Your opinion on article about Islam?

Question

The Times --February 09, 2007
Our mosques are importing jihad
Mary Ann Sieghart
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article1354063.ece

Gina Khan was born in Birmingham 38 years ago to Pakistani parents, she has run away from an arranged marriage, dressed herself in jeans and dared to speak out against the increasing radicalisation of her community.

"There are mosques springing up on every street corner, she says, pointing them out to me as we drive to her tiny house in Birmingham, near the district where nine men were arrested last week on suspicion of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier.

[Two suspects have since been released without charge, a man has been accused of plotting to kidnap and kill a member of the British Armed Forces, four other men have been charged with terrorism offences
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GAAPIE1HHYUODQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/09/nterr209.xml]

Over the past 15 years, she says, there has been an influx of jihadist thinking into her part of Birmingham. Bookshops sell radical literature and the mosques preach separatism and hatred. The Government and the white Establishment have allowed it to happen. And she is outraged about it. "It's all happening on your doorstep," she says, "and Britain is still blind to the real threat that is embedded here now".

"I truly believe that all these mosques here are importing jihad. The radical teaching is filtering through, and these mosques are not regulated. They are supporting everything that is wrong about Islam. We within the community knew this. People are lying. They are in denial. They knew they were bringing in radicals."

"But there are still more English and British people, no matter what, and if they got together and wanted to stamp out this radicalism, they could. I am wasting my time talking to my own people; that is why I am sitting here talking to you, to open your eyes."
Khan is particularly worried about how mosques are brainwashing children and young people: "To me, it is starting to look like a cult." And her local community certainly seems to be in denial. "After the raid I went to the corner shop here, and they were all saying it was a conspiracy. I turned round and said, 'No, it is not. Let us be honest'.
"They say we're being victimised. We're not. The truth is coming out at last, but it's 20 years too late."

Three issues in particular enrage her: forced or arranged marriages for teenage girls, polygamy and the veil. Khan herself was pressurised into marriage at the age of 16 by her father, against her mother's wishes. "I was manipulated by my dad's side of the family into a teen marriage — you know, you are a passport for someone from Pakistan. My mum wanted me to study and make something of my life because she knew what this country had to offer."
Khan married and became pregnant, but after her baby died she says that she suffered terrible postnatal depression and left the marriage. Her family disowned her, as did the Muslim community.

The mosques, she says, collude in these marriages, as they do in the informal polygamy that she claims is rife in Muslim communities. "It is still very, very common here, polygamy. This is Pakistan I have just brought you back into" she says, gesturing at the streets of terraced and semidetached houses. ...

So, although polygamy is illegal in Britain, it is still, says, Khan, being practised with a Muslim seal of approval. The "marriages", after all, are being sanctioned in the mosques.

Having banned teen marriages and the veil, cracked down on polygamy and ensured women's representation in mosques, Khans next priority as prime minister would be to get rid of faith schools and teach Britishness more effectively. Although her children are taught well at an excellent Catholic school, she fears that Muslim schools exacerbate separatism. "Britishness should be compulsory in schools, taught by English teachers. And we should let kids know how valuable their British passports are around the world."

"Compared with Third World countries, compared with every Muslim country, we Muslims are a lot safer here, I know that still. I would not want to leave and move to Pakistan or anywhere on my own as a woman with a grown daughter. I know that now, though it may have taken me a lifetime to realise it. I am so lucky to have been born here.
"We are women, we are treated equally here. If I am raped or sexually abused, the cruellest things that can happen to a woman and leave a residue on your life, this is a country that supports you. I do not have to hide. They are going to help me, give me counselling. What are they going to do in a Muslim country? Stone me. I need four witnesses. They are going to ostracise me, as if I am dirty."
...
"Muslim women aren't suppose to make waves. I didn’t even hear my own screams and tears for 34 years. I have now stepped back and decided to understand and challenge my religion."
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the veil, teen marriage, polygamy, 4 witnesses (the rapists perhaps ?) for proof or, if not, the stoning of the raped woman, and so on, are all part of Koran/Hadith and Sharia-laws, they are state laws in Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.

but, sure, in the name of "open mindeness", "non-biogtry", "non-racism", "multi-culturalism" we should not condem this things so as not offend the "muslims' sensibilities" but rather twist our legal system to "accomodate" them

Answer 1

Woh,Hold up, pal!
First, some Muslims are bad. (There are bad Christians, too.) Second, the Koran never says any of that stuff.
Some of that stuff is true, however. Some people are victimized, true. It is mostly the religion, I think.
Most countries in the middle east are just this way.

Answer 2

Normally I reject any generalization about a group of people. When Muslims say that all Christians are imperialists or crusaders, I just laugh at them. When Westerners (like my sister) say that all Muslims are murderers, I ignore her. It's nonsense.

The woman interviewed has credibility because she's a Muslim living in the area.

In the end, though, I trust our law enforcement here in the US and I know that the police in Britain are just as good. I prefer that we be merciful to the Muslims and heartless savages to the criminals (though I know they'll only get jail time).

It's important that we cast guilt only on the guilty.

Answer 3

i read the half of this article and this Pakistani women seems so
enraged and have great hatred toward her people , her country and Islam .
mosques are places for gathering the Muslim to pray and to be a one unit , its never brainwashed any one or spread the hatred .

if she had any old experiences that well be her problem , Islam is the religion of peace and love and if her people also missed that point and didn't apply its teachings very well , they well get the result .
this is not the fault of Islam , she seems also didn't try even to know Islam very well because she mixed between the culture and Islam.
anyway "open mindedness", "non-bigotry", "non-racism" we have to say it to her .

Answer 4

What I think it's a case of Culture vs. Islam. Some people compromise their religion for culture, for example someone takes one part culture(wife beating), one part religion(Islam) and label the whole thing as Islam. Not only that, he'll search for an article and twist it according to his own sick impretation and justify it.

Islam promotes peace and is againts violence actually, True Islam.

Peace out.

Answer 5

Unfortunately, society is twisted to accommodate religion in ways that it is not twisted to accommodate anything else. Until religion loses that respect that it is automatically accorded, and that immunity it has traditionally enjoyed, it will continue to harm our society and its people.

Answer 6

You want it all When my grandparents came to the USA THEY HAD TO CONFORM TO EASTERN customs not that we must conform to you