33.Memorandum submitted by Tariq Saied
BACKGROUND
My name is Tariq Saied and I was born in Manchester
in January 1965. My Parents came to the UK in 1963 and both have
worked hard to make a life here for themselves and their three
children. I am married now with three children of my own and I
see no improvement in community relations from when I grew up
as the only coloured person in most of the areas of Manchester
I lived in while growing up.
I wanted to write in to the Committee on the
subject of terrorism and community relations because I have strong
feelings on how government and the UK media have stigmatised and
blamed Muslims for all the worlds' ills since the September 11
2001 atrocities. This has played into the hands of those who would
divide communities on both sides and they have prospered in the
climate of fear that has been created.
I do not speak for the whole Muslim community
in the UK, I don't actually believe anyone can, however I believe
my views are shared by the majority of British born Muslims.
I have concluded with some recommendations which
I believe the committee should consider as I believe these would
make Britain a "fairer" place.
PARLIAMENTARY STIGMATISATION
The Muslim community in the UK has failed in
its duty to explain Islam to non-Muslims in the UK. I believe
that this is a product of shyness (the keep yourself to yourself
mentality), of laziness and of a lack of organisation. This is
something the community has always wanted to do but never got
round to or expected someone else to do.
Since September 11 2001, it seems that the UK
Muslim community have been shown to have sympathy to a man, woman
and child for the WTC attacks. We have had politicians of all
parties condemning the lack of condemnation by Muslim leaders.
These being the very same Muslim leaders that have employed the
ostrich theory for most of their lives ie "bury your head
in the sand and it will all go away".
The public condemnation demanded was never going
to happen, the people expected to condemn had never made a public
statement in their lives. They did however at Friday sermons condemn
the atrocity, the problem was that these sermons are never broadcast
or explained to the outside world.
So with no condemnation, politicians started
to believe that Muslims must condone or sympathise with this outrage.
Many of them said so in no uncertain terms. Since this time we
have had some "infamously" memorable statements.
Denis MacShane's "British Muslims must
choose the terrorist way or the British way!" I find this
a ridiculous statement on so many levels.
David Blunketts "they should speak English
in their houses!" could have come straight from a BNP training
manual.
Tony Blair's "the biggest threat we face
in the 21st century is from those that misrepresent the message
of Islam for their own ends". I'm struggling to understand
why Islam had to be mentioned here as most Muslims do not consider
people that crash aeroplanes into buildings to be Muslims at all.
There are many other examples both public and
private which have been reported that have worked to reinforce
the stigmatisation of Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers
by elected UK officials. I believe a little more sensitivity should
have been employed here by UK politicians.
POLICE AND
OTHER OFFICIAL
STIGMATISATION
The charity commission announced a freezing
of the assets of Interpal on the basis that Interpal was donating
money to terror groups in the occupied territories. The charity
commission concluded their "investigation" in what must
be record time and gave Interpal a clean bill of health.
I understand that at the time of writing, many
Mosques are under charity commission investigation or scrutiny.
We need to understand what the grounds are for the investigation
and who made the complaint. This is not always made clear when
charity commission investigations are initiated. I believe that
all this talk and "debate" on terrorism has made these
sorts of complaints more prevalent with a guilty till proven innocent
stance taken by the investigating commissions.
The Police, for some strange reason, have it
in their heads that the more outwardly religious someone looks
the more likely they are to be a terrorist. Having seen pictures
of the September 11 hijackers this assumption looks highly flawed.
None of them had beards; none wore turbans or small knitted caps.
We still persist though on concentrating time and resources rounding
up religious people to hold them in Belmarsh and Woodhill with
no charge. There is a real feeling in the Muslim community on
this, which I share, that the terrorists have won just as the
IRA won. Internment without trial plays into the hands of the
"war on Islam" brigade who point to this as an abandonment
of the core democratic values only where Muslims are concerned.
It is also seen as activists and people of strong faith are locked
up because the British government need to shut them up.
Harassment at airports also borders on the stupid
now. I went to Barcelona for a family holiday during the second
week of Easter this year. Now we as a family don't look outwardly
Muslim but when my 10 year old son had his plastic scissors confiscated
from his pencil case even he thought it was because he was Muslim.
I fail to understand what threat anyone poses with a pair of child's
plastic scissors?
There are well documented cases of people missing
flights and being generally harassed at airports on suspicion
of being a terrorist. Again it represents a victimisation and
stigmatisation of people which could have been handled far more
delicately. We seem to blindly follow the US paranoia on this.
MEDIA STIGMATISATION
Since September 11 2001, the press have had
a field day. The attacks on Islam have stepped up and now three
years on seem to have intensified. The attacks seem well co-ordinated
with at least one newspaper having a negative story on Islam every
day for the last three years.
The biggest issue for Muslims is that Islam
has no legal protection in the way other religions have under
the race relations act and the press complaints commission is
a toothless body that hides behind the excuse that an article,
no matter how slanderous, is "someone's opinion" and
therefore not regulated by the code. I can't believe to this day
that anyone thought a voluntary code of conduct would suffice
for press regulation.
It is now fashionable to have an Islam hating
journalist on the staff and Muslims have no right of reply. I
find their pontificating most disturbing as all of a sudden these
people are experts on Islam and Muslims. I can't believe that
these journalists know any Muslims let alone anything about my
faith, and here they are explaining that Muslims are getting ready
to take over the World/Britain etc and what Islam stands for and
what all Muslims want. How can they know?
Famous Islamophobic journalists parading as
experts on Islam are:
Carol Sarler—Daily Mail
Polly Toynbee—The Guardian
Peter Hitchen—Daily Mail
Richard Littlejohn—The Sun
Tony Parsons—Daily Mirror
Will Cummins—The Daily Telegraph
Charles Moore—The Daily Telegraph
All of the above (except for Will Cummins) would
purport to hate the BNP; however they do not accept their part
in creating the climate where the BNP spreads its hate.
The airtime and mouthpiece given to groups like
Al-Mahajiroun by the UK media is reprehensible. This group no
more represents Islam than the BNP represents Christianity and
yet they are presented as the voice of Islam.
REPORTING OF
"TERROR ARRESTS"
I have read the headlines about 10 people arrested
here, eight people there etc. I understand that the governments
own figures are that there have been around 600 arrests on terror
related charges with 15 convictions of which three have been Muslim.
I understand that 12 have been Loyalists/fascists ergo all Christians
must be terrorists!
I follow and watch Manchester United and the
terror alert at United bought it home to me. You ask anyone about
the Kurdish guys who were arrested in Manchester, the truth about
them was, they were doing gardens for people hence they had to
buy large quantities of fertiliser and a couple of them were football
fans hence they had tickets to the United vs Liverpool game. Now
there was a big fanfare of publicity when the arrests were made
and stony silence on the release.
The recent arrests in Blackburn seem to follow
the same pattern with an interesting new twist in that now activists
are being picked up. You can imagine the conspiracy theories circulating
about this.
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The issues above have given radical groups like
Al-Mahajiroun and the BNP the perfect climate for recruitment.
The climate of fear created has criminalised a whole community
and created hatred of Muslims within the wider community. There
is also a mistrust of authority from the Muslim community in the
UK and if this continues we will have a generation of Muslim youth
that will have a loathing of Britain and the USA. I don't believe
this is in the wider interests of the UK or Muslims themselves.
My recommendations to counter this are:
1. Extend the current Race Relations act
to cover Muslims as a race. I know that there is no single race
that are Muslims but the same is true of Christians and Jews,
there are black and white Christians and Jews, yet Muslims are
not afforded the same protection because of this supposed loophole.
Islam deserves the same respect and dignity as is afforded other
religions.
2. Have the courage of conviction to fine
and or prosecute anyone who tries the new law. There are too many
journalists that have made a living insulting Islam; they will
not be able to stop just like that. Make sure the new law is not
made a sham.
3. Stop internment without trial. If you
have real worries about an individual tag them, but you shouldn't
lock someone up just because you think they might commit a crime.
If this is not to be implemented you should round up a load of
BNP sympathisers because at some point they will commit a racial
harassment crime.
4. The Press Complaints Commission Code
must be extended to cover individual opinion columns as well as
news. People should not be able to rubbish Islam and hide behind
the fact that it is only their opinion.
5. It would be good to also include that
if the media report on a case they must report right through to
its conclusion with equal prominence. I'm not sure how this would
be enforced but I know that at present the press are abusing privilege.
6. There has been a lot of press unfairly
marginalising and rubbishing Muslim groups; I believe that if
a group is mentioned they should have a prominent right of reply.
I believe at present it is only individuals that have a right
of reply.
13 September 2004
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