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Batten in Brussels - Islamic fundamentalism and western ideology

Tuesday, 19th December 2006

Gerard Batten writes in Freedom Today about the incompatibility between Islamic fundamentalism and Western Liberal Democracy

Jack Straw's recent statement of the obvious that Muslim women wearing the veil are “a visible statement of separation and difference” caused a predictable furore. The UK Independence Party is a party that believes in individual freedom and liberty, so we would be the last people to want legislate against anyone’s choice of dress. The real debate should not be about what is considered acceptable dress for Muslim women but rather what it symbolises, and the growing impact of Islamic fundamentalism on British society, and the threat it poses to a free society.

The Niqab, or full veil, is not a Qur’anic, requirement and its use is debated and disputed among Muslim scholars, but it is being adopted more and more by Islamic fundamentalists. Some fundamentalists believe that Islam is a universal religion and that their role is to convert or subdue all mankind and make Islam supreme and dominant. To them, Islam is both a religion and a form of government.

They do not believe in the nation state, nor the separation of religion and state. They do not believe in free speech or the equality of women, and do not tolerate homosexuality. Democracy, as we understand it, is unacceptable to them, the only acceptable form of government being one based on Islamic law.

These fundamentalists can never adapt themselves to being a minority in a non- Islamic society - they see it as their duty to convert or subjugate that society, with violence if necessary. The problem is that the fundamentalists and extremists appear to be winning the propaganda war and convincing the West that they represent Islam when in fact they are merely an extreme manifestation of it.

A significant section of Britain’s growing Muslim population already seeks to assert its separate - and in its opinion superior - Muslim identity, rejecting integration into British society. Its tactics are to claim victim status and then force concessions from the authorities to accept its different Muslim way of doing things.

The Muslim Council of Britain has already called for Islamic Shari’a law to be incorporated into British law. The boundaries are always being tested and pushed back. Anyone who opposes them is likely to be called “Islamophobic”, a term fast becoming as popular as “racist”, as the modern equivalent of “witchcraft”; a means of gagging debate and code for “guilty until proved innocent”.

Successive governments have refused to accept the threat posed to our society by Islamic fundamentalism and extremism and to take the necessary measures to meet it head-on. We should esteem our own values of freedom, free speech and liberal secular democracy and start defending them. One of the most important reasons that extremism has flourished in Britain is because of the funding it receives from abroad. For example in West Ham, in the London Borough of Newham, an international Islamic group called Tablighi Jamaat plans to build a super-mosque that will accommodate from 40,000 to 70,000 people.

The cost is estimated to be at least £100 million. Where will the money be raised? Not from local Muslims in one of London's poorest boroughs but from foreign countries and donors who have an agenda to undermine our freedoms and way of life. If we wish to protect our free society from a philosophy that belongs in the dark ages, then we must start to take decisive actions. I suggest that as a start we shoulddo the following.

1. End mass immigration, and set about positively integrating and assimilating our existing immigrants and their offspring into our society.

2. Promote a cohesive society, for example by removing all signs in foreign languages in public buildings such as schools, town halls, and hospitals. If we do not share a common language how can we share a common society?

3. Strictly regulate arranged marriages with spouses brought from abroad, with a strict requirement that the applicants speak fluent English.

4. Government to withdraw financial support from fundamentalist organisations and instead offer moral support to Muslim organisations committed to a moderate, forward-looking Islam willing to assimilate to British society.

5. Strictly regulate and limit funds from abroad being used to build mosques and support imams in the United Kingdom. There should be a clear and auditable financial trail, with severe criminal penalties for infringement. As a matter of principle, no money should be acceptable from Muslim countries that do not allow non-Muslim places of worship on their own territory. The Government should ask all Islamic organisations based in, or with links and affiliations to, the UK, such as OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference), Muslim World League, and the European Council of Fatwa (including the Muslim Council of Britain), to take actions to guide their followers. They have all publicly stated that acts of terrorism are un-Islamic and distanced themselves from it.

To reinforce these messages the government should ask them to issue fatwas including the following:

1. That Islam is a religion of peace, and therefore that every armed Jihad in the UK is unlawful and prohibited.

2. That those Muslims who plan, incite or commit terrorist acts are apostates and non-Muslims, and a shame to Islam. The four suicide bombers who died on 7 July 2005 should be declared apostate as an example to others.

3. That those verses in the Qur’an dealing with Jihad, and Wala wa al ’bara (allegiance to Muslims and immunity from allegiance to non-Muslims, regarding them as enemies) are not applicable in the UK - considering the fact that Muslims are full citizens of the UK in every way.

The vast majority of Britain’s moderate, law-abiding and peaceful Muslims should welcome such statements from Islamic organisations that claim to represent them. Compliance would send out a clear message that these organisations embrace moderate Islam and Britain’s

 

 

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