Britain begins reaching out to Muslims

LONDON - Britain began reaching out to Muslim communities Tuesday, launching what is likely to be a yearslong effort to confront the resentment and anger that helped breed suicide bombers who attacked London's transit system.

A top law enforcement official also sought to ease fears that anti-terror police will target Muslims for searches.

Britons were stunned to learn that three of the suicide attackers suspected of killing 52 victims in the July 7 attacks were young Pakistani Britons; the fourth moved from Jamaica as a child. Most of the suspects in failed bombings on July 21 are immigrants from East Africa.

The apparent willingness of men born and raised in Britain to turn to militancy has prompted soul-searching in a nation proud of its diversity and tolerance.

After the attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to Muslim leaders for help in combating the "twisted logic" of terrorism. He said later he was considering calling an international conference on rooting out Islamic extremism, particularly in the religious schools known as madrassas, many of them in Pakistan.

Hazel Blears, a minister in the Home Office, met community representatives in Oldham, a gritty former mill town in northern England that was the scene in 2001 of race riots that began when white youths attacked a South Asian family's home. It was the first of a series of gatherings she plans around the country.

Blears said the government and Muslim communities must cooperate to fight the spread of militant ideologies.

"These people who are extremists are a tiny, tiny minority," she said. "We have got to make sure that the mainstream feel strong enough to take them on."

Riaz Ahmed, a former Oldham mayor whose home was fire-bombed during the riots, said moderates were eager to support such an effort. "We want to work together to get rid of this evil among us," he said.

"We do have a responsibility to act," agreed community activist Mohammed Miah, 30. "The right Muslims with the right thinking and the right mind need to get to the youngsters before the extremists do."

Dominic Grieve, a spokesman on legal issues for the opposition Conservative Party, said he thought the bombings were "totally explicable" because of widespread anger among Muslims.

The state of many Muslim countries, particularly Iraq and others in the Middle East, "is not as they would like it, it is not as it should be, and some of the blame they undoubtedly attribute to Western society," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

There are some 1.8 million Muslims in Britain, many with roots in South Asia, and the overwhelming majority are moderate in their views.

Muslims around the country have reported an increase in bias attacks since the bombings, a fresh attack in Edinburgh, Scotland, is likely to compound their fears.

A gang of 10 men attacked two South Asians on Friday, shouting racial taunts about the London bombings and throwing a hammer through their car window, police said. The hammer smashed the windshield and hit one of the passengers, who was bruised, but the pair, ages 18 and 20, were able to drive away without serious injury.

Many Muslims also fear increased scrutiny from the police, who shot and killed an innocent Brazilian on the London Underground July 22, believing he was a suicide bomber.

Many worry officers are using racial profiling in their search for terror suspects. The Mail on Sunday newspaper quoted Ian Johnston, chief constable of the British Transport Police, as suggesting race would be a factor in police searches. "We should not waste time searching old white ladies," he said.

Blears said counterterrorism powers must be guided by intelligence and not used in a discriminatory way.

"Just picking people up on the basis that they are Muslim is never going to get the results that we want," she told the BBC.

Reach Out to THIS?!

THIS IS JUST A BIT OF WHAT ALL MUSLIMS, INCLUDING SO-CALLED MODERATES, SIGN UP FOR WHEN THEY SAY THE BISMALLAH, "THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS PROPHET"!

KORAN [3.28] Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.

KORAN [4.34] Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.

KORAN [4.89] They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.

KORAN [9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

KORAN [9.30] And the Jews say: Uzair [Ezra] is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:176] Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
Allah's Apostle said, "You (i.e. Muslims) will fight with the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' "

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:177] Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:56:791] Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!' "

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6981] Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me); kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6982] Ubaidullah has reported this hadith with this chain of transmitters (and the Words are):
"There is a Jew behind me."

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6983] Abdullah b. 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
You and the Jews would fight against one another until a stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6984] Abdullah b. 'Umar reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said:
The Jews will fight against you and you will gain victory over them until the stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6985] Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:283] Narrated Abu Juhaifa:
I asked Ali, "Do you have the knowledge of any Divine Inspiration besides what is in Allah's Book?" 'Ali replied, "No, by Him Who splits the grain of corn and creates the soul. I don't think we have such knowledge, but we have the ability of understanding which Allah may endow a person with, so that he may understand the Qur'an, and we have what is written in this paper as well." I asked, "What is written in this paper?" He replied, "(The regulations of) blood-money, the freeing of captives, ******** and the judgment that no Muslim should be killed for killing an infidel." *********

HADITH Sunan Abu Dawud [14:2526] Narrated Anas ibn Malik:
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, "There is no god but Allah" and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action; and jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Antichrist). The tyranny of any tyrant and the justice of any just (ruler) will not invalidate it. One must have faith in Divine decree.

© Religion of Peace

KORAN: http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/
HADITH: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html

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