‘The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state’
By Alasdair Palmer
(Filed: 19/02/2006)

Please take time to read these disturbing results of a recent survey conducted by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo.
Forty percent of Muslims in Britain want Sharia law introduced in predominantly Muslim communities in Britain.

But before I continue, some baseline facts derived from the 2001 census:

Ethnic groupings within the United Kingdom:
white (English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%) 92.1%, black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, mixed 1.2%, other 1.6% (2001 census)
Religions within the United Kingdom:
Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)
Total Population:
60,441,457 (July 2005 est.)

Regarding those infamous cartoons…

“They [British Muslims] think they have won the debate,” he [Dr Patrick Sookhdeo] says with a sigh. “They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not.

“The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that’s a clear victory.

“It’s confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call ‘adverse consequences’ - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent.”

Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that “in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.

“It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue.”

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo has a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University and was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon for his work in the field of pluralism. He was born and raised a Muslim, but converted to Christianity when at university, and his doctorate was based on his study of Islam, a subject where he has expert knowledge and experience. He has also written and lectured widely in the field of other faiths. Both Patrick and his wife Rosemary hold dual New Zealand and British citizenship.

Here are some other interesting words of his that are worthy of note:

In 1980 the Islamic Council of Europe published a book called Muslim Communities in Non-Muslim States which clearly explained the Islamic agenda in Europe.

When Muslims live as a minority they face theological problems, because classical Islamic teaching always presupposed a context of Islamic dominance; hence the need for guidance on how to live in non-Muslim states.
The instructions given in the book told Muslims to get together and organise themselves with the aim of establishing a viable Muslim community based on Islamic principles. This is the duty of every individual Muslim living within a non-Muslim political entity. They should set up mosques, community centres and Islamic schools. At all costs they must avoid being assimilated by the majority. In order to resist assimilation, they must group themselves geographically, forming areas of high Muslim concentration within the population as a whole. Yet they must also interact with non-Muslims so as to share the message of Islam with them. Every Muslim individual is required to participate in the plan; it is not allowed for anyone simply to live as a “good Muslim” without assisting the overall strategy. The ultimate goal of this strategy is that the Muslims should become a majority and the entire nation be governed according to Islam.

(M. Ali Kettani “The Problems of Muslim Minorities and their Solutions” in Muslim Communities in Non-Muslim States
(London: Islamic Council of Europe, 1980) pp.96-105

OK, so what would you do?

I have listened to many suggestions, from rounding up all Muslims and deporting them to wherever elsewhere, some Muslim country somewhere, whether they are legal British citizens or not… to working even harder to appease these folk and help them to integrate into society.

I have been told that diversity is beneficial and makes for a better and more interesting society, that the problem is not diversity itself but our reactions to it instead. In line with that view, I have also been reminded that Jesus, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, would have a problem with segregation.

But whoa! Is that a true thing to say of Jesus?

Galations 3:
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

For those who have been baptized in His Name there is no segregation as all of those are one in Christ.
Does that include those who have not been baptized in His Name? It doesn’t say so there.

Dr Sookhdeo believes that the problem is not with the majority of Muslims (I presume he means the 60% who did not answer that they want the introduction into Britain of Sharia law) whom, he claimed, are indeed moderate and accept separation of state and religion, but the problem is with their “self-appointed leaders” and the Islamic clerics. He sees a need to distinguish between these groups as the moderates came to Britain to move away from the theocracy from whence they came.

He saw, for example, Tariq Ramadan, whom the Government appointed as an adviser because ministers think he is a ‘community leader’, as being in reality someone with some very extreme views. Ramadan attacks liberal Muslims as ‘Muslims without Islam’ and he is affiliated to the violent and uncompromising Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan calls the education in the state schools of the West ‘aggression against the Islamic personality of the child’. Ramadan says that ‘the Muslim respects the laws of the country only if they do not contradict any Islamic principle’. Ramadan adds that ‘compromising on principles is a sign of fear and weakness’. Dr Sookhdeo claims that this man does not speak for the majority of Muslims at all.

Dr Mark Gabriel (not his original Arabic name) also describes a large majority of Muslims as “secular Muslims” - those who believe in the peaceful parts of Islam but reject the call to jihad. He described this large grouping as taking on the cultural trappings of the message but not living it out completely. They may be very dedicated to their system of thought although it does not represent true Islam. Dr Gabriel claims that a great many of Muslims around the world fall into this category. (See Gabriel, Mark A., Islam and Terrorism, 2002) I have mentioned this man’s substantial credentials in another post in Judah’s Journal.

But back to Dr Sookhdeo and this, then, is what he would do…

“First, it [the Government] should try to engage with the real Muslim majority, not with the self-appointed ‘community leaders’ who don’t actually represent anyone: they have not been elected, and the vast majority of ordinary Muslims have nothing to do with them.

“Second, the Government should say no to faith-based schools, because they are a block to integration. There should be no compromise over education, or over English as the language of education. The policy of political multiculturalism should be reversed.

“The hope was that it would to ensure separate communities would soften at the edges and integrate. But the opposite has in fact happened: Islamic communities have hardened. There is much less integration than there was for the generation that arrived when I did. There will be much less in the future if the present trend continues.

“Finally, the Government should make it absolutely clear: we welcome diversity, we welcome different religions - but all of them have to accept the secular basis of British law and society. That is a non-negotiable condition of being here.

“If the Government does not do all of those things then I fear for the future, because Islamic communities within Britain will form a state within a state. Religion will occupy an ever-larger place in our collective political life. And, speaking as a religious man myself, I fear that outcome.”

Personally, I have a problem with the idea of “rounding up all Muslims and deporting them” as that introduces legal issues that deny legitimate human rights to those who are not in agreement with the Islamic agenda. But I do believe in deporting illegal immigrants, those who are not British citizens and have no legal right to be in the country. Add to that, there could be a massive tightening of immigration laws to protect the established cultural heritage and law and order. Not at all politically correct, of course, but it is time that notion was recognized for what it is as well - the tyranny of the liberal left’s pluralism and multiculturalism. And there must be effective prosecutions and convictions (with deportations as appropriate) under whatever laws exsist, including new laws as necessary, to protect and strengthen the established cultural heritage. This is imperative - and no soft measures be allowed towards any relenting of objectives.

I also have a problem with those who throw at me religious ideas that are taken out of context. We should all be held accountable under the one established secular law, but to be so inclusive as to say that we are all, Christian and non-Christian alike, “one in Christ” is not what my Bible says.
What my Bible does say is that Jesus gave us two great commandments that summarized all the law and the prophets. They were to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
In my view, love includes maintenance of integrity and protection from harm and detrimental destruction as seen from a Christian perspective.

If governments began to take Islam seriously, came to appreciate its real agenda, and took the measures mentioned above and enacted them with absolute firmness, then this “middle road” between deporting all Muslims willy-nilly or cowardly appeasing all Muslims may be our way out. I know this idea will not necessarily be favoured by some of my friends who want all Muslims deported, and I am expecting some to be disappointed with me in this, but I respect Dr Sookhdeo’s views.
I believe in the right kind of firmness that takes control to stop the aggression on both sides. Disrespect for what is sacred is not a good idea, not of any religion - Christianity included. But that does not mean enforced submission to whatever is sacred of any religion - Islam included. I will cover my head with a scarf if I choose to visit a mosque (yes, I have already done that before) but I will not revere their prophet. Islam, nor any other immiscible ideology, must not be allowed to damage the integrity of our Western cultures. Democracy is about majority rule, not minorities conquering outside legitimate processes.
In my experience, freedom of the press actually does involve making discretionary decisions and the editing of some information. This happens routinely on an ordinary daily basis. I would often like to know more about certain issues but they are not in my paper because someone has decided they are not newsworthy, or has not written about them for whatever reason. But editorial discretion should not suffer from intimidation by any one group, or anyone at all.
The ongoing hysteria that has been whipped up lately is, in my humble opinion, both outrageous and ridiculous, serving the political purposes of those responsible for their own excessive reaction. This responsibility needs to be shifted back on to the shoulders of those doing the whipping up and the reacting, and they held accountable. The one who reacts is owner of the reaction.
Such a firmness that takes a fair and just control would then facilitate those of us who are charged to do so, to live according to something I very much believe in - the way that is holy and right in God’s eyes. The following words were written to Christians and actually refer to their interactions among the Christian brotherhood. However, they are to reflect outwardly in their relationship towards others as well:

Colossans 3:
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.