Nearly half a million Muslims contemplated leaving Britain after the London terrorist attacks, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks, according to new a Guardian/ICM poll published Tuesday, July 26.

Nearly two-thirds of 1,005 adults aged 18+ interviewed by ICM had thought about their future in Britain after the attacks, with 63% saying they had considered whether they wanted to remain in the UK.

Older Muslims were more uneasy about their future, with 67% of those 35 or over having contemplated their future home country compared to 61% among those 34 or under.

By Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah

Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah visited the Bay Area in the last week of July 1999. He offered a week long course on Usool al-Fiqh in Fremont, California. He then gave a talk on July 31, 1999 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California.

An edited transcription of that talk appears below. As Shakyh Abdullah spoke, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf translated. At times, Shaykh Hamza added some of his own comments and explanations. These appear in brackets in the text.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf's Introduction of the Shaykh

Islam has been known in England for a long time; there are references to Islamic scholars in the Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1386).

Following the anti-Islamic frenzy of the Crusades, Britain became friendly with some Islamic countries. Queen Elizabeth I, for example, asked the Ottoman Sultan Murad for naval assistance against the Spaniard Armada.

The first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim was John Nelson, who converted to Islam at some point in the 16th Century.

A 1641 document refers to “a sect of Mahomatens” being “discovered here in London”. There were also a few conversions to Islam during the period, and a few years later, in 1649, came the first English version of the Qur’an, by Alexander Ross.

Abdal-Hakim Murad

Unsettled, discontented second generation Asian immigrant Muslims in Britain tend to "locate their radicalism not primarily in a spiritual, but in social and political rejection of the oppressive order around them.

Their unsettled and agitated mood is not always congenial to the recent convert, who may, despite the cultural distance, feel more comfortable with the first rather than the second generation of migrants, preferring their God-centered religion to what is often the troubled, identity-seeking Islam of the young"

The Muslim world today is going through a period of low economic growth, inter-communal trade, high indebtedness and socio-economic problems of poverty, economic and political instability.

The institutions of the Muslim world namely, the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) along with many other Islamic banks and financial institutions that have mushroomed, have not played their due part in solving the economic or political problems of the Ummah.

Particularly following the days of the high oil revenues and in recent times by the prospect of profitability in the new financial age, they have all failed to achieve the goal of self-reliance in the Muslim world.

Washington - 5 April 2002:

As of noon on Friday, more than 120 university academics and researchers from across Europe had signed during the course of three days, an open letter, presented for publication in The Guardian, calling for a moratorium on all future cultural and research links with Israel at European or national level until such time as the Israeli government abide by UNresolutions and open serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the recent Saudi peace plan.

SO, what drives people to carry out acts of terrorism? Why do some people hate America and the West so much that they are prepared to take their own lives as well as others?

You see America, the UN in particular and the world community at large has double standards about Muslim countries such as Kashmir. Bosnia, Chechnya and Palestine.

This causes concern among the Muslims or should I say it pee's them off big time. The issues where the Western interest is involved get an immediate response in terms of concrete action. Whereas issues like Kashmir and Palestine remain unresolved even after the passage of a long time, the UN resolutions not withstanding. Check this out:

What are the problems being faced by the western world today?

Let's look at the problems that exist in our society and that government's as well as NGO's (you know- non-governmental organisations) are struggling to solve. Now can Islam provide a solution to these problems?

'Ha! That 1400 year old ancient out of date religion's gonna sort our problems out...yeah...and Saddam Hussein is the fairy God mother!'.

'So you don't think Islam is up to it. eh?' Now. what if the systems of Islam provide us with solutions to these problems at the individual, national and international level, then we have to say that mankind should accept and follow the teachings of Islam -true? So, let the party begin:

'Muhammad, that's that Muslim Prophet innit.' Now what it I told you that Prophet Muhammad (saw), upon him be peace- is the must influential man in history and a perfect role fur us all. You're probably thinking that I should give up the weed and see a specialist. But noooooo!!!! This is not the voice of a fanatic or a madman. It's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - mate. Now let me present to you the facts that '11 knock you out.

So, the 60 million dollar question is that if Islam teaches peace and is absolutely against violence and terrorism then why the heck do these individuals and organisations carry out these violent acts in the name of Islam? Is it in the name of Jihad?

You're probably thinking isn't fighting; violence and killing people all part of jihad.

Well, that's the trap that must people fall into. You see Jihad means 'struggle to the utmost' and one of the forms of jihad is to take up arms against oppressive and evil regimes that arc victimising innocent people.