Islam versus Europe

He was born in Slough to a Pakistani mother and a Kashmiri father. They moved to Leeds for a while and Tariq remembers race riots there in the 1970s. At 20, he married Tahira and they ended up back in Slough with his father.

There he came under the influence of radical Islam in the form of Hizb ut-Tahrir, (HT) a controversial organisation branded as extremist by David Cameron.

“The things that were being put into my head, and looking at the world with what was happening to Muslims, I felt there were certain things going wrong. It got me thinking like an extremist. I was quite hardcore,” says Tariq.

His father was a problem. “He was a very strict man. He used to embarrass me in front of my wife and I felt she was losing respect for me. I had to get away.”

They came to Birmingham and, very quickly, Tariq’s extremism began to drop away.

“I realised how relaxed Birmingham was and it changed my attitude. I love it here, the Muslim community is so relaxed and I saw that it was the HT scholar I had been talking to that was stressing me out. Slowly I calmed down.”

Also note that Tariq Jahan's seemingly pacific approach is based on a complete misunderstanding of Islamic doctrine.

Tensions are said to simmer between blacks and Asians; there were clashes as recently as 2005. Nevertheless, amid this apparently stable melting pot, Tariq discovered a peaceful interpretation of the hadith, the sayings of the prophet. The extremists say the ummah meant solely the Islamic community; Tariq decided it meant the whole society of believers of any faith.

This is a nice idea, although I can't help wondering how atheists would fit into it. But it's clearly nonsense. This is just one guy freelancing his own interpretations of Islamic doctrine. We're often told that Muslims who are committed to violence misunderstand Islam. But the example of Tariq Jahan shows that the exact opposite is true.

Finally, from the same article, note the journalist's curious notion that balkanised Britain constitutes a 'masterpiece':

Dudley Road, where Haroon died at the Jet garage, is a small masterpiece, a vision of post-imperial Britain. Almost every frontage is ethnically defined — the Afro-Caribbean Millennium Centre, Arabian Nites, which advertises curry, Chinese and kebabs, and the Authentic Jamaican Food Store. There is even the odd Muslim grocer offering Polish food.

The journalist, Bryan Appleyard, also claims that Tariq Jahan calmed "the English".

“Why do we have to kill one another?” he had asked in the final rhetorical flourish of that great speech. “Why are we doing this? Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home — please.”

And the English, conscience-stricken at last, did what he told them.

Source: Sunday Times