Mehdi Hasan on Seeking Intra-faith Unity Amongst Muslims

perhaps Oh gentlemen and sisters respective scholars may the peace, mercy and blessings of God be with us all tonight and especially pray that the blessings of mercy go to the children of Gaza, the children of Syria, the children of that entire region that are suffering. and endure a very different month of Ramadan to the rest of us here in the UK in 2006, USA. Journalist Jeff Stein concluded a series of interviews with senior American politicians by asking them all a very simple and direct question. He said, "Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shia?" and was amazed by the responses he received.

To be honest, I don't know. I don't know that Congressman Terry Everett, member of the House Intelligence Committee, someone said that he needs to change the name, in fact, the chairman of the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Congressman Silvestre posed when asked if Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite. Absurd, probably Shia, then they were Senator Trent Lott, the first. Republican majority leader of the time who said, in reference to Sunnis and Shiites, to me, ladies, gentlemen and sisters, they will appear equal. On the one hand, we have prominent politicians, prominent members of the media full of misconceptions about Sunnis and Shiites, some of them bent. about spreading misinformation about the division of submission and blaming all the problems in the Middle East on this ancient division of hers and Atrus, nothing to do with Western interventions of course, now, on the other hand, on the other hand, we have Muslims themselves contributing to mindless scaremongering. and misinformed coverage of Sunni Shia divinity within Islam, whether tearing pieces off each other, both verbally and sadly physically, or turning a blind eye to the growing hatred and ignorance within some of our own communities, now we, British Muslims should be proud. of the fact that, contrary to what you might read in the newspapers, we are a peaceful, law-abiding and well-integrated philanthropic comm

unity

.

Recent polls show that the British and Muslim council that drafted the MCV should be especially praised for having adopted a very inclusive and open-minded attitude. very non-sectarian approach to the issues of recent years to the specific question of

intra

-Muslim

unity

with events like this event for which yes, dr. stores mrs. Elena Malik should get a lot of credit for organizing a major event like this unit, but we can't bury our heads in the sand either. Just a few weeks ago, here in London, some young extremists were found guilty of violently attacking a random center around the Corner from here Edgware Road while you shout shields to the bosses, they are the enemy within, they are evil, spend a few hours on the networks as well as on Twitter or Facebook, as I unfortunately spend a lot of time doing, and you will see vile and offensive things being done. said by

muslims

about other

muslims

and it's getting worse not better look don't be fooled friend this isn't about our very genuine and legitimate disagreements about islamic theology islamic history islamic law that's not what we're here to get out o resolve or agree tonight or any other night this is about Middle East politics geopolitics and we need to have a very clear line on what it is about this is not about religion and British Muslims this is powerful British Muslims cannot give themselves the luxury of becoming pawns in a distant power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran or any other Middle Eastern nation, nor can British Muslims afford to import into the UK the sectarianism that sadly now exists in places like Syria and Iraq, and you know, we talk about sectarianism, but what we're really talking about is hate by another name when we talk about a you versus a Shia, what we're really talking about is Muslim versus Muslim, brother versus brother. , sister, versus sister, we are so blinded by our differences that we do not see what unites us. here we are 1.6 billion Muslims 1/5 of humanity both Sunnis and Shiites with the same God the same prophet the same book the same Kaaba the same prayer the same fast the same holy month of Ramadan eat eat together pray together the French history from Islamic movements Olivier Roy wrote the quote today Azerbaijan is probably the only country in the world where there are still mixed mosques and Shiites and Sunnis pray together regularly as British Muslims.

In my opinion we should work to ensure that we have mosques like Joint Prayers such mixed events here in the UK much more regularly than we do. We British Muslims, whether we are neo-Shiites, face the same challenges and obstacles, we face the same Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry, the same debates about radicalization and extremism. We make the same attacks on our dress code and the halal meat we eat. We share the same criticism of our government's terrible foreign policy in relation to the Muslim-majority world, so we must stick together, support each other, have empathy for each other.

Another and only on a specific foreign policy issue. One last point before I finish, it depresses me to see British Sunnis up in arms over oppression in Syria while ignoring oppression in Bahrain and to see British people up in arms over oppression in Bahrain. and ignore the oppression in Syria our concern our empathy our compassion has to be universal it cannot be selective it cannot be selfish as British Muslims we have to defend freedom and human rights everywhere whether the victims are Sunni or Shia or, In fact, Christians, Jews, Hindus or atheists like British Muslims, fighting the scourge of external sectarianism and external bashing of non-Muslims is as important as fighting the scourge of internal sectarianism and internal hatred between Muslims;

It is an integral part of the same. fight the same fight for pluralism for tolerance for mutual respect remember that it was a double alien diamond the first amount this year the fourth the fourth listener pettifog who commented in his government letter about the mine against them almalik knows that people they are of two types they are of two types or they are your brothers in religion or they are your equals in humanity thank you very much