British deputy PM calls for understanding of Islam

LONDON: Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP has called for the understanding of the religion of Islam and its followers after reprisals against Muslim spiked across Britain following the killing of serving British soldier Drummer Lee Rigby on a London street by two fanatics of Nigerian origin.
Since the brutal killing hundreds of incidents of violence against British Muslims and mosques have been reported and Muslim across Britain are living in a state of fear and high tension as racists are using the unfortunate killing by extremists to stoke racial and religious tensions against nearly 3 million British Muslims.
The deputy prime minister hosted a community event here where political and religious leaders joined together to show solidarity between people of all faiths and none in the wake of the murder of the Woolwich killing. Members of Jewish, Muslim and Christians backgrounds and politicians of all parties attended the event. The speakers at the event also included Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan, Conservative whip Lord Tariq Ahmad, former Army captain Afzal Amin, Imam Shaykh Shams-ad-Duha Muhammad, Canon Guy Wilkinson and Leonie Lewis. Also in attendance were Colonel Hugh Bodington, Chief of Staff of the Army Headquarters at London District, and Commander Makhdoom Chishty of the Metropolitan Police, who has been the force’s community liaison for the events in Woolwich.
Clegg paid tribute to the leaders and spokespersons of the Muslim communities for speaking out very clearly and “so very cogently and so very quickly to reject it utterly”. He said the actions of the two men, believed to be converts to Islam, was a total unqualified betrayal of Islam – “a religion of peace was being distorted, turned upside down and inside out, perverted in the cause of an abhorrent and violent set of intentions from those individuals”.
He said that terrorism has no religion because there is no religious conviction that can justify “the kind of arbitrary, savage, random violence that we saw on the streets of Woolwich”. He repeated a verse from the holy Quran, verse 32, chapter 5 which declares that if anyone kills a human being, it shall be as killing the entire humanity.
Clegg said he had arranged the interfaith event to bring all communities together to stress the “message of hope over fear, of community over division” because the two terrorists wanted to sow the corrosive seeds of fear and division. “What they want is for governments and the authorities to overreact in their immediate reaction. What they want is for communities to turn inwards and away from each other. What they want, in short, is to spread fear,” said the Deputy PM. Clegg said the government was determined not to “disrupt” normal life and all communities will “continue to reach out to each other”.
Saida Khan said that Muslims had proudly served in the British armed forces since the time of the world wars and there were hundreds of Muslims serving their country proudly. He said the armed forces came to the rescue of the London Olympics when a private security firm failed to provide the necessary security.
Lord Tariq Ahmed said that terrorists had united the nation instead of dividing them. He said some elements were trying to use the Holy Scripture to justify their warped ideology but Islam didn’t permit killing of anyone.