Source: OnIslam.net
By Farrukh I. Younus
Freelance Writer – United Kingdom
Tuesday, 24 February 2015 00:00
LONDON – With the upcoming political elections in the UK a new initiative the Muslim Manifesto, was launched at the House of Lords on February 23rd.
“I have been in politics for 38 years, I have never come across the Muslim community actually trying to set their own agenda, to see what they need,” Lord Nazir Ahmed told the House of Lords on Monday, February 23, at the session attended by OnIslam.net correspondent.
“Britain is one of the greatest countries in the world, where we have in law equality, we are equal members of society… We have nearly 3 million Muslims in this country, they are 4.4% of the population, there are 40 constituencies at least that can be swung with the Muslim vote.
“I’m not saying for one minute, and I would never advise the Muslim community to vote for one party. But what I say is that when you have hustings meetings, you invite the candidate, you give them the Manifesto, you ask them the questions, he who answers your questions correctly, vote for him, or for her, not for a party, as that would be a mistake. We are supporting candidates,” he added.
Lord Ahmed was speaking at the launch of “Muslim Manifesto” consultation process in the House of Lords on Monday.
The session aimed at presenting a list of recommendations about the needs of British Muslims to all political parties ahead of the General Election on March 7.
The Muslim Manifesto is a call-to-action and a set of policy recommendations targeting all Muslim and non-Muslim British politicians in local councils and parliament.
Following a nationwide consultation process which began in late January, the final manifesto will be presented to all political parties contesting the General Election
Along with Lord Ahmed, the event “Manifesto Watch” was attended by MPs, Peers, leaders of the Muslim community, academics, thinkers, community activists and media professionals.
“I want to unite people, I want to bring people to a clear, common platform,” Mohsin Abbas, one of the manifesto organizers who spearheaded its launch, was quoted by OnIslam.net correspondent.
Support
The initiate received support from a number of leading politicians, such as David Ward, the elected MP for Bradford East.
“When I look down here (at the Manifesto) I find it difficult to isolate or differentiate the Muslim-bit of it,” he said.
“That is to say that while the issues within the first draft of the Manifesto have been designed to give a greater presence to the Muslim community in the UK, much of the substance of the Manifesto relates to what every person is looking for,” he added.
Contributions and support also came from leading British Muslim scholars such as Syed Ali Raza rizvi who said, “The Muslim leadership in Britain has failed. So far we have been service providers, but we need to become decision makers… When you do not speak for yourselves then others may speak for you.”
“You may dislike it, or you may like it, but that will be your philosophy, your theology, and your mind, if you do not speak for yourself.”
A similar sentiment was shared by Lord Qurban Hussain
“I have to say to our Muslim leaders in the community, that we may want to have a second look at how we are performing as Muslim leaders,” he said.
“The recognition being that for whatever reason, up until now, the Muslim identity, presence and contribution to society has been minimal, a counter to and contrary to the example taught to us in the Qur’an, ‘Conduct your affairs by mutual consultation’,” he added.
Shabbir Rizvi added, “All of us have a responsibility on how we take the community forward.’
This philosophy is shared by Ibrahim Taguri, a prospective MP for Brent central.
“Muslims are not one monolithic block, we are a diverse community, we have different views, different traditions, but the same faith… My main campaign as a future MP is to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020, an eminently feasible aspiration but one that has been neglected,” he said.
Hina Malik, a teacher, added, ‘There are a lot of women’s issues as well, I’m not just talking about hijabs, I’m talking about marriages, I’m talking about divorces, the system you have to go through. And I feel that this is a very strong forum that we can and all come together towards, united, and work with the government in this country. Tell them how we can work together, as supportive role models going forward: engaging ourselves with this community, with the government, to bring a positive contribution to society.”
One British Community
Lord Nazir Ahmed stressed that Muslims were not asking for special treatment in elections.
“Muslims are not saying that we want special treatment, all we’re asking for is equal treatment. We want to be part of British society… To live peacefully, without being demonized on a daily basis,” he said.
“I am also a strong advocate to say, don’t vote for somebody because he happens to be a Muslim… It is better to have a candidate who supports your cause, whether it is to make sure you are a part of society… There are so many issues that need to be asked,” he added.
Mohsin Abbas agreed stressing that the first state in Islam during Prophet time in Madinah included people from different faiths who lived equally.
“Can anyone argue with me, when the Prophet came, his notion of Ummah at that point was Sabians, Christians, Jews and Muslims. It wasn’t exclusively Muslim,” he said.
“Whether we choose now to turn the word Ummah into exclusively Muslim is not my problem, it’s certainly not the definition I saw our Prophet use. Our politics is about Britain, about humanity, the human beings that live in this country.”
“It is important for us as Muslims to recognize how the Prophet identified the Ummah – as a community of people with different faiths who come together for the benefit of the community.
“By failing to understand this very simple concept, over the generations the Image of Islam which significant segments of the Muslim community has propagated has led not to cohesion but to segregation based first on faith, and sadly worse by race.”
“When Muslims understand the Prophetic definition of what it is to be an Ummah, then Muslims will understand the need to be active members of whichever society they live in, not just to seek benefits and rights for Muslims, but to ensure that people of all faiths and backgrounds are afford the same dignity.”
Categories: Europe, Highlight, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, UK
I do feel that politicians & media alieneting muslim from rest of the community, by their coutinued negative comments and coverage of incidents that is caused by a very minority of people. Yet politician and media blame muslims as whole. Thats wrong.
It is not the media or politicians that segregate and alienate the Muslim from the rest of the British community but a Qur’anic belief in separation of Muslim from Christian, Jew and other faiths. …
Last time I checked Islam and Muslim are not countries just religions like many others in the Uk.Why do all these scholars talk about muslims being treated unfairly.lets hear what countries these pepole are from and most of the problems arise from people who are from middle Eastern countries Irak Afghanistan pakistan not Brunei malaysia thailand and other asian countries that have many muslims so forget about the 4% muslims lets see the brake down of countries where these trouble makers are from. No one ever mentions that so once again for all those in the cheap seats islam and muslim are not on any map.
so stop trying to use it to gain political grounds in a country. I never hear bhudist, church of England,Anglican or any other religion carrying on like this so lets get a % of where people are from and there lies your problem.
If muslims truly want to integrate and become British, they should accept British laws and accept British religions without trying to change them.
They have arrived here or been born here; Britain has developed over centuries and it is not fair for one religious group to stand up and expect to change British heritage, especially bearing in mind that the Muslim community has done little to criticise the atrocities carried out over the last few years.
There are large Hindu, Jewish and Sikh communities here, should they all have their own versions of British law?
A.Ahmet: Britsh laws yes, but why British religions?
Because of foreign religions and cultures being openly practised in England, I find it offensive and saddening that England is becoming a third world cess-pit, and the UKs politicians are far to corrupt to stop it happening!!!
Totally agree with Ahmet
Judah, Christian and now Muslims they are all one on the line of Abrahamic religion called Islam……except that Muhammad (saw) came with latest version of Islam by bringing the latest Divine Book of Quran. Quran says that God with the advent of prophet Muhammad (saw) has perfected the religion Islam.
Holy Quran also validate and confirms that Judah and Christianity are the earlier stages of Islam and are the divine religions.
Islam is the Final religion selected by the God for the mankind and its incumbent upon all others to come forward and accept it.
sorry our rules are our rules
If you go to their countries you have to conform
Simples
If you don’t like it then move out
It’s perfectly acceptable for organisations of all kinds to put forward ideas that they would like to see politicians standing for elections to adopt were they to be elected. Charities and campaigning organisations do it, and Anglicans and Catholics have set out ideas they would like their adherants to consider when voting (whether or not you agree with them), so why not Muslims? It isn’t really a manifesto – a programme for government by a party fielding lots of candidates – though
More importantly, however, it would have been good to know what ideas were in the “manifesto”, rather than just having the reactions of community members to it. A link to the “manifesto” on some organisation’s website would have been useful as an alternative to a description of the contents. It’s not even clear what organisation has produced the document. This is poor journalism.
It’s also poor journalism to get the date of the general election wrong – it’s 7th May, not March.
Society is constantly changing, and all members of society, individually or in various groups, have a right – indeed a duty – to take part in constructive and civil debate to help shape those changes.
Martin Lunnon, I completely agree with you. Its not about changing the way that politics works so that it somehow favours Muslims; on the contrary as David Ward says in the article, its difficult to identify any single part of it as being “Muslim”. I mean, things like eradicating child poverty: I don’t think anyone could argue with that!
Rather its a way of letting our MPs know what Muslims feel should be focussed on. Others have raised the point that we should ” conform or move out” or words to that effect.
But we live here and speaking as someone as someone born and bred in this country, we have a deep love for this country. How many times do we hear do we hear phrases like someone mentioned above that Britain is ” a third class cesspit” or some such words? Rather than accepting that or looking for scapegoats, surely its better to do what’s being done above, that is, to take positive steps tp wards something productive to improve our society?
What is in the Manifesto? Nothing is known yet. It all seems to be politics and Islam is not for politics. Muslims should proceed in the matter as all others are doing, as a citizen of UK, not try to single him/herself out as a Muslim.
Islam is for the Muslims and they should enforce it on themselves very peacefully without hurting or obstructing any one else. Islam did not come in the world to establish any form of government. (I can prove it).
Two Arabic words have been discussed in these comments (at least one). I give a proper meaning (equivalent) in English here. It may help every one to understand what they are talking about.
Ummah: Ummah is the Arabic word for Nation. So it will apply to all citizen of U.K. Ummah does not mean Muslims only. I am referring to the meaning of the word Ummah.
Of course we see reference to this word in the form “Ummat e Muslimah”. That would translate into English as “The Muslim Nation”. But where is any Muslim Nation in Britain?? or any where else in the world???
Qaum: The Arabic word Qaum is translated into “People”. I do not know where this word could be applied to the Muslims of Britain. The word may apply to Muslims of UK as Muslim people. But there is no chance having any Muslim (Ummah) nation in UK.
The best course is to advise all Muslim men, women, youth to abide by the laws of the land and not to upset the working of the country. If necessary, elect representatives and consult them about different laws, not to oppress or cause a revolt (Baghaawat) in the country. Long live the Queen.