Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaking at the candlelight vigil in Trafalgar Square, London to remember those who lost their lives in the Westminster terrorist attack. Lauren Hurley\/Press Association. March 23, 2017. All rights reserved.Islamist extremism is real, and it\u2019s not going away. The Westminster
\nattack is yet another reminder of that. <\/i><\/p>\n
But defeating it requires a different approach\u00a0to what has gone on
\nbefore.<\/p>\n
After the attack, my friend Muddassar Ahmed mobilised a group of British
\nMuslims to form Muslims United for London, via the
\nLaunchGood platform, to raise money for the victims and their families.
\nMuddassar had been a witness to the attack on the day as he had been inside
\nparliament when it happened.<\/p>\n
Our initial target was \u00a310,000. Within a matter of hours we\u2019d raised
\nover \u00a35,000. We then hit our target and more, shortly after lunchtime \u2013 within
\n24 hours after the attack. So we upped the target to \u00a320,000. Today, not long
\nafter most businesses start work, we smashed our target of \u00a320,000. So we\u2019ve
\nupped it again to \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n
The general British public has overwhelmingly received the initiative in
\nthe spirit with which it was made: love, compassion and wanting to create
\nsomething good in the aftermath of something so horrifying. In an article I wrote promoting the fundraiser, I\u2019ve had
\ncomments from both the left and the right criticising the project.<\/p>\n
But not everyone felt this way.<\/p>\n
In an article I wrote promoting the fundraiser, I\u2019ve had comments from
\nboth the left and the right criticising the project. <\/p>\n
One person complained that we\u2019re ignoring the fact that there is a
\nproblem of radical Islam, illustrated by the grotesque atrocities of groups
\nlike ISIS and the Taliban toward other Muslims, minorities and women. How can
\nwe deny that there\u2019s no problem? I don\u2019t
\nexplain, they began, \u201cwhy the Taliban\/ISIS\/Al Qaeda, & other Islamic
\nterrorist groups kill more fellow muslims than anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another person complained that Muslims are, actually, mostly extremists. Others took a totally different approach. \u201cHow many people were killed So let\u2019s tackle this head on. Bad ideas, extremist ideologies, don\u2019t Yet western governments often maintain a range of self-serving alliances In other cases, western interference and alliances with proxy groups While vast majorities of Muslims continue to oppose the extremism of And beneath all of this, we have the deeper, slower but inexorable Within this complex picture, it\u2019s easy to focus on only one element of The truth of the matter is that the problem of extremism is a shared So let\u2019s be clear. Muslims United for London is about doing something What it does is simple. It follows the injunction of the Prophet For us, Islam is about Within the world, the Muslim These are Islamic principles Muslims United for London is a small, humble, spontaneous gesture of humanity We can, and will, condemn Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaking at the candlelight vigil in Trafalgar Square, London to remember those who lost their lives in the Westminster terrorist attack. Lauren Hurley\/Press Association. March 23, 2017. All rights reserved.Islamist extremism is real, and it\u2019s not going away. The Westminster attack is yet another reminder of that. But defeating it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey cited a controversial Channel 4 poll which claimed that 34% of Muslims
\nwould not report to the police someone who sympathised with terrorists in
\nSyria. Never mind that the poll\u2019s methodology was flawed according to the Runnymede
\nTrust, which criticised it for a selective sample focusing on segregated
\ncommunities \u2013 or that as Miqdaad Versi
\nin The Guardian<\/em> noted: \u201c\u2026
\nfor the survey\u2019s \u2018control\u2019 group\u200a \u2013 consisting
\nof randomly selected people from across the country of all or no faiths\u200a \u2013 the figure
\nis only 30%. And other polls have found that 94% of
\nBritish Muslims would report someone they knew who was planning an act of
\nviolence to the\u00a0police.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nby US and British bombs yesterday, Nafeez\u201d, asked one. On my Facebook, a
\nBritish Muslim whom I promptly unfriended, commented on my update about the
\nfundraiser reaching its target: \u201cWhy are you groveling?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nbecome prominent without a material infrastructure by which they are
\npropagated. That takes money. And this is where we confront the deep politics
\nof terror. A number of Muslim-majority governments have been exposed for consistently
\nsponsoring Islamist extremist groups through the provision of, collectively,
\nbillions of dollars of financial
\nand military support. Some of them have done so for decades.<\/p>\n
\nwith these regimes. They do so despite significant
\nintelligence on this sort of regional state-sponsorship of terrorism. The reasons
\nfor this are complex and systemic. At base, we are talking about interlocking
\nfinancial interests. The fact that many of these countries, in the Gulf region
\nfor instance, hold much of the world\u2019s oil reserves, also plays a significant
\nrole. And yet another related issue covers geopolitical and strategic concerns
\nto maintain the stability of these regimes, to keep the oil flowing, to keep
\nthe world economy functioning, regardless of their tyrannical policies at home
\nand support for terrorists abroad.<\/p>\n
\ntied to the same terror groups \u2013 in places like Afghanistan, Syria and Libya \u2013
\nhas amplified and entrenched their activities. And to compound matters, western
\nmilitary interventions across the Muslim world have tended to indiscriminately
\nkill civilians, stoking grievances, driving some locals into the arms of militant recruiters,
\nand providing fodder for the extremist recruiters who operate in western
\nhomelands.<\/p>\n
\ngroups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, these processes mean that a festering pool of
\ndiscontent still fuels the activities of militants in different parts of the
\nworld.<\/p>\n
\nbiophysical processes of climate change, energy depletion, food crises and
\neconomic contraction which are converging to
\nweaken and undermine the already largely fragile, autocratic regimes in
\nthe region. As these regimes become weaker, as states begin to fail, the
\nongoing influx of money to extremist groups by various powers for geopolitical
\npurposes is radicalised by the short-sighted (and often self-serving)
\nreactionary military solutions adopted by the west. The
\ntruth of the matter is that the problem of extremism is a shared reality for
\nwhich the western and Muslim worlds are co-responsible. This may be
\nunpalatable.<\/p>\n
\nthe mosaic of factors and blame the party that suits: we can blame \u2018Muslims\u2019,
\n\u2018radical Islam\u2019, \u2018the West\u2019, \u2018foreign policy.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nreality for which the western and Muslim worlds are co-responsible. This may be
\nunpalatable. Different sides would prefer to blame the other exclusively. But that
\nis only going to compound the problem. <\/p>\n
\nreal. It doesn\u2019t address root causes \u2013 it cannot in itself solve the very real
\nproblem of Islamist extremism. And it clearly in no way challenges atrocities
\nfor which British or other western governments are responsible.<\/p>\n
\nMuhammad as follows: \u201cWhat actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of human beings, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to
\nlighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the sufferings of the
\ninjured.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nprotecting and sanctifying all life, our fellow species on the planet and the
\nplanet itself. \u2018Allah\u2019, the Divine Reality, conveys the concept of \u2018crazy,
\nunbounded love\u2019, and the Muslim is
\nliterally \u2018one who surrenders\u2019 their ego to this ultimate Reality (Haqq). <\/p>\n
\nis tasked to see her or himself as living in sacred trusteeship with our fellow
\ncreatures, and the entire Earth, holding a deep, fundamental responsibility to
\ncare for all, by embodying the ethical categories derived from the Divine Names
\n(the Compassionate, Ar-Rahman<\/em>; the
\nMerciful, Ar-Raheem<\/em>; the Just, al-Adl<\/em>). <\/p>\n
\nI and a collective of western Muslims have attempted to elaborate in detail
\nthrough our theological project, Perennial, which begins to illuminate an authentic,
\ntrans-sectarian but scripturally grounded exploration of Islam\u2019s real teachings
\nabout human existence.<\/p>\n
\ninspired by our faith. It is an illustration of what is possible when people
\ncome together in times of crisis. It encapsulates the sorts of actions that, in
\nthemselves, put to shame the disgusting atrocities of extremists in our midst. <\/p>\n
\nand disassociate ourselves from those who abuse the name of Islam to kill,
\nmurder and rape. But we want to show that we can build something beautiful
\ntogether too, and we\u2019re doing it because that<\/em>
\nis the vision we aspire to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"