MOSQUES are being run by powerful business with vested interests that do not represent the wider community, according to Scotland’s leading Muslim commentator.
Mona Siddiqui also said conservative imams invited to speak at the mosques should be more closely monitored to prevent them preaching hatred and promoting terrorism.
Herald View: Difficult questions that must be asked
Speaking in The Herald Magazine ahead of an appearance at the Boswell Book Festival in Ayrshire, Ms Siddiqui, who is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, said there needs to be much more self-criticism and open discussion in mosques such as Glasgow Central to promote good inter-faith relations. She warned that the mosques were too often incestuous and run by vested interests that stifle debate.
“There’s a lot of power and control freaks and the people who have made it in these communities are usually big businessmen so they are not necessarily coming from a background where they are concerned about the wider community,” she said. “They are there for vested interests.”
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Ms Siddiqui, who is well known for her contributions to Thought for the Day, the religious slot on Radio 4’s Today, also called for more discussion about prejudice against Ahmadi Muslims such as Asad Shah, the newsagent who was killed at his shop in Glasgow in an attack which the police described as religiously prejudiced,
The Herald Magazine Interview: There needs to be more self-criticism
“None of this is ever raised,” she said, “and if people are being discriminatory, Sunni Muslims or Shia Muslims against Ahmadi Muslims, then this is a real issue for Muslims and they should face up to it. But once the media catches on to a story, there’s almost a defensiveness, a ‘oh no we’re not’ rather than face up to it.”
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Ms Siddiqui, who has recently become the chairwoman of the Scotland Stronger in Europe advisory group, also expressed concern about religious leaders who are promoting hatred in mosques and said their speeches should be more closely monitored.
“There’s no point in talking about freedom of speech when freedom of speech leads to people being murdered,” she said. “Most of us know that we don’t go around saying exactly what we want and peace doesn’t come about just because we don’t say anything – peace comes about because you make an active contribution to being peaceful.
“Any leader, not just imams, who are actively promoting hatred towards another community, or even if they’re putting it within some scriptural context and saying this is how it was and this is how we should still think, that’s wrong because it will have an impact on society.”
Responding to Ms Siddiqui's remarks, the leader of Glasgow Central Mosque Shafi Kausar said he completely rejected the suggestion that mosques like his were controlled by well-off business interests.
"She is absolutely wrong," he said. "I am the president and I have been at the mosque for the last 24 years - I am not a businessman, I was a GP and among the committee members, there are various walks of life."
He also rejected the idea that imams' speeches should be monitored. "Her statements are very bad and far from the truth" he said. "She should mind her language. She does not represent anybody. Our imams here are very educated and Islam is not a religion of hate; it's a religion of forgiveness and peace."
Commenting on Muslims who have preached hate, he said "Exceptions always prove the rule. If some idiot is doing that, it means they do not understand what Islam is."
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