The Diseases in our Hearts

Earlier today I attended the Rally for Justice outside New Scotland Yard, a protest called for by a coalition of Muslim and non-Muslim groups, encompassing organisations as diverse as Muslim Council of Britain, Islamic Human Rights Commission and Hizb ut-Tahrir. A protest to show the police that the Muslim community has had enough, that we stand together in solidarity with terror suspects and we will no longer tolerate this humiliation, this degradation and this criminalisation of our community. A worthy cause, good weather, and a sunday afternoon. Estimated turn-out - 250 people (Organisers claimed 1000, police stated 100).

So where were the angry masses? Where were those who boil over with fury at the injustices being committed against the Muslims all over the world? Where were those who harp on about unity and activism, about the need to move things forward and display our dissent in a peaceful democratic fashion? Where were the Islam Channel addicts who could follow Yvonne Ridley all the way to Copenhagen but could not make it to New Scotland Yard today? Where were the 90,000 Muslim students in this country? Where was Muhammad Abdul Kahar's 2 million brothers and sisters today?

I heard many excuses from practising brothers yesterday as to why they would not be attending the protest.

It doesn't achieve anything

So in those 2 hours between 2 and 4 pm today, I would like to know what these brothers did that contributed to ending such injustices.

There is a criminal justice system in this country which we should use

Correct and not only should we use them but we have to use them, if for no other reason than to expose the racism, corruption and Islamophobia that is rife in it. Anyone who has used the system will tell you that it has only been public pressure that has brought them even a semblance of justice, and not the system itself.

Protests don't work. We need riots.

Excellent - how you going to start a riot from your home?

I don't want to expose myself aakhee, I want to keep a low profile so I can go abroad and fight the kuffar there

Without questioning the niyaah, how many of these armchair jihadis actually do take any concrete steps to go for jihad? These brothers will talk and talk and talk, will wait and wait and wait, talk some more, wait some more, always waiting but never willing to take that definitive step. Their lives end with them having done little more for the ummah than talk to their friends of how bad the situation is.

In reality, these excuses are all symptomatic of the deeper disease that has infected our hearts; that as long as we are comfortable and living a good life, nothing else matters. Those whose hearts are a little more hardened will always pull out the 'no smoke without fire' argument. Those a little softer will mean well but because they are not personally affected by what is happening, they will use the excuses listed above. I ask all of these brothers that if it was their own blood brother, or father or sister who was arrested, shot and humiliated, would they not do all that was in their power to stop it? If it was their own father who was detained without charge and being tortured in Guantanamo Bay, would they remain silent believing that we should use the system and that protesting is pointless?

The answer is clear - each and everyone of us will work around the clock to ensure that our family members are protected and safe from harm. But we all claim the Ummah is one ummah, that we are all brothers and sisters, that like one body, if any part of it is suffering the whole body will feel the pain and suffer from fever and sleeplessness. Unfortunately today, we do not feel this pain and are happily snoring away in a deep slumber, too obsessed with our jobs, our families, our mortgages and the World Cup to notice the suffering of our fellow brothers and sisters. Until such time as everytime we see a house being raided, we imagine it as out house, every Muslim who gets arrested, we see as our own brother, and every mother who weeps for her little boy in prison we see as our mother crying over our plight, until this time, we are nothing but traitors to our covenant with Allah.

For Muslims in this country, getting that door broken down is probaby the best thing that can happen to us as it is confirmation of our identity as a Muslim. Police harassment has become a sign of our eemaan.