Muslim Community and British Politicians

[Iftikhar]

Muslim Community and British Politicians

Jim Fitzpatrick, a British minister criticized the segregation of male and female guests at Muslim wedding. Yet another 'Gaffe' from another jumped up, half-baked, ill-educated Labour moron; a former fireman indeed. He learned nothing about putting out fires rather than starting them. He actually has a GCSE 'D' in Politics? God Help us internationally if he is ever made a Diplomat. I suppose he left in a huff because there was no beer an' 'Am sandwiches at the buffet. The Minister's action is just a stupid, attention-getting stunt appealing to prejudices. This serves only to inflame the prejudices so widespread today. People have their customs, and you don't insult them. It hasn't been that long since our society had some public institutions that kept men and women separate. And it hasn't been that long since women in our society typically wore hats with veils. Plenty of Western customs, we accept as normal, are unacceptable or ridiculous to others.

Muslim marriage is a religious ceremony. He insulted the bride and groom for his own political gain. They should not walk out because it would have been bad manners and rudeness to do so. They should respect the couple wishes, it’s their big day. He should have ascertained what the customs are beforehand, and then not attended if he thinks the practice offensive. One should have respect of others people's customs, even if one does not agree. Perhaps he should grow up and get an injection of reality. If you are not prepared to accept this then don't go or don't insult the bride and groom by walking out. What a disgusting small minded little man. Just shows the caliber of today's MP's from all parties. Well being a Labour politician his appalling ignorance of Islamic tradition plus downright rudeness to his hosts does not surprise me in the least. He should do his homework instead of ruining someone’s day. He is totally an ignorant person. If a Muslim wants to have separation at a wedding (like much of the Muslim world) then they should be allowed to, and don't insult them when they do. Jewish wedding has observed the tradition of separating of men & women at ceremonies, without raising any eyebrows. Men and women are separated in Masajid and Synagogues. Muslim secondary schools are also segregated.

In the past another British Minister Jack Straw caused a similar furore when he referred to Muslim veils as “a visible statement of separation and difference” and called for women to remove them during surgeries in his Blackburn constituency. No one has the right to ban the freedom of choice in a secular and democratic country. The right to choice is a basic fundamental right the person should have. To veil or not to veil should be an individual choice. Dress codes are for children. Muslim women should be free to wear burqas. If women get Away with wearing cropped shirts and pants that show their panties, they should be able to wear burqas too.

Globalisation is here to stay, Muslims are here to stay and so are other communities. Those idiot British ministers need to learn that the world is made up of different people and the British society and its Establishment need to learn to accept and tolerate every culture for what it is and most importantly respect and tolerate the values of each and every religion.
Iftikhar Ahmad

[Fraxinus]

I wouldn't be in favour of separation at weddings, mainly because you wouldn't get a chance to pull some of the fine talent attending. But the named politician surely would have known what the ceremony was going to entail and should have declined the invitation if he had a disagreement with it.

[Iftikhar]

Salaam

The man has a colonial mentality and evidently one of the most ignorant members of parliament who has exposed his ignorance so publicly. His attitude also sounds like a premeditated walk-out.


Jack Starw and Jim Fitzpatrick,s remarks are not much different from what labor has always did i;e bringing forward India,s partition and independence from june 1948 to aug 1947 by Atlee,s government.This resulted in killing of millions of people and Pakistan not getting its fair share from treasury ,armed services and obtained less geographical area than it deserved.It also left Kashmir without its rights and a permanent source of bloodshed.Similarly,in 1948 the very same government decided to pull out its forces from Palestine in response to a terrorist attack on a hotel by one of the Jews organisations leaving Palestinians to bleed for ever.Going to war in Iraq was another Labor decision,based on a doggy dosier and it resulted in loss of millions of lives.

There are churches in all Muslim countries except Saudi Arabia. The main reason is that not a single Christian lives in Saudi Arabia. 49% of Arab Christians live in Labnon and they have their churches even before Islam. They were and are still not forced to revert to Islam. In Palestine, both Muslims and Christians have been at war with Israel. On the other hand, there is a strong social and economic pressure on British Muslims to abondon their culture and languages. Majority of Muslims are form Pakistan and majority of young Pakistans are unable to speak, read and write Urdu/Arabic because state schools with monolingual non-Muslim teachers never encouraged them to learn Arabic/Urdu. They find themselves cut off from their cultural roots and are unable to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. This is one of the main reasoin why young Muslims feel themselves frustrated, angry and extremists.

I was amazed and angry to read what the Minister did. I hope you know that most non-Muslim British people would condemn this as appalling bad manners, as cruelly hurtful to the couple on their special day, and (in gratuitously going to the press) a crude attempt to stir up prejudice. I presume this is for electoral gain but looking at the profile of his constituents the action would seem stupid even on that level. It is depressing that someone in public office can be either (at best) that ignorant or (at worst) that malign.
I am not insulting a country in my post, I am just pointing out the ignorance of some peoples in authority.

We would have spoken to or emailed the bride and groom as to why they invited a non-Muslim or non-muslims to their wedding? As Muslims we are not
to take Kuffaar as friends, but we have to be just, kind, fair and treat them well, show good manners to invite them to Islam.

We are to hold functions and invite kuffs only to give Dawah and not for socialisation or show them our culture etc, this is exactly what they want to pick on certain matters and degrade it.

So those two newlyweds have erred in this matter inviting kufs in the first place and now they and all Muslims are in the spot light again. Why bring attention to ourselves unnessarily???

Masajid and Muslim schools and veils are signs of separation. This does not mean that we should get rid of Masajid, veils and Muslim schools. Muslim
schools are there because British schooling is the home of institutional racism. Muslim children have been victim of Paki-bashing for the last 60 years. I have been campaigning for state funded Muslim schools for the last
35 years. I set up the first Muslim school in 1981 and now there are 140 Muslim schools and only ten are state funded. I would like to see each and every Muslim child in a state funded Muslim school. I hope my dream will
come true on day.

There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim
community schools.

A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. He/she needs to learn and be well versed in Standard English, Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to
follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity and to keep in touch with his/her cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.

[LA]

Though I disagree with the segregation of men and women under almost all circumstances; including marriage, I must say that if you do not like it, just leave.

If I am not mistaken, this minister did exactly that.
So why is there a problem?

[DougieG]

To support segregation of men and women at events like this is just disgusting. I don't really care about the tradition, if you really want to do that then live in Turkey or Iran if you want. I'm far from a BNP supporter but I think when stupid socially crippling rules like this are enforced by religion it is just totally against the principles of our socially liberal country. I'm behind the minister on this.

[DTE]

To support segregation of men and women at events like this is just disgusting. I don't really care about the tradition, if you really want to do that then live in Turkey or Iran if you want. I'm far from a BNP supporter but I think when stupid socially crippling rules like this are enforced by religion it is just totally against the principles of our socially liberal country. I'm behind the minister on this.

Thats rubbish Doug. Its an Islamic wedding, a sacred religious service, now for me, all religions are bat**** mental, but I would never dream of attending a Christian wedding and not abiding by the customs therein. The wedding is the day of the bride and groom, thats supposedly the purpose of attending, its a private function with invited guests and as such is open to any rules they wish to enforce. We are a socially liberal country, and as such we have the freedom to throw a function and organise and order it in any way we wish.

He used a social occasion to stir up some **** politically and no doubt lost himself some voters in the process.

[Streetwalker]

The separation of men and women at social gatherings is common in most cultures.It happens naturally .The problem is that while western people take their traditions casually the muslims enforce theirs in the strictest of ways.Overall I think this is bad ,people must have the freedom to do as they please as long as they are not effecting anyone else.Having said that and with the thought of having to spend an evening with a load of cackeling hens I think they have maybe got this one right.The minister like most of our polititions is an idiot

[DougieG]

Thats rubbish Doug. Its an Islamic wedding, a sacred religious service, now for me, all religions are bat**** mental, but I would never dream of attending a Christian wedding and not abiding by the customs therein. The wedding is the day of the bride and groom, thats supposedly the purpose of attending, its a private function with invited guests and as such is open to any rules they wish to enforce. We are a socially liberal country, and as such we have the freedom to throw a function and organise and order it in any way we wish.

He used a social occasion to stir up some **** politically and no doubt lost himself some voters in the process.

I don't agree. I think its just plain silly to segregate genders in this way. Its not as if I think there should be a law against it, I just think that its bat**** mental, as you said yourself.