Commonsense Advice For Muslim Communities.

Note: This editorial from the British Catholic publication 'The Tablet' is spot on with its advice for muslim communities. This advice is consistent with the ideas promoted by this site.

Read on...




08/07/2006
The challenge for Islam
Editorial


The week the nation remembered the victims of the London suicide bombings a year ago also became the week the nation agonised over the degree of alienation of its Muslim population. The bombers were young British Muslims who appeared to think that their religion justified them in an indiscriminate attack on their fellow citizens. The Prime Minister told the Muslim community this week that the issue that should concern them was the misuse of Islam to justify terrorism, and that this was an internal religious issue rather than one where the Government has a role. He was answering those Muslims who see discrimination and poverty as prime factors in the alienation of Muslim youth, and look to the Government to provide a remedy.

Meanwhile a survey by the polling organisation Populus, commissioned by ITN and The Times, showed an encouraging awareness among Muslims that their closer integration with the majority population is desirable. But it also showed a gulf between the majority of Muslims, who flatly oppose terrorism in Islam’s name or any other, and about one in six who is sympathetic to it and see it as “martyrdom” – though only a tiny minority expressed support for last year’s bombers.

As the experience of Northern Ireland showed, success in the fight against terrorism depends not just on outwitting a small number of active terrorists but in addressing “the sea in which they swim” – the degree of tolerance of terrorist activity. And the poll suggests that most Muslims are sufficiently antagonistic to terrorism to cooperate with the police in combating it, even to the extent of tolerating police monitoring of the messages being preached in mosques. The Catholic population in Northern Ireland never went that far.

Nevertheless there is clearly a list of Muslim grievances needing to be acknowledged, including opposition to British foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. They cannot expect a veto over such issues, though they have votes and can use them. But this is also the week a devout Muslim Lance Corporal in the British army was killed in the campaign against the Taliban. He went to Afghanistan hoping to help bring peace and reconciliation to that tortured country. His death is another kind of Islamic martyrdom, one more worthy of the name.

Mr Blair’s insistence that Muslims have to put their own affairs in order rather than rely on outside influences is an important clue that maturity, internal cohesion and self-esteem are positive factors in the integration of minorities. The Jewish and Catholic experiences of migration, settlement and integration are both relevant. The ability of those communities to contribute by advice and example to the healthy development of the Muslim community (as many Muslims would agree) cannot be over-emphasised.

So is the example of the change in Catholicism brought about by theological renewal. A hundred years ago, convinced that the modern world was a threat, the Church then – like fundamentalist Muslims now – was implacably opposed to democracy, religious tolerance and human rights. Now, thanks to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and Pope John XXIII, it has no hesitation in standing up for them. But such changes cannot be triggered by governments. Mr Blair was right that the real challenge from terrorism conducted in the name of Islam is to Islam itself.




Comment: The muslims in Australia can also take this article to heart. Much can be gained by the muslims in Australia setting out to integrate properly into Australia. They will find many people willing to help and a welcoming Australian community.

It is in our national character to be welcoming and to help those 'who help themselves'. The main work has to be done by the muslims in Australia.