Archive for Extremism
Solidarity in face of atrocity
Words fail me when it comes to commenting on the horrific murder in Germany of the lady dubbed as the “headscarf martyr“. All I wanted to share was this glimmer of hope in peaceful coexistence:
Jewish and Muslim communities united against Islamophobia
Stephan Kramer, the Secretary General of the German Jewish Council, has been one of only a handful of non-Muslim voices in Germany willing to describe the murder as motivated by Islamophobia. Kramer gave his solidarity to the Muslim community and alongside Aiman Mazyek, Secretary General of the Central Council of Muslims visited Elwi Ali Okaz in hospital, ‘We want to send a signal against Islamophobia’, said Stephan Kramer, adding that the ‘meagre’ reaction of the authorities to the murder was ‘absurd’. Muslim and Jewish leaders are due to meet with the Saxon prime minister and the Intercultural Council has called for a public demonstration of solidarity with the victim’s family.
With thanks to PULSE.
7/7 four years on
Extremism relies on despair and is defeated by hope
Sohaib Saeed
Originally published in the Edinburgh Evening News, 7th July 2006
A YEAR ago, Thursday morning: something on the news about a power surge in the London Tube; I get some breakfast, and it looks to have been a series of bombings; by lunchtime, it was the al-Qaida network and the Muslim threat within.
In the weeks that followed, I was hot property in the media’s eyes: what can this young bearded man tell us about these Angry Young Muslims and the process of radicalisation? I don’t know, I said; I can tell you anything about facts, but I’m not going to jump on any bandwagon and point the easy finger at the mosques, the youth, the Muslim communities.
I’m not interested in agenda-driven polls like in The Times this week – I reckon poll is short for “polarise”. Muslims are horrified by terrorism, full stop. The London bombings affected people of all backgrounds and ways of life. They harmed not only all those people killed or injured, but also our whole society. Years of harmony-building effort were set back by this devastating criminal act, condemned in the sight of the Creator – whatever name we may call Him by.
Just as it was hard to remember what life was like before 9/11, 7/7 became another turning point. Headlines in the papers became hysterical: one screamed “Radical Islamists at Scots universities” – which was news to me as a student well connected to Islamic societies around Scotland. The “story” was based on assertions made by Prof Anthony Glees, labelling Dundee University as a breeding ground for extremism on the basis of precisely nothing. I recall how distressing this was for Muslim students there, who have since faced increased scrutiny and visits by Special Branch.
I learned an important lesson that summer, though: not to assume that people are like some in the media portray, or that they are shaped by the negativity they are exposed to. I hope others can bear that principle in mind when thinking about Muslims too. The Central Mosque on Potterrow opened its doors every day in August for the annual Discover Islam Exhibition. So many people came, and I was amazed and heartened by their warmth and interest to know us and what we are about.
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Islam, arts and boundaries
Below is an interview with me which forms part of a longer article by Joe Horton, back in 2007 when I was manager of the Islam Festival Edinburgh (running again this August).
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Sohaib Saeed, manager of the Islam Festival at the Edinburgh Central Mosque, steeples his fingers carefully as he speaks. His voice, though soft, carries quite a distance in this silent library directly underneath the main prayer room of the mosque. It’s early afternoon, between the noon and afternoon prayers, so the mosque is quiet.
“For sure artists can be provocative. But in sensitive times, you have to think, will this raise up our society or just encourage bigots?” he says. “To be ignorant of one’s own ignorance is the worst. It’s narcissistic — there’s no effort to ascertain what’s the truth.”
The Discover Islam Exhibition, now an official part of the Fringe Festival welcoming 20,000 visitors per season, is in many ways the watchdog of artistic representations of Islam at the Festival. The primary purpose and goal of the exhibition, Saeed explains, is to educate festival visitors as to the true teachings of Islam and to provide a factual background to the artistic and dramatic representations of Islam and Muslims that have become increasingly common at the festival in recent years.
To that end, members of the mosque are available to answer questions for five minutes or five hours on any subject, no matter how polarizing or politically taboo. The exhibition also offers recitations of the Qur’an and workshops in Arabic calligraphy that also contribute artistically to the festival.
