Moderate meaning
In the run-up to the first anniversary of 7/7 I've been a bit troubled.
It all started on Tuesday when I came across the phrase "moderate" Muslims in one of our stories. Why the need to qualify, I found myself thinking? Are Muslims automatically radical unless we stick "moderate" somewhere visible? And what is a "moderate" Muslim exactly? Do we mean Muslims we can identify with, whatever "we" means? Or perhaps secular not-so-Muslim Muslims? And in any case, aren't most Muslims in this country British? So what are we actually saying when we describe them as Muslims? Why don’t we describe Christians or Jews in the same way? And what about the Muslim community? Surely there is more than one?
Very troubled, as you can see...
Which is why when in the wake of Tony Blair's and the need to "mobilise the moderate majority within the Muslim community", every one of my programmes decided they had to look at Islam, extremism, moderation and identity, I made a point of listening to everything.
Newshour had an outspoken liberal Muslim academic taking a representative of the Muslim Association of Britain to task, claiming the organisation had not tackled the extremists in its midst.
World Have Your Say, interactive, edgy and global, decided to ask four Muslims to occupy the first half hour of their programme. No presenter intrusion there. A passionate discussion ensued which had to continue off air as the participants were too engaged to stop when the news summary came on.
But the idea I liked best came from the the World Today. They chose to speak to a Muslim rapper MC Riz, a young rapper whose latest hip hop track "post 9/11 Blues" is making waves. MC Riz has an interesting turn of phrase; he says beards have taken on a different meaning, and that Muslims have been pushed to the middle of the room. That sentence stayed with me. With Friday upon us, I need to make sure that we're not pushing anyone to the middle of the room.
Comments
Hi Liliane,
I had same feeling and I ended up writing an article and posted it to my blog named .
It is crucial to find out if there are any grounds for grievance among Muslims in United Kingdom (UK)? Whether these grievances are based on facts or perceptions? There has been a long debate in the West about reasons of resentment and alienation among non-white migrants and particularly among Muslim youth since September 11. Therefore, it is vital to find out answers to this important debate, because, it will determine the policy direction of the West to manage this resentment and alienation.
Usually, levels of resentments in any community are a reflection of its economic, political, and social conditions...
I am pleased that you have raised an important issue.
Thank you.
Muhammad Azeem Akhter
I am an Indian, Hindu by birth. The relationship of Islam with Christianity is a topic of heated discussions in the West as well as the Islamic countries of the Middle East. The inter-relationship of Islam and Hinduism is a question that is of no less importance in India.
There is no doubt that religion has the capacity to rouse the deepest sentiments in a person. For most of the people, religion is the metallic core around which his/her entire persona and existence is based. Whatever the religious books say is almost like the last word for them. While it is true that the fundamental teachings of most of the religions are surprisingly almost the same, the structural differences become more prominent and they lead to the religious distrust, acrimonies and wars.
To say that one of these major world religions stands at an inferior plane than others would be sacrilegios for their respective followers (though it might sound like music to the rest) but for reasons that have more to do with human psychology than anything else, people tend to behave themselves as being superior to others.
This is the root cause of the problem and will continue so as long the human race tends to think and behave the way it does today.
Amitabh Thakur, Lucknow, UP, INDIA