The New Nation - Internet Edition

Faith and restorative justice

Dr. Zijad Delic

Faith is all about hope, not fear; about help, not burdens; about healing, not punishment; about comfort, not troublet Faith is about guiding individuals to pathways of self-improvement and self-awareness, from which a sense of social responsibility can grow.

More than ever before in history, we are critically in need of a great renewal in faith, for with all our differences today, we live in a global village where interactions are regular and where relations could sour even further if we do not learn better how to interact. Faith is also a support for ethics; and we will not survive the 21st century with the ethics of the 20th.

Restorative Justice: What does it mean to Muslims?

It is about sending a clear message to the community that certain behaviors, attitudes and manners are unacceptable and unwelcome. For Muslims, our religious texts teach us not to exclude, marginalize, or ostracize others but to work towards justice with dignity for all- victims, offenders and the community.

Restorative Justice in fact begins with oneself. If I, as an individual, cannot comprehend and reconcile with the principles of accountability, justice, honesty, forgiveness and repentance, I cannot successfully participate in Restorative Justice, for I cannot give away what I do not have.

In the context of Islam (as well as in other major faiths), the ultimate goal of Restorative Justice is the prevention of crime, whether in our families, neighborhoods, educational institutions, communities, or society at large. We are all part of the global village; thus the global village benefits when both individuals and communities live their faith through commitment and action.

This notion springs from the Islamic formative principles namely the Quran and the Sunnah. I am personally inspired by several verses from the Quran and from the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (Sunnah).

As one example among many I could cite in the Quran, God Almighty has given us a model verse for human relations: "Forgiveness and reconciliation supersedes injury for injury." (42:40)

The base of restorative Justice is in peace-peace with God, within oneself, with others and with the environment. There is no peace without Justice, and no Justice without forgiveness. Where Justice is not firmly established, the blessings of Gods peace cannot happen.

Restorative Justice: Where and How?

We should never forget about the importance of faith when everything in our lives is going well, but we need faith even more when things are not well.

1. Family: an institution built on understanding, support, kindness, trust, honesty, respect, fairness.

Wives and Husbands: If a disagreement occurs often, we need an awareness of God - that is, faith. We need a moral compass; we need discussion, talk, arbitration, a cooling period, and more hope. But where hope becomes exhausted, divorce is allowed. Yet even though considered lawful, divorce is hateful in the eyes of God. And if divorce happens, it should be in an honorable manner, not as we see it today - through courts in an unethical fashion.

Children: The degree of love expressed within a family, and the cooperation among parents, reflects on children. We cannot blame the children for our mistakes, for the first school they attend is the one in our homes. Today, no one wants to fulfill this vital responsibility: parents, school, community, societyt seems too much.

A badu (desert person) came to the Prophet Muhammad one day, as he was playing with his grandchildren. The badu was shocked. "You play with them? We do not do that!" he exclaimed. But Muhammad said: What can I do for you, when there is no place for mercy in your heart?" An amazing revelation! What good is a heart is without mercy in it?

Parents: God directs that you worship Him and be kind and obedient to your parents; after being thankful to God, we are to be thankful next to our parents. The Hadith says the path to Paradise is under our parents feet, particularly the feet of our mothers.

Sisters: Our inward maturity of faith is reflected in how we treat the women of our families and communities. In marriage, our faith-in-action is demonstrated by how respectfully we treat our spouses, who are our life partners and equal in the sight of God.

Elders: The Hadith tells us that those who do not know, or willfully ignore, the rights of the elderly (or senior citizens) among us do not belong to the fold of Islam. Need any more be said to inform us about where we stand today?

2. Neighborhood: One whose neighbors cannot feel safe from mischief is not a good believer t and will not enter Paradise, says the Hadith. Additionally, we learn from the Hadith; even when you cook soup, add more water, remembering your neighbor who might come to you in need.

Gabriel informed the Prophet so often about the important of ones neighbors and their welfare that he thought neighbors might well inherit one another. Good neighbors make for a good community, so we should always be mindful of who our neighbors are. Who is around us? The answer is: Our brothers and sisters.

3. School: Today, our children are given very sophisticated instruction and they absorb a great deal of information and data. But - are they truly well-educated? Will they become wise mature adults, or simply information- saturated brings? Ethics and spirituality matter in Islam. Do they matter to Muslims? Do they matter in our childrens schooling?

4. Community and Global Village: It's a simple but true equation: Better individuals make a better community. The Hadith records the Prophet and Messenger Muhammad as saying: "By the One [God] in whose hands is my soul! A servant does not believe until he/she loves for others what he/she loves for himself/herself. " This is not rocket-science, but another eloquent expression of the Golden Rule, which all major faiths have taken to the heart of their belief systems. In Islam, the wrong that we do toward God is wholly between us and God. But the wrong that we do towards other people is two-dimensional: it comprises wrong-doing toward the commands of God, as well as wrong-doing toward our fellow human beings. Thus, when we repent of the second type of wrong-doing, we ask forgiveness from both God and humanity. In the first case, it is only God that we need to ask for forgiveness.

(Imam Dr. Zijad Delic is CIC's National Executive Director in Ottawa. This article was edited for the Canadian Islamic Congress Friday Magazine.)

Muslim News dialogue with politicians

A Special Correspondent

There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university t a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see." John Masefield, Poet Laureate

They should be hotbeds of radical thought and free thinking, but with guidelines introduced recently on tackling extremism on campuses and recommendations that academics monitor students for signs of involvement in extremist activity or radicalisation, how far British universities can take pride in their tradition of academic freedom is of growing concern to academics, student bodies and students.

Little surprise, then, that The Muslim News' initiative on a 'Dialogue with politicians', jointly hosted by the Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi, and Government Whip, Sadiq Khan MP, should attract an inquisitive and apprehensive crowd of predominantly young Muslims. Last month's dialogue featured Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities & Skills, John Denham, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Rob Wilson, and Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities & Skills, Stephen Williams.

The reissuing of guidance to universities on tackling extremism on campus, 'Promoting good campus relations, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism in Universities and Higher Education Colleges', was, with good cause, the main subject of the evening.

The Secretary of State was at pains to point out that the guidance was a necessary and desirable contribution to the state of campus relations and something requested by Higher Education (HE) bodies themselves as they struggle to prevent violent extremism from germinating in the relative security of Britain's universities. The need for the document was defended on grounds of its going beyond the emphasis on terrorism prevention to focus on the role of HE institutions in developing and sustaining the shared values that are fundamental to Britain's future as a multicultural society.

With growing numbers of students entering higher education in the UK - figures suggest that the introduction of variable fees has not thwarted the ambitions of those set on going to university from attaining their goal - the Government believes HE institutions play a critical role in the development and exercise of the shared values that underpin British society. It is the experience of questioning, debating, of open and free argument at university that provides a forum for the teaching and embracing of those values essential to peaceful coexistence and robust dialogue.

Laudable as these intentions are, Faisal Hanjra, Federation of Students' Islamic Societies representative, queried whether the Government in focussing on campuses was not overstating the issue and creating a problem where one did not actually exist. Raising the question of an earlier draft of the guidance document, which laid heavy emphasis on Muslim students, he claimed that the stigmatisation felt by Muslims at the disproportionate focus on them as a student group did much to undermine the very basis of good campus relations that the Government aimed to foster.

And criticising the Opposition Party's endorsement of a report authored by Director of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, Professor Anthony Glees, on campus extremism, Hanjra noted the weakness of both the report's content and its poor academic rigour. That the Opposition Party should make use of its findings to inform their own policies, was of some concern, Hanjra said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Ruhana Ali, Education and Welfare Officer at LSE Students Union, pointed out that the guidance document, with its mention of prayer rooms and the encouragement of Muslim women into leadership posts, could not defensibly be seen as a document that was applicable to all groups on campus in a fair and equal manner.

Rob Wilson, responding to a question on the published guidance, underlined the difficulty of evading the victimisation of Muslim students and achieving the goal of protecting both students and HE institutions. He acknowledged that there persisted a perception that Muslims were being singled out and that this would need to be addressed, though he admitted a considerable improvement in the published version over the earlier draft.

Stephen Williams added that the guidance document should be equally and robustly applied to all ideologies that made use of violent extremism as a means to their ends, including animal rights groups, if the perception of victimisation among Muslims was to be overcome.

While the threat assessment might indeed suggest that al-Qa'ida remains the Government's main concern as it works to "strengthen the resilience of communities against forces that would tear them apart, enabling them to resist extremist influence and root out terrorism," the balance it needs to strike between working with communities and not against them has not yet been reached it would seem.

Other issues raised during the evening included the responsibility of universities in meeting the needs of their diverse student populations. The panel was asked whether universities had a duty to provide prayer rooms, chaplains and halal meat for their Muslim students in keeping with recommendations made in a report authored by Dr Ataullah Siddiqui. Rob Wilson in characteristic Conservative fashion took a free market approach, arguing that if universities hoped to attract Muslim students in our fee paying age, they needed to meet the needs of all their students.

Of equal concern to those present was the issue of low educational achievement by ethnic minority students and graduate unemployment in the minority communities.

The Secretary of State spelt out various initiatives that the Government is working on to widen the participation of students from underprivileged backgrounds. He went on to argue that there was a lack of sufficient understanding as to why certain ethnic groups performed badly over all other groups when factors such as poverty and prior attainment were accounted for. The need to foster aspirations earlier on in the lives of children, from around 10 to 14 years of age, in order to ensure that the university option is one that is conceived early on, is among work being done to counter the disparity in levels of educational attainment across ethnic groups in Britain.

And on the matter of graduate unemployment, while national statistics suggest that graduates from ethnic groups perform reasonably well or better than their White British counterparts (75% of British Asian graduates are in employment within three years of graduation, while the figure is 74% for Whites and 67% for Blacks) the problem of high local unemployment among ethnic minority graduates is not known.

Stephen Williams pointed to the choice of institution and choice of degree programme as contributing factors to low levels of educational achievement and graduate unemployment in the minority communities. Building high aspirations in students from these communities is essential to countering these trends, he stated.

The whole session was masterfully chaired by Mehdi Hasan, an editor at Channel 4. His witty yet serious approach to the issues at hand, ensuring that awkward questions were given their due while never losing an opportunity to inject light humour into the evening's proceedings, was a welcome change from more overbearing Chairs.

If interest in British politics amongst the younger generation and participation in political debate with those elected to represent them is waning, initiatives such as this dialogue with political leaders is an important and rewarding step in the right direction. It is through forums such as these that politicians are more likely to win the hearts and minds of British Muslim citizens and strengthen their pride in and commitment to the democratic tradition.

(Source: Muslim News, London)

Al-Qa'ida activist or charlatan?

Inayat Bunglawala

We were told by the would-be book publishers that this was a story "that must be told". Hassan Butt, a Wolverhampton University drop-out and one time ranting al-Muhajiroun activist was - with the help of an ambitious freelancer called Shiv Malik - going to reveal all about his al-Qa'ida associations and how he had finally come to his senses in a forthcoming book called 'Leaving al-Qaida'.

The American network CBS had, back in March 2007, broadcast a lengthy interview with Hassan Butt on its flagship 60 Minutes programme in which viewers were told that Butt was revealing "what it was like to be inside that [al-Qaida] network for ten years" and told of his meeting with the ringleader of the 7/7 bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan, but this book promised to be the most detailed account yet by a self-proclaimed al-Qa'ida insider.

In a couple of sceptical Guardian Comment is Free blogs I noted how at the end of 2001 after Butt first gained notoriety in the UK media with his calls from Pakistan on British Muslims to travel to Afghanistan and fight on behalf of the Taliban, he returned back to the UK and tried - unsuccessfully - to sell his story to the Daily Mirror for a cool £100,000. So, was this guy a real al-Qa'ida activist or merely an opportunist looking to make a quick buck? And if he really was an al-Qa'ida activist then why hadn't he been prosecuted when other British Muslims have found themselves convicted on far more questionable grounds for having downloaded 'al-Qa'ida manuals' which are easily available on the internet?

Later, following the 7/7 bombings, Butt renounced his former extremism and became a vocal critic of al-Qa'ida. Whereas in the past he had criticised mainstream Islamic organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain for being 'sell-outs' he turned 180 degrees and declared that he now believed that they were in fact 'extremists'. Unsurprisingly, he quickly gained the admiration and support of several prominent pro-Iraq war commentators with his curt dismissal of those who argued that Western warmongering and ongoing backing for Middle Eastern despots had a significant impact on the emerging terror threat. This was the Sunday Telegraph's Alasdair Palmer's view:

"British foreign policy, which has been blamed for the creation of home-grown Islamic terrorists, has had very little to do with it (in fact, the idea that all we have to do is change Government policy and the problems will disappear is another way of avoiding the reality). Mr [Shiv] Malik is not the only one to notice this. Ed Husain and Hassan Butt, both of whom were 'captured' by violent Islamist ideology but who have now escaped from it, have also emphasised the point. Both have been threatened by the Islamists with death, and Mr Butt is now in hiding because an attempt was made to kill him." (June 17, 2006)

Note that - line: 'An attempt was made to kill him'. Another prominent 'ex-Islamist', Ed Husain elaborated on this in the New Statesman:

"In Manchester in April [2007], Hassan Butt, a one-time jihadist who is now opposed to extremism, was stabbed and beaten for speaking out against fanaticism. He now lives in hiding." (Ed Husain, New Statesman, June 14, 2007)

But something did not seem quite right and it was not just the fact that trial after trial has clearly shown that a key motivating factor behind planned terror acts has been the perception that Britain - alongside the US - is involved in perpetrating major human rights abuses against Muslims overseas.

After all, would an actual al-Qa'ida activist really court publicity and seek to draw attention to himself and his activities as Butt was so assiduously doing?

In addition, according to the blurb for his book which can still be read online as I write this, Butt was admitting that he was "coming to terms with the fact that I had spent a decade killing for killing's sake." Now that would seem like a pretty serious admission to me and I argued on the Guardian's Cif site a couple of months ago that prodigal son or no, surely Butt should be telling all of this to the police, especially if he was genuinely repentant for his past actions?

So when the police arrested Butt and demanded that Shiv Malik hand over his notes so that they could investigate whether any actual crimes had been committed, I thought the police were definitely in the right. Would we allow other self-confessed killers to escape justice simply because they now expressed regret for their actions?

Some commentators, however, including Nick Cohen and the Tory Shadow Cabinet member Michael Gove, bitterly criticised the police. Cohen, in particular, argued in an Observer piece entitled 'Scandal of the persecuted peacemakers' that Butt now had an "almost patriotic belief in the best values of Britain" and that he had "a higher success rate than the intelligence services" in turning extremists back on to the straight and narrow. Cohen said that Butt was part of a new group of British Muslims that:"thelp steer British Muslims away from violence while teaching wider society that radical Islam is not a rational reaction to Western provocation, but a totalitarian ideology with a life of its own. 'How we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy,' Butt recalled in an outburst that stuck in my mind. 'By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamist theology.'" (March 23, 2008)

On May 21, 2008, the Greater Manchester Police presented to the High Court the transcript of their recent interviews with Hassan Butt since he was arrested in which he, for the first time, admitted that he had 'made up' all the stories of his al-Qa'ida involvement: "I've never met anyone from al-Qaida or anyone who claimed to be from al-Qaida in my entire lifetI actually arranged for myself to be stabbed in the shoulder, sorry, in my arm and in my back because I knew if I said I had been attacked Shiv was going to ask for some proof so basically I stabbed myselftyou know, it was just part of the whole scam."

Butt also admitted that contrary to his past statements, he had never met, let alone had tea with the ringleader of the 7/7 attacks, Mohammed Siddique Khan.

Al Qa'ida activist or charlatan? It would appear from his own admission to the police - which can be seen in this C4 News clip - that Hassan Butt was indeed in the latter category. In my own conversations with some journalists they told me that they had long believed Butt was an 'absolute stitch up merchant', so how was it that Nick Cohen, Shiv Malik and Co fell for him so easily?

What is worrying is the thought of where we would now be if the Greater Manchester Police had not intervened and managed to get Hassan Butt to finally admit to being a liar and a fraud? Butt's book would no doubt have been praised by all the warmongering fans of Ed Husain's The Islamist and for very similar reasons. There is even talk of a movie about Butt's life having been in the pipeline…

In the end, it is hard to avoid concluding that the reason Butt - along with the likes of Ed Husain etc - was being so assiduously promoted by the Islam-bashers was that he was more than willing to tell them exactly what they wanted to hear.

(Source: Muslim News, London. Inayat Banglawala is a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain)

Community cohesion and extremism

Anealla Safdar

One would never imagine that such a seemingly sociable and, some might say, tepid topic like community cohesion, defined by the Government as the "attempt to build communities" could spark such snappy debate. But, that is what happens when you put Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, Conservative Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action Shadow Minister, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Andrew Stunell, in the same room with around 100 young Muslims.

November 28, saw the second monthly session of its kind, where three members from each major political party meet with young Muslims in the House of Commons. Community cohesion, preventing extremism, the Government's relationship with Islam and empowering communities were on the agenda of this month's dialogue, with Barrister Fatima Kurji Jumabhoy chairing the debate.

Blears kicked the meeting off with a subject that British Muslims are all too familiar with. "I think that extremism is an issue that isn't simply for the Muslim community, it's an issue for the whole of the country," she said, "The truth is that we are facing a significant threat from terrorism." The way in which that 'threat' could be dampened must be a careful and delicate one, agreed the Government officials.

Blears admitted that the term 'community cohesion', one of the proposed remedies to extremism, was an instance of typical political jargon. So, she unpicked it for the audience. "I think it's about a sense of belonging, it's about a sense of belief, what you believe in. Nobody has a duty to assimilate themselves [but] I do think we need to understand how each other lives."

On October 7 2007, Blears announced that £50 million would be invested into cohesion promotion and tackling community tensions. This was an increase from £2m in 2007/08.

The roots of extremism, however, are deep and while funding for community action might be a positive step, audience members were keen to press the panel on the ways in which terrorism is targeted. "Every faith group has a positive duty to make their youth better, it's about enhancing communities," said Warsi, but agreed with other panel members that mosques, while sometimes being responsible for propagating extremist ideas, were not totally to blame.

Universities, on the other hand, where young people are politicised by just about anything, were seen as key locations where terrorism could be bred. "People express all sorts of views at universities. I look back to the days when I was at university, and when somebody said there was march on, you didn't really ask what the march was about, you just went…because you thought that was thing you had to do at university," said Warsi.

Stunell described himself as an 'active Christian' and sympathised strongly with the way in which the Muslim community was being treated by putting himself in the position of Muslims.

"What would be most likely to radicalise me? It would be a clampdown at university on Christian students," he said. Stunell expressed the view that extremism would not be tackled by targeting mosques and Muslim university students, or by stopping and searching those who 'looked' Muslim. "I just want the same test to be applied to every community, and to every faith group and in every situation," he said. He pointed out that up until now, the IRA has killed more people in the UK than any 'Muslim' extremist has, "yet we avoided the demonisation which is so easily tumbled into by public policy and then of course led on to that by the media."

The audience was also keen to discuss foreign policy, 'state terrorism' and the part they play in influencing extremism in the UK. Blears failed to give one audience member a definition for 'state terrorism' on the grounds that she didn't know what it was, but later, when pushed to talk about foreign policy, said: "I do not accept simply that foreign policy is the cause of al-Qa'ida terrorism across the world".

Both of the other party members said they did not support the so called 'War on Terror'. "I would not say that [foreign policy] legitimised what they did, but clearly it has had a powerful impact on them, and it's had a powerful impact on a wider circle of people," said Stunell. "Some of those situations which have provoked that response ought to have been done differently," he added. Warsi urged Muslims not to use their faith in taking political stances, suggesting instead that they use a reasoned approach like she did over the war in Iraq. "My viewpoint about the war in Iraq had…probably very little to do with my faith. If anything, it was more to do with the fact that I am a lawyer and I had concerns about it from a legal perspective." Warsi, herself a young Muslim woman, seemed to regain some of the confidence lost after her controversial comments concerning the BNP's 'legitimate' views on immigration were made public. Stunell's empathy and the way in which he insisted Muslims must not be demonised or alienated surely won the Liberal Democrats a few potential voters. But Blears, despite her pledge to inject millions of pounds into 'community cohesion', found it difficult, as any other Labour representative would, to discuss terrorism without being questioned over her party's hugely unpopular political decision to invade Iraq.