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16th
August 2006
Muslim leaders summoned to
talks with the Government on tackling extremism in their
midst called for public holidays to mark their religious
festivals.
The Whitehall meeting was
set up in response to last week's airline bomb plot
discovery.
 Communities
Secretary Ruth Kelly had prepared an uncompromising
message on the need to tackle dangerous radicalism.
But, in what she admitted
were 'sharp' exchanges, some senior Muslim figures turned
the tables yesterday and made a series of demands which
also included the introduction of Sharia law for family
matters.
Dr Syed Aziz Pasha,
secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of
the UK and Ireland, said: 'We told her if you give us
religious rights, we will be in a better position to
convince young people that they are being treated equally
along with other citizens.'
Dr Pasha said Miss Kelly
had agreed to look at the proposals, though her spokesman
insisted later that she did not favour any legal change
which would give 'special treatment' for the Muslim
community.
Some of the 30 moderate
Muslim leaders at the meeting told Miss Kelly that
important days in their two main religious festivals -
Ramadan and Eid-ul-Adha - should be made public holidays
for followers of the faith.
Sharia law, which is
practised in large parts of the Middle East, should also
be introduced in Britain, they argued. While it specifies
stonings and amputations as routine punishments for
crimes, Dr Pasha said he wanted it only for family
affairs.
Under the law, a husband
pays his wife a dowry on marriage, and money and assets
are shared out between family members in specified amounts
after someone dies.
'We are willing to
co-operate but there should be a partnership,' Dr Pasha
said.
'They should understand our
problems then we will understand their problems.'
A recent poll suggested
that a third of British Muslims would rather live under
Sharia law, while a similar number said they
also hope Britain will one day become an Islamic state.
But Dr Pasha claimed the legal changes he proposed would
help convince young Muslims to integrate better into
British society.
The Union of Muslim
Organisations of the UK and Ireland claims to be a widely
representative umbrella group. However, it does not
include more influential and high-profile bodies such as
the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Inayat Bunglawala,
spokesman for the MCB, also attended the meeting but
distanced his group from the calls for Sharia law.
He said: 'We believe one
legal code should apply for all citizens of the UK. There
is no place for multiple legal systems for people of
different religious or ethnic backgrounds.
'If people object to a
certain law they should campaign peacefully and
democratically for a change - but only so that it applies
to all people, not just Muslims.' The Government has
accused Muslim leaders of a 'dreadful misjudgment' for
claiming its foreign policy has fuelled the threat of
extremism. An open letter, signed by three Muslim MPs,
three peers and 38 community groups, said the 'debacle' of
Iraq, combined with the recent failure to do more to bring
about an immediate end to the Middle East conflict, had
encouraged extremists who threaten Britain.
Three
hours of talks
After more than three hours
of talks with the senior Muslims, Miss Kelly insisted
foreign policy in Iraq and the Middle East was not the
'root cause' of fundamentalism.
But she acknowledged there
were 'different views' over aspects of Government policy
and there had been a series of 'sharp and challenging
exchanges'.
'There is a battle of
hearts and minds to be won within the Muslim community,
working with the Muslim community to take on the terrorist
and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it,
not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well.'
Muslims must feel that if
there was frustration on particular issue, there were '
democratic channels for that to be vented', she added.
'What I do accept is that there is a lot of anger and
frustration out there in the community that needs to be
properly expressed and vented through the democratic
process.'
Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott and Communities Minister Meg Munn also attended
the meeting. Moves being discussed include
'de-radicalisation forums' to help young Muslims engage
with Government policy, improved spiritual guidance for
Muslim university students and support for training of
imams. Haras Rafiq, of the Sufi Muslim Council, said: 'The
first thing that we need to do as a community is admit
there is a problem.
'It is like being an
alcoholic - we need to stand up and say these things and
have an open and honest debate.'
Kharshid Ahmed, chairman of
the British Muslim Forum, said: 'We believe that the
threat is still external - it is people coming from
outside and leading the radicalisation.
'We need to deal with that
before people inside our communities are leading the
radicalisation.'
There are currently eight
permanent bank and public holidays in Britain. Three fall
on religious days - Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter
Monday. The latter two are common law holidays - not
specified by law as bank holidays as they were
traditionally days of rest and to go to Church.
The other bank holidays
were made law in 1871, to give their workers time off -
causing other businesses dependent on the banks to follow
suit.
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