Mick Hartley

David T at Harry's Place doubts the Eurabia crowd who see Europe doomed to a Sharia-dominated future. Here's another reason for optimism, in today's Times. This initiative is actually coming from British Muslims:

Muslim spiritual leaders could be denounced publicly by their own community as part of a campaign to expose imams whose silence on domestic abuse is leading to women being burnt, lashed and raped in the name of Islam.

Muslim scholars are to present the Government with the names of imams who are alleged by members of their own communities to have refused to help abused women. Imams are also accused of refusing to speak out against domestic abuse in their sermons because they fear losing their clerical salaries and being sacked for broaching a “taboo” subject.

Some of Britain's most prominent moderate imams and female Muslim leaders have backed the campaign, urging the Home Office to vet more carefully Islamic spiritual leaders coming to Britain to weed out hardliners. A four-month inquiry by the Centre for Islamic Pluralism into domestic abuse has uncovered harrowing tales of women being raped, burnt by cigarettes and lashed with belts by their husbands, who believe it is their religious right to mistreat them.

At least 40 female Muslim victims and many social workers from northern England – including Bradford, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham – were interviewed as part of the inquiry, which is expected to be published next month.

During its investigation the organisation – the British arm of a longestablished US think-tank – received a number of complaints about imams who had turned a blind eye to cases of domestic violence, many of whom are followers of Wahabbism, a puritanical interpretation of the Koran espoused by Osama bin Laden.

There have also been similar complaints about clerics from the Tablighi Jamaat movement, which is accused of radicalising young British Muslims with its orthodox teachings.

The organisation's international director, the Muslim scholar Irfan al-Alawi, told The Times that he would be forwarding the names of the imams to the Home Office, which has promised to investigate the allegations. He called for them to be stripped of any government grants that they may be receiving. He is also seeking legal advice about exposing the imams at public lectures and forums throughout the country.

Here's Shiraz Maher:

It might seem perverse, but there are grounds for cautious optimism in today's revelations about domestic violence in the Muslim community, because they come from within the community. Irfan al-Alawi, an Islamic scholar and director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, is taking the brave decision to “name and shame” imams who condone violence against women.

This is the kind of response from within the community that we need if these problems are to be eradicated.

Worryingly, it seems that among those who, by their silence or their failure to act, are condoning domestic violence may be the recipients of government grants intended to promote community cohesion. If so, the Government must consider its role in all this. It cannot wade into the quagmire of Islamic theology, nor should it. But it can facilitate those grassroots initiatives that are building the consensus for a genuinely progressive and liberal British Islam.

Getting this wrong can have serious repercussions. Any official representation immediately lends organisations credibility for their views by suggesting that the Government regards them as both legitimate and valid. It also establishes the group as acceptable leaders for the community by making it an interlocutor for grassroots community engagement.

So far the Government has failed to choose the right partners. After the 7/7 terrorist attacks, the Government created the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, which is supposed to regulate prayer halls and preachers. But two of its four stakeholders are the Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Council of Britain, both reactionary Islamist groups regarded by ordinary Muslims as being part of the problem….

Grassroots change within the Muslim community is happening, albeit belatedly. New voices are emerging to challenge the established narrative and to recast a form of Islam that is truly progressive.

Empowering them will be vital to ensuring their success. The Government has struggled so far to develop a coherent set of criteria to identify suitable partners. What is clear, however, is that an objective yardstick is needed with which to measure the groups it chooses to engage with and promote before any more harm is done.