A Letter to Muslims

In late January, someone in the British government wrote a letter to 1000 Muslim leaders in Britain. It had to do with the attack on the newspaper in France. You can read the letter on the British government website here.

The BBC Arabic had a discussion about it.

They talked to this old man who is a Muslim living in Britain. He was mad about the letter.

He said: the letter is wrong because it says that there's a British identity, and this is not true.

And the letter is also wrong, the old man continued, because it says that mosques play a role in spreading extremism and that's wrong.

The moderator said something back which I didn't catch.

The old man said: of course, there's some nice things in the letter. But there's other stuff about Muslims not putting forth enough effort! What are they talking about?! Islam isn't responsible for terrorism, and neither are Muslims! And by the way, Muslims and Imams don't get money or salaries from the government. They have no business putting extra duties on us.

Moderator: Well, can Muslims do anything at all?

Old man: Well, every parent can make sure that they are raising their kids right, but to say that we are all responsible for stopping terrorism is just plain wrong!