Tuesday, September 05, 2006

soul space














tomorrow night is soul space at st mary's walthamstow, from 8.30pm-9.30pm.

come and enjoy the peace....

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Anonymous said...

Being a regular attendee at the Wednesday night soul space in St Mary‘s , I highly recommend it to those of all religion and none. Tony says “Come and enjoy the peace”. All the world’s religions preach Internal and External peace. But I wonder how many of Waltham Forest’s 33,000 Muslims have been able to enjoy a sense of peace recently.

Islam is the most talked about religion today. But totally wrongly, it is talked about in the media not in terms of peace, but in terms of terrorism and violence. Statistically this is total nonsense. 24 people were arrested on 10 August, a number of them from Walthamstow, on charges of attempting to blow up aeroplanes. Simple arithmetic shows that over 99.9% of Waltham Forest Muslims were not arrested on charges of terrorism. During the fairly recent history of the troubles in Northern Ireland we did not read screaming headlines such as “Ten Christians arrested on charges of terrorism”

In subsequent weeks we have not seen the screaming headlines “Seven of original 24 arrested have been released without charge”. And since the trials of the remainder are not due to take place until 2008, neither have we seen the necessary screaming headlines “Innocent until proven guilty”.

Given the current climate I, as an atheist and therefore obviously a non Muslim, feel it regrettably necessary to clearly state my own position - I totally condemn and deplore the killing of innocent civilians, whether it is in aeroplanes or in Lebanon or Palestine or Israel. I totally condemn and deplore the recent rise in anti Semitism in Britain as much as I condemn the rise in anti Muslim feelings.

However the media does not give equal prominence to what happens to British Muslims after they are arrested on charges of terrorism. I understand that during the past few years over one thousand British Muslims have been arrested under anti-terrorist legislation. However only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of those who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do with terrorism, but with some other offence.

Again given the current climate I feel it regrettably necessary to clearly state my own position. If we feel people are planning to blow up aeroplanes we cannot take any chances. We have to act quickly on what will be sometimes wrong intelligence. However we must be willing to act equally quickly and loudly and with justice to all the people whose lives have been wrecked if they are subsequently shown to be innocent. If we do not do this, history shows that support for violence increases.

Let us all seek peace in “Soul Night” in St Mary’s and elsewhere, Internal and External peace. But peace requires justice as well. History shows us that if peaceful protest does not produce justice, if there is seen to be no hope, violence often follows. In June 2002 the wife of our current (?) prime minister stated regarding the situation in Palestine "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up you are never going to make progress.". By no stretch of the imagination can the Blair family be considered supporters of terrorism!

We must all feel able to preach justice as well as peace, without being accused of supporting terrorism by doing so. In the current climate most Muslims in Walthamstow feel they are only able to talk about the message of peace of Islam. I feel it is the responsibility of the rest of us to supplement this by preaching our own messages of justice. Seeking Internal peace is a fundamental requirement for a human life. But seeking External peace and justice for all is a fundamental duty of all human beings, whether or not we follow any of the world religions. We cannot truly achieve Internal peace if we turn our back on the suffering and injustice being endured by our fellow human beings.

8:48 am

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