
 
MFM: I am not British (Australian actually - I don't know how I ended up on your mailing list, but it is very enlightening to read your information to balance the contents of Rupert Murdoch's rightist mouthpiece, The Advertiser, which is read widely in my state), and I am not a Muslim (nominally Baptist, however "sceptical" would perhaps be a better description of my current spiritual state :-), however I do wholeheartedly agree with your stance concerning "Holocaust Memorial Day"... I hope you succeed!
 
M. Abidi: May Allah (SWT) give you the best support. I would like to say that MCBs should not participate in HMD. 1.MCB is muslim organization and should care about the general muslim opinion. The every day killing, humiliating and confiscation of Palestinians life, hope, land and properties is a crime against humanity. It is even worse when it is done or sympathized by those whom are Memorating the Holocaust. 2.The muslim victims have the same right to be defended as any other human either it is a jew or whaterver. MCB should stay firm and answer the sionist propaganda by giving more facts about the crimes done agains palestenians. 3.MCB, should not hesitate to denounce the silence of many groups, magazines, organizations and goverments when crimes are done against Palestinians.
 
Deen Khan: I think the boycott was a mistake.    It will just add fuel to the argument that Muslims are just anti-Jewish and make it even easier for people to dismiss  us when we voice our anger at  the treatment of Palestinians.
 
Y. Naqushbandi: Firstly I would like to congratulate you on the excellent work that you do in keeping the muslim community informed, There are many of us who are the silent majority who are kept updated and often moved to take action. So thank you for that. Secondly I would like to add that we do need an organisation  like the MCB which gives a balanced and knowledge based response to many of the issues that affect us directly or indirectly in our daily lives. The more people who support the principles that the MCB is based on the better. However it is a fine balancing act that the leaders of the MCB have to carry out and we need to be sympathetic and supportive of the decisions that they have to make - always with the best interests of the Muslim community at heart. As an organisation the MCB is now recognised more and more as representative of views of the muslims -and we as muslims need to braodcast its work to our friends and build its people's base. We need to also ensure that any disagreements between muslim " representatives" are not carried out in public domain. I believe that it is important to try and move the Holocaust Memorial to that which recognises the suffering that has occurred world wide and still continues to do so. However as muslims our strength is in our diversity and we need to use it as a strength rather than a weakness - there is no issue from my point of view that there were some representatives of the muslim communiy who did attend and others who made a stand against it on principle - this is our strength - we should not show it as a weakness. Seeking the views of the muslim community is excellent - we need to make decision always on the basis of information and knowledge.
 
Anon: I feel that the MCB was right in its decision not to attend.  How many Jewish people do you think would attend if there was a similar event called "Palestinian dead remembered" or something along those lines.  I believe many muslims would agree with the MCB's decision. Muslims are aware of the atrocities of the holocaust and it is very saddening, however they are also aware of atrocities occuring all around the world, especially those against muslim peoples.  Maybe calling it GMD would have been better, maybe it would have been a more united event. I would like to remain anonymous please.

UK: I guess this is what the zionists really wanted, infighting amongst muslims.  Brilliant.  Well done. I appreciate why you don't believe it was a good idea to attend the memorial day: however, there is a strong opinion which says that we should go. While I personally don't agree with the latter, I can still see the sense of those who did attend.  And so should you. Lets not waste any further time arguing amongst each other.
 
Saida: I totally beleive that you learn more from being closer to the opposition than avoiding them. The only truth i would like to know is that these muslims attended the HMD to appease the jewish lobby or to learn from them the lessons of unity and tricks to fool the whole world. This is the time to show solidarity otherwise as Iqbal said "mit jaogay imman wallun dastaan bhi no hogi dastanumain."(You will be wiped out of the history).

U. Nawaz: I can understand yuor concern of Muslims attending the HMD. I personally think that the Muslims who did attend the HMD represented Muslims on national Level. The comment made by a government minister saying that Muslims like to stay away from other religions and the attack on Muslim School is ridicululous. The fact that these Muslim Brothers attended the HMD is a clear fact that Muslims are members of the scociety and community who who went to the HMD which was an Inter-Faith event and learned about a different religion. Muslims are people that share;happiness and sadnedd with everyone. The Muslims that went to HMD (I assume) did not start taking part in any singing or anything out of the bounds of Islam so there attendance was acceptable.;The Tsunanmis disaster is a great example. Majority of the people that died in this horrible disaster were Muslims. However People of all cultures, races, RELIGIONS mourned the death of the victims. So I don't;think that the Brothers who attended;the HMD have a commited a bad deed rather it is a good deed because they represented Muslims.

M: I agree with the MCBs stance on the HMD, that the slogan "Never Again" is flawed if all it really means is "Never Again...to the Jews", and the idea of renaming it a genocide memorial day, etc. BUT I think to have so publicly declined to attend the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army was a massive political mistake. It's all very well having principles, but politics is also about the management of perceptions too.
 
Imam Sajid: Are they not Human beings? Is their pain is not the same as ours? Is their blood different from ours? Are they not People of the Book and believers of the same God? Then Why hate and Why Violence? What are the Qur�anic and Islamic teachings? What are the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) examples? Let us begin an honest conversation in search of heats and soul of Muslim mind for the meaningful search for our Muslims and non-Muslim relationships? Let us discuss and debate Muslims behaviour towards a human being and especially with Jews? Imam Sajid answers to above questions from pure and true Islamic point of views let others who have more Islamic knowledge correct him. He is man who can easily be convinced with pure Islamic (Qur�an and Sunnah arguments but can never be bought by any one) he is willing to die for his principles but can never be bullied.  Any abuse or intimidation will never work in his case. He has been tested before several times for his courage and determination for a cause. One can easily win him over with commonsense approach based on Islamic Principles. Let us hear from anyone who has anything has to say on the Islamic understanding of sufferings of God�s creations and a Muslim�s response? Let us hear from any one who has a specific or different meaning of �Genocide�? Let us hear from anyone who claim that a Muslim suffering from a �Genocide� is worthy to be opposed but when a Jew or christen or a non-Muslim suffers from a �Genocide�- Muslims have no responsibility or have to do nothing except lip service. Is condemnation by words is enough or any action is needed by a Muslim in the time of Jews death? What the holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) did when he saw a Jewish procession? What did he do when he saw an old Jewish lady was sick and could not throw rubbish on him? Did he not care for her till she is totally cured from disease? Where is Muslim�s Compassion - Justice- Love and Care for others? What should a Muslim do in a time of showing solidarity with other human beings sufferings be a Muslim or non Muslim or even from People of Book? [UNSPUN Moderators: Imam Sajid goes on in a similar vein for another 7 whole A4 pages.]
 

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