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Who speaks for secular Muslims?

24/08/2006
Letter published in The Independent

Sir: A person's religious beliefs and practices are private matters. Just because someone does not practice religion as strictly or openly as is prescribed by religious organisations, does not mean that he or she should be deprived of rights to be represented nationally and their issues not taken into consideration by the Government. Such is the plight of ordinary secular Muslims in today's Britain.

Most secular Muslims are not members of any of the leading religious groups, nor do they follow religion with strict enough vigour which would allow them to be considered for membership of any of the leading so-called Muslim representative groups such as Muslim Council of Britain or its affiliates. Secular Islam in Britain is feeling marginalised. Without adequate platforms it is being ignored by both the media and the Government.

All that MCB and other hard-line Islamic organisations are doing is taking advantage of the lack of leadership from within the secular majority of Muslims. They tend to "Islamicise" every single issue that is faced by ordinary Muslims, thereby diverting the attention from the real core social issues. The latter include failed integration, due to self-imposed segregation by community elders hell-bent on maintaining the cultural customs that they brought with them at the time of migration to Britain.

Other problems are purely economic, such as unemployment and obstacles faced by Muslim women joining mainstream careers.

For successful integration of both Muslims and Islam into the British society, the voice of modern, moderate and secular Muslims needs to be heard and brought into the mainstream.

Dr Shaaz Mahboob, Hillingdon, Middlesex