Author:
Publication: Express & Star
Date: September 8, 2004
URL: http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_63987.php
Nine years ago a Muslim-born writer
under a death threat warned Express & Star readers of the global dangers
of Islamic militancy. As the third anniversary of 9/11 approaches, his
latest warning is serious indeed, writes Peter Rhodes
I never expected Anwar Shaikh to
live this long. In July 1995, as we chatted at his Cardiff home, the writer
was not only overweight and breathless but was also subject to a religious
fatwa. He was living in a state of near-siege in a house bristling with
bars, burglar alarms and guard dogs.
He's still alive, still getting
death threats and still warning of the dangers of a racially divided Britain.
He warns that Muslims who insist on living in Britain as foreigners may
one day be driven out by "British patriots."
Indian-born Shaikh is known as The
Other Fatwa. Everyone knows Salman Rushdie was the subject of an Islamic
death threat for his "blasphemous" book, The Satanic Verses. Few Britons
have even heard of Anwar Shaikh.
But his book, Islam: The Arab National
Movement, was denounced throughout the Islamic world. Clerics from London
to Islamabad endorsed the fatwa that "Anwar Shaikh of Cardiff is a renegade
and deserves to be murdered," while stressing that, as Britain is not a
Muslim country, the fatwa would not be carried out.
Shaikh, like Rushdie, is an apostate,
one who was born into Islam but rejects it. Unlike Rushdie he has never
apologised or asked for police protection.
Back in '95, his views on the future
of Islam in the West seemed far-fetched: "Islamic fundamentalism is going
to make a hell of a lot of trouble for the peace of mankind."
And for the future of Britain: "The
so-called mullahs and Muslim scholars in the mosques want to keep the people
ignorant because that is where they get their power. They are ruining the
modern generation of Muslims who were born and bred here, telling them
they have no loyalty to this country. Unless you do something about Muslim
fundamentalism, there is going to be a huge fifth column in our midst."
It all seemed unlikely. But nine
years on, after the Twin Towers outrage of September 11, 2001, British
Muslims fighting in Afghanistan, the Russian school massacre and countless
Al Qaida attacks, his warnings have come spectacularly true.
Today, 76-year-old Anwar Shaikh
is in failing health after a stroke but as feisty as ever. In his new book
he examines the fanatical world of Islamic terrorism and warns that well-meaning
UK politicians who encourage multiculturalism could be paving the way to
civil war.
At its worst, he says, extreme Islam
is a violent and intolerant creed which regards non-Muslims as the party
of the devil who must be humbled.
He denounces the "pampering" ethnic
policies of Whitehall and some city councils: "They are disastrous because
they have failed to integrate the Muslim immigrants with the British society.
"Britishness has got to be the foundation
of the multicultural society in this country. Anything less than this is
farcical and treacherous.
"The Muslims settled in this country
should have been proud British by now, but many of them still do not seem
to be so."
In tones reminiscent of Wolverhampton
MP Enoch Powell's infamous 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech Shaikh warns Muslims:
"If they want to live in Britain as foreigners, a day will come when they
will lose all their rights and be treated as hostile settlers whose expulsion
from the land will become the first priority of the British patriots."
At his home he says: "Enoch Powell
was a great man but the British people didn't appreciate him at all. They
should have listened to him."
Like Enoch Powell, he fears the
worst. Unlike Powell, Shaikh has first-hand experience of where religious
hatred can lead.
In the massacres following the partition
of India in 1947 he was a young Muslim who took part in the slaughter of
non-Muslims. He helped beat three Sikhs to death.
"Everybody was killing everybody.
We were all savages. I have prayed and begged for forgiveness ever since."
Anwar Shaikh came to England from
Pakistan in 1957. In a classic rags-to-riches tale, he worked as a labourer
and then made a fortune as a landlord and property developer before turning
to writing. His quarterly magazine, Eternity, promoted the culture of the
Indian sub-continent.
His new book, he says, is a warning
for moderate Muslims to defy the militants and save their communities "from
the impending doom."
His message to the Blair Government
is to control the "mosque culture" which is producing fanatics and pass
a law banning the preaching of Jihad (holy war) "which is nothing but a
euphemism for violence."
He admits he could never have forecast
September 11, "because I live in Britain and was thinking only in British
terms. But I believe things are going to get a lot worse."
Only last week, he says, he had
"a friendly warning" from a Muslim in Luton that the fatwa on him will
be renewed if the new book is published.
"Some say I am a fool or an extremist,"
he laughs. "But I am only telling the truth as one who has studied Islam
for 70 years."
* Islam & Terrorism is published
by the Principality Publishers at £15.
