What a day. British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD) were last night claiming victory in what was supposed to be a counter-demonstration against Al-Muhajiroun's 'March for Shariah' in Central London. The secularists, around 300 of them from different Muslim and non-Muslim groups set out their stance through various placards outlining their commitment to secular liberal democracy in the UK and as in doing so, distanced themselves from the rotten and extremist views of Anjem Choudary's Al-Muhajiroun (now operating under Islam4UK). Choudary, himself, was supposed to be leading a procession from outside Parliament to Trafalgar Sq. at the same time but having decided to change the location on Friday morning, called off the entire protest at around 1pm on Saturday. Instead, Choudary and his men were found preaching on the streets of Walthamstow. The sudden twist prompted the BMSD vice-chair to release a statement saying that 'This is a victory for those who support the values that define this country's liberal democracy'. In other words, they ran away.
Now, as far as other media outlets are concerned, they provide you the news as it is anyway but here at umaronline.com, I intend to give you a different perspective on what is happening out there. So, lets be a little more realistic. For those of you that heard me on the BBC Asian Network on Friday daytime (
HERE), you will know that I was openly vouching for the secular democracy side in this debate (if you want to call it that). I encouraged Muslims to turn out in force because as Muslims in this country and belonging to this community, it is our obligation to stand up and fight extremism whether that be in the form of the BNP or Islam4UK. So, a day later, at Piccadilly circus, you felt Muslims hadn't got the message. There was a sizeable portion of Muslims out there but not a vast number by any means. The ones primarily active were the BMSD team but aside from that, there was a lacking Muslim presence. On a side-note, there were also other groups present. The English Democrats had around 15 people, there was also a group called 'Stop Islamification of Europe' (SIoE) and someone also mentioned the EDL. Now, I don't know what SIoE were doing there because it seemed like they were arguing in favour of how barbaric and evil Islam is, even accusing the secular Muslims of not being proper Muslims because they were not following what their religion teaches them (not sure about that one). Furthermore, as the name suggests, I wasn't really expecting them to be praising the role Muslims are playing in the UK. One of them even told me, 'we should stop the immigration of Muslims into Europe now', how realistic that is and how close that is to the BNP, I'll let you decide. So certainly, the turnout was poor. One of the BMSD members told me that the turnout at their protest has been affected by the news that Anjem Choudary was going to cancel his protest. I personally don't buy that. Muslims were either going to be out there in force or sitting at home, watching TV. It turned out they chose the latter which makes you wonder whether anyone actually cares about what goes on outside the 4-walls of their own home. Well, I certainly do. Despite the lack of publicity before the event, another reason cited by some for the poor turnout, there was certainly media interest on the day and I met many of my colleagues out there today. Most crucially, managed to get an interview with the don @ BMSD, Dr Shaaz Mahboob. Check it out below.
At around 3pm I called Anjem Choudary, asking him about the march and what went wrong. He invited me to Walthamstow and said his team will be there until 4pm. I dashed there, hoping to have a word with the 'Nick Griffin of Islam' (not my words). On arrival, the mood was quite sombre as Choudary and his clan occupied a field near a major supermarket and tried to lure in every passing customer. The media from Central London had arrived here too and there were lots of interviews and publicity for the man which is hardly warranted in the circumstances. However, I thought I'd join in the fun but crucially, challenge the ideology Choudary was preaching. The stance I had maintained throughout the week and certainly in relation to Nick Griffin's appearance on the BBC Question Time was that the only way to tackle extremism is to tackle it head on. The aim is to challenge these people on their ideology. This was achieved to a certain extent on Question Time, although Griffin was laughed at than rationally defeated. Here, the aim was to challenge Choudary and ask the questions no other person had asked. Now that does not mean asking about the recent form of Rio Ferdinand or Man United in general but focusing on the questions people want the answers to. So, the camera was rolling, the interview went great and although Choudary cited security concerns as being the major factor in the march being cancelled, I think few of the secular democrats would believe that. After the cameras went off, me and my colleague (a great assistant, Naveed Arshad) had a discussion with members of Islam4UK about their mode and methods of preaching. It doesn't take a fool to understand that holding up a poster of Buckingham mosque (as they want it to be) doesn't only alienate other people but is not the faith we both believe in. Islam is not about conquering land and building empires, it is about changing hearts and minds and the method of Al-Muhajiroun was in no way doing that. Choudary himself stated around 70 people had converted to Islam but that is irrelevant if you are scaring away 500 others. All this is, ofcourse, besides the point which is that we believe Choudary was tested with some of our questions and we certainly tried to challenge his ideology as best as possible. Obviously today, in terms of the the protests, the secular Muslims came out on top, simply because they stood their ground. However, this is not the end of Islam4UK and Anjem Choudary was adamant that his organisation have the solution for this world. As far as he is concerned, the protest will be resheduled and will take place. It now remains to be seen how British muslims respond to this extremist challenge. My message, get out there!
Here is some exclusive photo and video coverage from both locations. Watch out for the crucial interviews with Dr. Shaaz Mahboob and Anjem Choudary. As always, comments are welcome. For independent journalism and commentary on news, sports and entertainment, keep reading umaronline.com
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BRITISH MUSLIMS FOR SECULAR DEMOCRACY
ISLAM4UK
