Protest or politics?

Another mosque and this time it's being built in a mainly non-Muslim area. So as expected, there is a protest planned against this new mosque being built. I wonder how the Muslim community will react. No doubt most of us will then want to organise a reactionary protest. But isn't that the problem? For far too long, we the Muslim community, are reactive instead of proactive. Instead of protesting, why not write to your local MP and ask them what they will do to support the new mosque. Not all MP's are anti-Muslim and if you vote, you can vote in the right one who will support what you and your community stand for. Majority of us did the same thing when the Gaza conflict was going on, we protested, while the Isreali lobby engaged in politics and got results. Protests are all good for making noise but to get results, we need to get smart and get involved in politics.

Comments

The community was being proactive by planning to build the mosque... IMO

PS If you are reacting to a specific news item, it may be a good idea to link to it too, so that others are aware of what you are commenting on.

PS welcome.

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Thanks for the welcome! Smile

The community are being proactive by planning to build a mosque-agreed. But it doesn't look like it's going to go ahead due to the huge amount of resiliance against it. rather than it being stopped before started, we should plan ahead and contact the people that can influence decisions, like planning permission etc rather than wasting time organising a protest which will no doubt create noise, but will not achieve results. Look at Gaza, we protested in our millions, but there wasn't a ceasefire immediately after.

The news hasn't been published officially as yet, this was some information I received from a friend of mine who works in the community.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

why are they planning to build a mosque in a relatively non-Muslim area in the first place? What;s wrong with converting the inside of a house, and instead using the money to build a new mosque in a predominantly Muslim area?

Don't just do something! Stand there.

It's relatively non-Muslim from what I know, however there are Muslims who are now moving there so obviously where you have a group of Muslims you build a mosque. As far as i see it, building a mosque is not an issue, as long as you can build it and then sustain it as a center of the community. Mosques need to be so much more than prayer hall's. They need to be a place where the community can gather and like in the Prophet (s.a.w.) time, a place where alll importnat events take place. For exampler, debt was settled in the mosque, business deals were done and even war was declared. The mosque was home to the community rather than somewhere people turned up to pray. We need more mosques to be like this. there are some great ones, which have conference facilities, youth rooms, women's facilities, nurseries nad also are open to all communities as opposed to being the Pakistani/Bengali/Gujarati mosque.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

Are you sure about the business deals bit? I was under the assumption that business transactions were not something encouraged to be carried out in the mosque, but that may be influenced by an episode of Only Fools And Horses where Delboy mentions something about business outside a church...

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Yeah i agree that loud protests etc are not always the right way forward and mayb in this case it would be a good idea to right to the local MP,

Yet when it comes to what happened in gaza i have to disagree with u,,people did the right thing on protesting day after day making it onto the international new to raise awareness ,,writing a letter in that case was not likely to achieve much,

Also to say those protests did achieve something,, the amount it cost the police to patrol the protests was staggering,, it defnintly got westminsters attention in that sense,,

Often, writing a letter to MP yeilds not much result but this has to be done in mass. We did this in our local area but only to be told by our MP it was the fault of Palastinan and in a nut shell Israel has every right to do whatever they want.
There are a lot of Apologetics for Israel. One need to use analogy when speaking to them. It is very easy for these Zionist sympathiser to use the term Anti Semetic so use the same discourse against them. They end up repeating what they have said and then subtly liken them to be fundenmentalist. One needs to know how to play the game. Too often we are either reactionary or bend backwards and end up sounding apologetics.

One have to work on both front: attack the arguements they put forward and get them to be on defensive and at the same time take the opportunity to justify subltly the ongoing struggle or resentment of the muslim dispora. Use term like anti semetic, holocaust for palastinain cause. These types of words needs to be desensitised if only used for the zionist cause. The same way they call anyone criticising the polocy as islamist. for instance some media have no problem calling Londonistant to shore up histeria so similarly in your arguement why not Jew Your.
Second approach is to organise protest march with all muslim and non muslim organisation.
3rd approach: Muslim need to be involved in all organisation. Specially the relegious muslims. Often we limit ourselves in volunteering in muslim cause. This is somewhat sort sighted. One can speak for any good cause and by doing so relay the Islamic thought with wisdom.

They often accuse muslim of being isolationist, point out the cocasian british huddling up on the shore of Spain, Jews only living in certain area or moving out due to influx because of the lack of desire to integrate. Learn how they use arguemtn and use it against them. I did this against Christian alliance party leader in a debate when he was trying to prevent buidling of London Markaz where a lot of well spoken BNP and Zionist supporter was there.. He ended up back tracking. Media is always want you to project you in bad light so when expressing veiw always be on your guard even if the journalist claim to be muslim. This happend to me and I simply said "they are entitled to their view." I then shook hands with the well dressed, well spoken BNP member and offered to give him a lift with a smile.
The idea is you have show your anger by being in control and do those thing in the limit of Shariah in winning the hearts even though they despise you.

Sorry about bad spelling and grammer... Just typo

A"knows best