Britain seeks early freedom for teacher jailed in Sudan

“One of the good things is the U.K. Muslims who’ve condemned the charge as completely out of proportion,” said Paul Wishart, 37, a student in London.

“In the past, people have been a bit upset when different atrocities have happened and there hasn’t been much voice in the U.K. Islamic population, whereas with this, they’ve quickly condemned it.”

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused the Sudanese authorities of “gross overreaction.”

“This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate that the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities,” he said.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a political advocacy group, said the prosecution was “abominable and defies common sense.”

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which represents 90,000 Muslim students in Britain and Ireland, called on Sudan’s government to free Gibbons, saying she had not meant to cause offense.

“We are deeply concerned that the verdict to jail a schoolteacher due to what’s likely to be an innocent mistake is gravely disproportionate,” said the group’s president, Ali Alhadithi.

The Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organization, said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should pardon the teacher.

“The Ramadhan Foundation is disappointed and horrified by the conviction of Gillian Gibbons in Sudan,” said spokesman Mohammed Shafiq.”

What’s up with this? It wasn’t long ago that these same muslims were parading in the streets with signs demanding the death of cartoonists and all who “insult Islam”. The behavior of muslims is always suspect, and that all these UK Islamic organizations would join in condemning their own kind instead of demanding the death of the “infidel” teacher strikes me as very strange.

It would sure be interesting to know if there’s a growing British groundswell against Islam over there and the muzzies have decided to start laying low. If they’re out to appease the British for a change, it would be a welcome sign.
***********************************UPDATE

Answering my own question, or, OH MY GOD! might be more apt. The UK TELEGRAPH: “The consensus about how to combat violent extremism can be summed up in three words: reform the mosques.” The Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), which was launched yesterday by the British government in cooperation with muslim groups, according to its draft constitution will “produce advice on the suitability of Imams and scholars coming from abroad for employment in the UK”. It will “facilitate harmonisation of standards” in relation to religious education. These standards will “complement and supplement the law”. It will be paid “fees”.

*** The steering committee contains four members – the mainstream British Muslim Forum, the Shi’ite Al-Khoei Foundation, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). The MCB’s controversial status is well known and MAB has links to the Muslim Brotherhood in general and Hamas in particular. Yet these groups will be advising Britain’s mosques.

This article goes on: “Yes, more English should be used more in mosques and other places of worship. Yes, women and young people should be encouraged to be more active in them. But what matters most for community cohesion isn’t whether English is used: it’s what’s said in English. It isn’t whether women or young people are more active: it’s which ones are more active.

Mainstream mosques, with their gentle, Sufi-influenced spirituality, will fall within the purview of MINAB. There’s a case for a national advisory body, but it would be fatal to the struggle against extremism were the allies of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to regulate and ultimately control – under the politically acceptable jargon of best practice and quality standards – Britain’s Islamic religious institutions.” Particularly the Sufis.

Amen to that. Exactly my thoughts as well. Again, the British government outdoes itself in plain stupidity, setting up terrorists to pacify the terrorist UK mosqes and dominate the peaceful ones. Good luck.

LONDON, Nov 30 (APP – Associated Press of Pakistan): “Muslim scholars from all over Britain have met in London to debate a voluntary code of conduct for mosques, imams, and Islamic cultural centres, to counter violent extremism and reach out to disaffected youths.”
IHT.COM, LONDON: “Leaders of Britain’s two million Muslims unveiled a new set of guidelines Thursday that aim to root out extremism, promote a culture of “civic responsibility” and foster women’s rights in the country’s mosques, Islamic centers and Muslim schools.

The MINAB guidelines, circulated in draft form to Muslim groups throughout the country, represent a sweeping new effort by moderate Muslim leaders to combat alienation among disaffected Muslim youth and to foster a new atmosphere of openness and tolerance, particularly in the country’s 1,500 mosques.

The 10-point “code of conduct” will now go to public discussion among Muslim groups, with the aim of producing a final version by March. The proposals would commit all Muslim organizations accepting it to “actively combat all forms of violent extremism” within the community and to “promote civic responsibility of Muslims in wider society.”

It’s all for show, folks. The purpose of this is to quell the muslim violence and once again promote the lie that Islam means Peace until they gain enough political strength to take over completely. Did you know that little UK has 1500 mosques? For comparison, the US has just over 2000 with five and a half times greater population.

The upside to this is that while the terrorists work to take the pressure of scrutiny off themselves, terrorist acts will decrease and our own investigative agencies can keep a closer eye on them. When we will actually get up the nerve to start sending them all back to their sand dunes en masse is another story.

Footnote… It occurs to me that the fine-loving British government, which levies heavy fines for the most minor of infractions, can fine MINAB and its members, heavily, for any mosque under their jurisdiction caught preaching jihadi-type crap. Certainly if they’re going to pay them, they can fine them, especially since this outfit is government sponsored. This is going to be interesting to watch.

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