Today saw the 'historic' launch of the Draft Constitution and Standards Document for the consultation of the Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board's (MINAB) at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in West London.
Through various speakers representing the four founding groups, the group outlined what MINAB hopes to achieve during the consultation period and raised the issues they want to tackle: extremism, the role of women in Islam, the role of women in mosques, a balanced and representative collection of books on Islam in libraries and child protection issues.
At the event, Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, hailed the launch of the consultation phase and urged all Muslims in the UK to participate. Lord Mohamed Sheikh of the Conservative Party also hailed the founding of MINAB and highlighted the crucial role the group can play in making young Muslims seek role models in the shape of business men and politicians and not extremists.
Opting to go first during the questions and answers period, Sidney Shipton, a Jewish co-ordinator for the Three Faith Forum, called the event 'historic' and asked MINAB to publish a full list of those who attended to "celebrate the occasion". The easy ride, however, ended when the role of women in Islam and particularly the role of women in mosques was repeatedly raised by Muslim women present.
Reedah el Saie, founder and chief executive of ArRum (the 'Islamic solutions' company) questioned the sincerity of the group in empowering women when none are represented on the group's board. The group was also questioned by Henna Khan, a doctor and council member in Slough, who asked if MINAB will encourage mosques to improve women's facilities and questioned whether the group would allow women to pray with men "like in the time of prophet Mohammed".
Manazir Ahsan, MINAB's chairperson, responded by saying that the group would do all it can to tackle cultural traditions and make mosques a non-sectarian, women and child-friendly environment: "It would take time but things are changing, slowly, but they are changing."
Manazir Ahsan, was the founder of the UK Action Committee on Islamic Affairs; the group responsible for alerting and arranging nationwide demonstration following the publication of the Satanic Verses and is the director of the Islamic Foundation, which has ties with Jamaat al-Islami, the Muslim extremist group.
When questioned afterwards by the Centre about the sincerity of MINAB, Batool Al- Toma, who is the head of the National Muslim Women's Advisory group and MINAB's advisor on women's affairs, defended the group's ties to extremist organisations.
She said: "I don't think that this is lip service, it is highly impractical to be trying to take a particular movement's [Jamaat al-Islami's] ideology, which arose in a particular country to a threat of a particular situation in a particular political upheaval, and try to address [such problems] using the same implementation and the same ideology of this country.
"It is not possible and it is not practical. I would say that if we really need to work in this country, then we have to look at our own concerns; current situation, problems and issues and we have to address them from living in this country.
"These are the organisations we have to work with and we have to try our best to find individuals inside these organisations whose attitudes are changing and are recognising - because they are living in this country - that you just can't apply ideology imported from abroad in context to what we are dealing with here in the UK. So you have to try and work with these people and we have to get the best out of them. We need to involve them in the process of change."
No doubt these groups regard Robert Spencer as a figure of evil, but it would be interesting to hear what their response to his list of requirements from Muslim moderates (which he describes as a way of solving the problem of Islamophobia):
"1. Focus their [moderate Muslim] indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities."
If they took this list seriously (in stead of simply seeking to dismiss it, trash it or claim they are already doing these things) and admitted that they addressed real problems concerning Islamic communities living in the west, I think it's work will be all the more constructive for their having done so.