ENGAGE has the details.

Unsubstantiated media reports on Islamic societies at University campuses inciting extremism are whipping up Islamophobia

Press release from One Society Many Cultures

Following the failed terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on 25 December 2009, many media reports have used the fact that the perpetrator was a student in London who was active in a student Islamic Society to imply this appalling act was incited by the perfectly normal activities of Islamic Societies in London colleges.

Such views have been rejected by Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London (UCL), who said reports that Abdulmutallab developed extreme views whilst studying at UCL were “spectacular insinuation”, and has ordered a review of the 23-year-old’s time at the university.

Attacks on Islamic Societies are unjustified, and whip up an atmosphere of fear and even hatred towards all Muslims.

Islamic Societies – like Jewish, Christian and other faith groups – are a normal part of student life. Islamic Societies give their members social support, discuss issues of faith, and, among many other activities, are a means of inter-faith and inter-community dialogue.

Islamic Societies also respond to Islamaphobia – for example following a vicious assault on Muslim students leaving prayers at City University in November, the Islamic Societies supported the victims and gathered support for widespread condemnation of the perpetrators.

Responses to this terrorist attack that encourage hostility to all Muslims and their expressions of faith add to an atmosphere which is already leading to stepped up attacks and assaults on Muslims.

In addition to the incident at City University mentioned above, in recent months there has been a rise in physical attacks on Muslims, including two murders of a taxi driver in Birmingham and a man in Tooting, South London. In Rochdale in the North West a Muslim woman was violently attacked by a BNP supporter who attempted to rip off her Hijab. Fascist and far right groups have held numerous overtly anti-Muslim demonstrations, including two outside a Mosque.

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First, he announced his plan to march through Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, carrying 500 coffins to symbolise the thousands of Muslims killed ‘by the oppressive US and UK regimes’ in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, he is sending letters to the grieving families of fallen British soldiers, telling them he has “no sympathy whatsoever” for their plight, urging them instead to become Muslims to “save” themselves “from the hellfire”.

Is there anything Anjem “Andy” Choudary won’t do for the sake of a cheap headline? As Inayat Bunglawala wrote on Cif almost a year ago, Choudary and his gang deploy “a simple formula – hold up some offensive placards designed to get people’s backs up and call a local reporter to come along and capture some footage – that has reliably generated acres of media coverage for them in recent years”.

Our sensationalist and irresponsible media has, in fact, been deeply complicit in the rise and rise of this fanatic, devoting quite disproportionate and counter-productive coverage to his various rantings. Is Choudary an Islamic scholar whose views merit attention or consideration? No. Has he studied under leading Islamic scholars? Nope. Does he have any Islamic qualifications or credentials? None whatsoever. So what gives him the right to pontificate on Islam, British Muslims or “the hellfire”? Or proclaim himself a “sharia judge”?

Will he even manage to round up enough misfits to carry the 500 coffins with him? I doubt it – Choudary and co couldn’t even persuade enough people to join a ‘march for sharia’ that they had proudly planned to hold in central London in late October, and, at the very last minute, had to humiliatingly withdraw from their own rally. Pathetic, eh?

Mehdi Hasan at Comment is Free, 4 January 2010

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