Published: Thursday, 31st January, 2008 12:30
Respected members of Muslim community
Comments (0)
Print Article
Dear Sir,
I read with interest David Akroyd’s defence of Cllr Richard Willis’s praise of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia on December 13 and his attempt to deflect attention by portraying the Islamic Political Party Hizb-ut-Tahrir as 'supporters of Terror’.
The current national terror debate is ignorant of the reality of the Muslim community. This is because the British government and tabloid
media have blindly followed the US led 'War on Terror’ (WOT) (which has more to do with securing US corporate interests than improving security
and stability) and have adopted the accompanying dishonest rhetoric that associates proponents of Islam with Terrorism.
David Akroyd is clearly ignorant of the WOT and local Muslims.
Members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Reading are respected, popular, mainstream members of the Muslim community. We have had huge success in our
grassroots engagement with the public where we have been able to clarify many misconceptions people have about Islam.
Our contribution towards strengthening and educating the Muslim community, through our consistent engagement, projects and political awareness campaigns, would become known to anyone who took the trouble to find out.
It is understandable that people like David may not know the reality of Muslim organisations but this is not an excuse to be opportunistic and
use the fear of terrorism to score political points.
I would be prepared to meet with David Akroyd to enlighten him further.
Shahjahan Malik
Member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Reading
Further Details
