Latest news

Response of British Muslims for Secular Democracy (bmsd) to the Channel 4 Programme: Dispatches - Undercover Mosque

17/01/2007

British Muslim for Secular Democracy (bmsd) finds it disturbing that propagation of hateful messages and incitement of violent Jihad towards non-Muslim members of our society continues at several leading British Mosques and religious institutions.

Furthermore bmsd is saddened and surprised at the press statements that were issued in response to the programme by the management of the mosques, which were filmed by Channel 4 journalists, and also by their umbrella body Muslim Council of Britain, who instead of accepting the fact that they have willingly allowed the places of worship to be used as a platform for numerous radical preachers to spread their views, have come out in total defiance and have tried to defend the actions of such individuals. bmsd believes that the Channel 4 Dispatches programme undercover Mosque was not an attempt to bring the mosques in question into disrepute or an example of mindless Islamophobia as the MCB and their affiliates have tried to portray. bmsd believes that it was a courageous step taken by Channel 4 to bring to surface what is taking place within certain British mosques and religious institutions. It is only regretful that the Muslim communities did not take any actions to challenge and curb such practices themselves, especially those who were regularly exposed to such blatantly detestable rhetoric during the preaching.

Dr Shaaz Mahboob of bmsd said, we would like to urge the mosques and especially the Islamic teaching institutes such as Islamic Schools and Madressahs, to ensure that radical preaching and subtle indoctrination of our youth does not continue at their institutions. Any Imams, preachers or guest lecturers who are believed to have tendencies towards propagating such ideas should be discouraged and not allowed to use their institutions. We would also like the government, security services and the relevant authorities to take serious notice of the misuse of mosques and other religious institutions, which are expected to propagate the message of peace, tolerance and inter-faith harmony. bmsd being an organisation fully committed to promoting inter-faith dialogue and to prevent Muslims especially the youth from getting indoctrinated, shall fully support any actions deemed appropriate according to the rule of law taken by the authorities in this regard.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, founding member of bmsd said, "Muslims need to recognise the consequences of spread of jihadist salafism in Britain. Our intelligence services allowed this ideology to spread among our youth in the wake of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and used it to destabilise the world to open up world resources and markets for the neo-cons. It is a retrogressive and divisive ideology. We need to understand why its marginalisation is crucial to our survival and acceptability in this country."