WASHINGTON (RNS) The highest-ranking Muslim in the British government on Friday (Nov. 15) called on Western governments to do more to protect besieged Christian minorities across the world, particularly in the Holy Land where they are now seen as “outsiders.”
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the government’s minister for faith and the first Muslim member of a British cabinet, said religious freedom is a proxy for human rights and must not be an “add-on” to foreign policy.
“A mass exodus is taking place, on a biblical scale,” she said in a speech at Georgetown University. “In some places, there is a real danger that Christianity will become extinct.”
Warsi, a mother of five and the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, said Christian minorities in war-torn regions of Egypt, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere are threatened by Muslim majorities in the very places that gave rise to Christianity.
“What concerns me is that these communities … are now being seen as outsiders,” she said in a forum hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. And when the majority religion is offended or aggrieved, “the local Christian community is fair game, and that somehow collective punishment can be meted out against these communities for what they see as the perceived actions of their co-religionists” abroad.
Following on efforts by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to foster interreligious understanding, Warsi aims to make religion a cornerstone of foreign policy for Britain and its Western allies. She also tries to take religious beliefs and sympathies into account in creating government policy at home and abroad.
She has been critical of both Muslim extremists and those who would deny Muslim women the right to wear a headscarf, and said protecting the religious freedom of minorities is a responsibility of all faiths.
“It shouldn’t just be for Christians to speak for Christians, and Jews to speak for Jews, and Muslims to speak for Muslims,” she said.
The solution, she said, “will not come by Christians in the West and Muslims in the East, but actually will be Muslims in the West and Christians in the East, both of whom come from a minority perspective, a minority experience perspective.”
Categories: Europe and Australia, ISLAM, UK
At last TMT has carried Baroness Warsi’s statement.
The Ahmadi Muslims support freedom of all faiths. It is an article of their faith because it is written in the Quran. Quran says “There is no compulsion in religion.”
Baroness has spoken well, for freedom of all faiths. Islam is not a political religion. It is completely spiritual. Islam does not intend to establish its own government, unless the principle of “No Compulsion” is violated. Then it becomes necessary to fight and to sacrifice the life until the principle of “No Compulsion” i.e. Liberty is established.
I feel that all peace loving persons should support Islam (the Ahmadiyah version of Islam), more so the Muslims should do it first. The so-called Muslims should shun violence. They should not fight to establish a religious government with Shariah Laws.
Muslims are told to spend their lives according to the laws of Shariah but they are not told to fight to estalish those laws. Islam is not a political religion. It teaches service in the love of God and love of mankind.
The problem is that Muslims are fighting and killing non-Muslims. The western non-Muslims (Say Christians) support the violent Muslims by saying “That is the true Islam.”
That is not true representation of Islam because the book “Quran” is available in original words. All matters can be sorted out easily by dialogue.
The quran also says that there should be persecution until the only religion which exists acknowledges that there is no god but allah and Muhammad is its prophet.
namelee, it is difficult to respond to your assertion above without a reference from the Quran.
The Quran says:
And fight them until there is no persecution, and religion is freely professed for Allah. But if they desist (and become peaceful), then remember that no hostility is allowed except against the aggressors. [2:194]
The Arabic word used is Fitnah which is translated as persecution. It also means “putting some one in extreme difficulty in the matter of his/her faith, or trial or tribulation”.
Quran is ordering fighting to eliminate persecution (Fitnah) and religion is freely professed for Allah (God Almighty). That means principle of no compulsion in the matters of faith is achieved.
Another verse 2:218
They ask thee about fighting in the Sacred Month. Say: ‘Fighting therein is a great transgression, but to hinder men from the way of Allah, and to be ungrateful to Him and to hinder men from the Sacred Mosque, and to turn out its people therefrom, is a greater sin with Allah; and persecution is worse than killing.’ And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your faith, if they can. And whoso from among you turns back from his faith and dies while he is a disbeliever, it is they whose works shall be vain in this world and the next. These are the inmates of the Fire and therein shall they abide.
[2:218]
In this it is stated that persecution is worse than killing.
The aim is to eliminate persecution so that every one can follow their faith freely. Not to dominate forcefully against other faiths. There is no bar in Islam for other faiths to flourish and progress peacefully.
As I have said it here on forum: Ahmadis want Christians to be good Christians and the Muslims to be good Muslims and so on for other faith people. There is not to be any fighting to spread the message of Islam (or any other faith). So there is no blame on Islam or Quran.
Ghulam Sarwar,
I am highly handicapped being on this site because I don’t have the sort of latitude you have to express my views. My post are seriously censored.
It seems you have forgotten some of the violence verses of the quran. We will go through only very few of them.
Sura 9:26 “FIGHT AGAINST SUCH OF THOSE TO WHOM THE BOOK WAS GIVEN AS BELIEVE NEITHER IN ALLAH NOR IN THE LAST DAY, WHO DO NOT FORBID WHAT ALLAH AND HIS APOSTLE HAVE FORBIDDEN, AND DO NOT EMBRACE THE TRUE FAITH, UNTIL THEY PAY TRIBUTE OUT OF HAND AND ARE UTTERLY SUBDUED”.
Do Ahmadis reject this verse? Those who are to be endlessly fought are the Jews and Christians. This is a command binding on all the adherents of your faith. Can you opt out?
9:5 “THEN WHEN THE SACRED MONTHS ARE DRAWN AWAY, SLAY THE IDOLATERS WHEREVER YOU FIND THEM, AND TAKE THEM, AND CONFINE THEM, AND LIE IN WAIT FOR THEM AT EVERY AMBUSH. BUT IF THEY REPENT, AND PERFORM PRAYER, AND PAY THE ALMS, THEN LET THEM GO THEIR WAY—AND IF ANY OF THE IDOLATERS SEEKS YOUR PROTECTION, GRANT HIM PROTECTION TILL HE HEARS THE WORD OF GOD; THEN DO THOU CONVEY HIM TO HIS PLACE OF SECURITY”.
Note that the condition for the attack is ‘when the holy months are over’. It does not envisage any hostility from the victim. He is to be released if he hears the ‘word of god’. Even after ‘conversion’ he still has to pay the compulsory tax in humiliation. This disdain of the ‘convert’ still exists in muhammadan societies. Much has been said about it in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Sura 9:22 forbids ‘believers’ from taking even their ‘unbelieving’ fathers and brothers as friends. What it means is that once somebody embraces the faith, those of his relations who refuse to automatically become their enemies. Arising from this, a convert shot his father dead in 2012 just as he was leaving the church on Christmas day. If family become enemies, is it the total ‘unbelieving’ stranger who will be seen as a friend?
Apostates are carriers of the death penalty as enshrined in the quran. Where is the freedom of religion? In future I will present to you what your highly regarded authorities say is the correct interpretation of the ‘no compulsion in religion’ verse.
The Ahmadis may claim to subscribe to the freedom of worship. That is what every one of you say.In a situation where you are the minority, it is required that you lie low and bide your time. It is difficult to test the veracity of this your claim since I am not aware of any country which is Amadiyya dominated. Perhaps you can help me out. Until then, my conviction remains.
Namelee: again you state that apostates should get death penalty according to Quran. We already told you that this is not correct. Please voice your opinion on a webpage that supports your alleged views. Our view: http://www.alislam.org/library/links/apostate.html