Author: Andrew Norfolk
Publication: The Times
Date: September 7, 2007
URL: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402973.ece
Almost half of Britain's mosques are under
the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western
values and has called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation
by The Times has found.
Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and
preaches contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the
spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement,
which gave birth to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of
Britain's 1,350 mosques, according to a police report seen by The Times.
The Times investigation casts serious doubts
on government statements that foreign preachers are to blame for spreading
the creed of radical Islam in Britain's mosques and its policy of enouraging
the recruitment of more "home-grown" preachers.
Mr ul Haq, 36, was educated and trained at
an Islamic seminary in Britain and is part of a new generation of British
imams who share a similar radical agenda. He heaps scorn on any Muslims who
say they are "proud to be British" and argues that friendship with
a Jew or a Christian makes "a mockery of Allah's religion".
Seventeen of Britain's 26 Islamic seminaries
are run by Deobandis and they produce 80 per cent of home-trained Muslim clerics.
Many had their studies funded by local education authority grants. The sect,
which has significant representation on the Muslim Council of Britain, is
at its strongest in the towns and cities of the Midlands and northern England.
Figures supplied to The Times by the Lancashire
Council of Mosques reveal that 59 of the 75 mosques in five towns - Blackburn,
Bolton, Preston, Oldham and Burnley - are Deobandi-run.
It is not suggested that all British Muslims
who worship at Deobandi mosques subscribe to the isolationist message preached
by Mr ul Haq, and he himself suggests Muslims should only "shed blood"
overseas.
But while some Deobandi preachers have a more
cohesive approach to interfaith relations, Islamic theologians say that such
bridge-building efforts do not represent mainstream Deobandi thinking in Britain.
The Times has gained access to numerous talks
and sermons delivered in recent years by Mr ul Haq and other graduates of
Britain's most influential Deobandi seminary near Bury, Greater Manchester.
Intended for a Muslim-only audience, they
reveal a deep-rooted hatred of Western society, admiration for the Taleban
and a passionate zeal for martyrdom "in the way of Allah".
The seminary outlaws art, television, music
and chess, demands "entire concealment" for women and views football
as "a cancer that has infected our youth".
Mahmood Chandia, a Bury graduate who is now
a university lecturer, claims in one sermon that music is a way in which Jews
spread "the Satanic web" to corrupt young Muslims.
"Nearly every university in England has
a department which is called the music department, and in others, where the
Satanic influence is more, they call it the Royal College of Music,"
he says.
Another former Bury student, Bradford-based
Sheikh Ahmed Ali, hails the 9/11 attacks on America because they acted as
a wake-up call to young Muslims. This, he says, taught them that they will
"never be accepted" in Britain and has led them to "return
to Islam: sisters are wearing hijab . . . the lion is waking up".
Mr ul Haq, the most high-profile of the new
generation of Deobandis, runs an Islamic academy in Leicester and is the former
imam at the Birmingham Central Mosque. Revered by many young Muslims, he draws
on his extensive knowledge of the Koran and the life and sayings of the prophet
Muhammed to justify his hostility to the kuffar, or non-Muslims.
One sermon warns believers to protect their
faith by distancing themselves from the "evil influence" of their
non-Muslim British neighbours.
"We are in a very dangerous position
here. We live amongst the kuffar, we work with them, we associate with them,
we mix with them and we begin to pick up their habits."
In another talk, delivered a few weeks before
9/11, he praises Muslims who have gained martyrdom in battle and laments that
today "no one dare utter the J word". "The J word has become
taboo . .. The J word is jihad in the way of Allah."
The Times has made repeated attempts to get
Mr ul Haq to comment on the content of his sermons. However, he declined to
respond.
A commentator on religious radicalism in Pakistan,
where Deobandis wield significant political influence, told The Times that
"blind ignorance" on the part of the Government in Britain had allowed
the Deobandis to become the dominant voice of Islam in Britain's mosques.
Khaled Ahmed said: "The UK has been ruined
by the puritanism of the Deobandis. You've allowed the takeover of the mosques.
You can't run multiculturalism like that, because that's a way of destroying
yourself. In Britain, the Deobandi message has become even more extreme than
it is in Pakistan. It's mind-boggling."
In some mosques the sect has wrested control
from followers of the more moderate majority, the Barelwi movement.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities
said: "We have a detailed strategy to ensure imams properly represent
and connect with mainstream moderate opinion and promote shared values like
tolerance and respect for the rule of law. We have never said the challenge
from extremism is simply restricted to those coming from overseas."
