You can find it as Muslim News – here’s an excerpt:
We in the Liberal Democrats have always championed religious tolerance, and we are proud of the diverse traditions in our country. We recognise the importance of the principle of Zakat to Muslims, especially at this time, and I deeply regret that Islam can be unfairly portrayed in many parts of the media especially when Muslim communities in this country do so much excellent charitable work.
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17 Comments
Craven, insincere, platitudinous and completely unnecessary. Clegg in a nutshell really.
@IAinm
Very harsh and unfair. Given the Islamaphobic nature of society Nick’s comments are not only welcome but brave too.
@martin
‘islamophobia’ is itself a concept. It’s a smear designed to close down debate and criticism by implying racism on the part of the critic. But Islam is not a race or an ethnicity, it is a political and social ideology adhered to voluntarily (notwithstanding the Koran’s pronouncements on the fate of apostates), and it is an inherently misogynistic, intolerant, explicitly expansionist ideology at that. A ‘phobia’ is an irrational fear and there is absolutely nothing irrational about opposition to or criticism of Islam.
It makes no more sense to talk about ‘islamophobia’ than it would to talk about ‘communistophobia’, but I can’t imagine Clegg feeling compelled to write to the Morning Star to congratulate its readership on the anniversary of the October Revolution.
The fact that there are Muslim Lib Dems just proves how meaningless the word ‘Liberal’ in the party’s name really is. They really should change their name to the Opportunistic Sometime-Democrats.
I just don’t get Nick sometimes. Why is he pandering to people of any religious persuasion?
It just sounds patronising and whoever is doing his PR should be sacked.
And Martin when you talk about ‘Islamaphobic’, look at some of the examples which have done nothing for religious harmony in this country:
1. Several nasty racist and divisive comments from the Muslim Council of Britain who claim to represent a majority of British Muslims. These comments advocated violence against us and our troops.
2. Multiple arrests for racist and terrorist actions
3. Multiple cells and thousands of individuals being watched by the security services
4. Shariah Law which is both archaic and immoral
5. Damning evidence against the teaching of the Quoran (as examined by Geert Wilders)
6. Lets not forget bombings in London, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Thailand, USA…..all based on Muslim religious teachings by extremists.
We all want harmony but all we get is concentration on our differences. We should be celebrating our similarities and stop being so PC.
When are Muslim communities going to start making a real effort to assimilate into British society?
I welcome his message. I think there are a lot of reasons why Muslims should consider getting involved with the Liberal Democrats. Liberals believe in diversity, that people are entitled to believe in different religions and have different customs and are entitled to respect.
Of course people are entitled to believe whatever they like, but stating that all beliefs are automatically worthy of respect is surely absurd.
I assume those who’ve suggested Nick shouldn’t have issued a Ramadan message also suggest he shouldn’t send any Christmas Cards
Oh sweet heavens above. Have we suddenly gone back in time to 1989? To 2001?
I’m not even going to try and dismantle all the slurs and misinformation you’ve both got there, Iainm and “lib dem guru”. The Muslim Council of Britain has made no such pronouncement and never would – you are referring to Ahlus Sunnah wah Jamaalh, the Luton nutcases numbering no more than a dozen EXPELLED from said council PRIOR to their protest.
The Qur`an like the Torah and the Bible tells sinners what to expect in the afterlife, albeit more graphically, and apostasy is not unforgivable. The Torah or Old Testament contains pronouncements which are thoroughly unforgivable even under any metaphorical or allegorical analysis. The message of the Qur`an preaches tolerance towards other tolerant faiths – “let there be no compulsion in religion”, “to you be your way and to me be mine”.
Let’s not forget bombings in Madrid, Belfast, Uganda, London, Ekaterinberg and the 1996 Olympics… all based on Christian religious teachings by extremists.
We all want harmony and all we get is the straw man of religion being the problem rather than the terrorism.
Frankly it’s because of people like you peddling half-truths that the Muslims of Britain deserve the odd bit of recognition like this…
When serious members of the Muslim community actually start condemning (on a regular basis) much of the contemptuous hateful garbage, spoken and acted upon, then they (as a faith) might have a better ‘image’. We’ve all seen and heard the bad stories, so what about some good stories coming out of this much ‘misunderstood’ faith.
We haven’t seen much tolerance to be perfectly honest and you can’t argue with that!
Maybe Nick should call his teddy bear Mohammed and then see how many Ramadan Cards he gets.
@Robson
It’s funny that you mention 2001, because that’s when I first started looking into Islam. I did so because as a good little fluffy liberal I was upset by the way that followers of that religion were being demonised in the media in the wake of the WTC attacks, and naively I wanted to educate myself in order to better rebut the accusations that were being thrown around; so that I could show them that if only we’d all link hands and sing We Are The World then everything would be OK.
So I read the Koran – the Pickthall translation, which I’m assured me is the best translation available in English (I concede that many scholars claim the Koran to be untranslatable, but I didn’t have time to learn arabic and it’s hardly my fault that Allah is evidently a monoglot) – and I took advice from practicing and non-practicing Muslim and ex-Muslim friends whenever I hit something that I didn’t understand, or needed clarifying in context, or understood but really didn’t want to. And what I found wasn’t what I was looking for at all. Sure, I found plenty of opportunity for quote-mining and lilly-guilding if I fancied a spot of surah-poker (I’ll see your 2:256 with my 9:5, and raise you 18:29), but on the whole what I found was a completely indefensible tome of unreletning spititual and political totalitarianism, hatred, misogyny and laughable absurdity that, due to the claims it makes about itself, is open to interpretation only by limited extent, not by intent. The experience was quite an eye-opener, I can tell you.
Is it worse that Christianity or Judaism? I have no idea. “Worse” is a value judgement and having been subjected to Christianity as a child I accept that I’m not in any position to make an unbiased objective assessment. Subjectively I would say no, not “worse”, it’s merely “as bad as”, but that is hardly a ringing endorsement.
But it’s not about religion being “the” or even “a” problem though. Your straw man accusation is itself a giant straw man. I am all for freedom of belief and of culture – presuming of course that the marketplace of ideas is an open market – and I would never for a second suggest that anyone shouldn’t be allowed to believe whatever they want to. My objection is to the leader of the political party that claims the mantle of liberalism pandering to a world view that is inherently, by definition, in both theory and self-evidently in practice, utterly and completely antithetical to any definition of “liberal” that I have ever encountered, even those I don’t particularly like. It is, as I said previously, precisely analogous to his sending a greeting to unrefomed Stalinists on the anniversary of the October Revolution.
Where the hell is Boyce anyway?
@Iainim & Libdem guru
If all you are saying that certain muslims (be they many or few) out to be more liberal in their attitudes towords certain groups, then you are no more islamophbic than a reform jew is anti-semitic and should not object to the term I am not aware of any libdem having said or done anything to contradict you. If, on the other hand, what you are saying is that all muslims should automaticly be assumed to be bad no matter their interpretation of the Koran, then you are islamophobic, are certainly not a liberal, and should not waste your time lecturing us.
Furthermore I find your suggestion that “serious” muslims have to constantly voice their condemnation when somone else says or does somthing wrong to be utterly riddiculous. Would they even be able to keep trak? Would we always know when somthing was being condemed.
@David
I haven’t really said anything about Muslims, only about Islam itself. I’m quite sure that the overwhelming majority of muslims are fundamentally decent people. I’m equally sure most communists are decent people too, or Christians, or Jews, or freemasons, or white supremicists, but just because I think these groups are mostly composed of decent people that doesn’t mean I’d think it appropriate for the leader of a liberal party to be going out of his way to offer platitudinous reassurances to their adherents.
@iainm
No I also doubt he would write in the Morning Star.
However given the support we have in big cities in some areas that are predominantly Muslim it is sensible politics. I do not blame him whatsoever.
“I’m equally sure most communists are decent people too, or Christians, or Jews, or freemasons, or white supremicists, but just because I think these groups are mostly composed of decent people that doesn’t mean I’d think it appropriate for the leader of a liberal party to be going out of his way to offer platitudinous reassurances to their adherents.”
You wouldn’t consider it appropriate for the leader of a liberal party to offer reassurances to Jews if anti-semitism were rife?
And you think most “white supremicists” are decent people ???
A religion is ultimately defined by its adherents, and It’s a mistake to think it’s defined by its scriptures. (A mistake made, unfortunately, by many adherents themselves.)
In many parts of the text (as we know) the Quo’ran is utterly indefensible, bigoted and wholly aggressive to any Liberal minded person. However there any many good Jews, Muslims and Christians out there.
It is a pity some religious types give themselves a bad wrap by not allowing their Holy bibles to be questioned in a rational intelligent fashion, without putting out death threats. As an aetheist i find it all pretty surreal and non-sensical that a so called intelligent forward thinking faith are so backward.
We don’t stone people in this country or have our women dressed up like black post boxes for cultural reasons (against their wishes)