Using Aqeedah to Tyrannize the
Muslim Mind in UK - The Case of Halifax
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Update on the Qur'an Camp at Halifax
Dr. Pasha's Intensive Weekend Qur'an Camp
Saturday & Sunday, May 29th & 30th 2004
Calderdale Multicultural Activity Centre - C.M.A.C
Akeds Road, off Hopwood Lane, Halifax, HX1 2TR
Good Guys vs. Bad Guys in Halifax
The Intensive Weekend Qur'an Camp at Halifax, scheduled for 29th and 30th of May, will Inshallah proceed as planned. There is, however, an address change. The new address is:
Calderdale Multicultural Activity Centre - C.M.A.C
Akeds Road, off Hopwood Lane, Halifax, HX1 2TR
Below are some details as to why an address change became necessary.
"Do you, or don't you consider Ashraf Ali Thanawi a Kafir?" That was the question the Imam at Halifax - May Allah bless him and open his eyes to the reality and complexity of living Islam in the West today - posed to me over the phone as a litmus test for allowing my Qur'an Camp to go ahead in his mosque as planned.
The way I see it, the whole issue comes down to this: "Are you or are you not one of us?" And that means one thing: whether or not I am a Bareilvi. The idea is if you are a Bareilvi, you are one of us, if you are not, you are not. Not only that, you may also be a Kafir. That means if you are a Bareilvi, you are a "good guy" - and our hearts and minds are open to you. What is more, so are also the doors of our mosque and our community. So, if you are a Bareilvi, you can come and teach and preach in our mosque. But if you are not a Bareilvi, we will not let you come into our mosque and teach or preach to our community - no matter how desperately our community may need such help.
What if it is the Qur'an - just the Qur'an - that I wanted to teach? What if it is just teaching the Muslims of Halifax how to read the Qur'an a little better and more correctly? What if all I wanted to do was to connect the People of Allah in the Halifax area with the Book of Allah in the House of Allah? No, not if you are not a Bareilvi and a Sunni like us.
What about all the social ills that plague the community - the drugs, the crime, the unemployment, the waywardness, the cultural alienation, the social disaffection and all the other unspeakable horrors that have burrowed so deep in the Muslim youth in Halifax and surrounding areas - should we not all work together to address them? No, not if you are not a Bareilvi - we don't need you and we will not allow you to do it in our mosque and in our community. Your Aqeedah is all wrong. You have got the wrong Islam.
Litmus Test of Islam in 21st Century England
All right, how do you tell whose Aqeedah is right and whose Aqeedah is wrong? What is the litmus test? Simple! Answer one pivotal question and we will be able to tell whether your Aqeedah is right or not, and whether or not you are the right man to teach the Book of Allah in the House of Allah to the People of Allah in our community.
And here, again, is that question: "Do you or don't you consider Ashraf Ali Thanawi a Kafir?" What difference does it make? Well, it makes all the difference. That is what sets the "good guys" apart from the "bad guys." That is what tells us whether you are a true-believing Bareilvi or a Kafir Deobandi Trojan horse, out to brainwash the innocent and guileless members of our community.
That is how it is, and that is how it has been for a hundred years, in areas of India and Pakistan, and that is how we want it to be in Halifax and the rest of UK - in the 21st Century.
So, if you consider Thanawi a Kafir, you are one of us; you are a Bareilvi and a Sunni; and a good guy; and you are welcome to teach our community the Qur'an; or whatever else you want. But if you don't, we cannot allow you to teach or preach in our mosque. We have an obligation to protect our younger generations, if not from a life of crime, deviance, alcohol, drugs and backwardness, at least from the evil Aqeedahs of all the non-Bareilvi Kafirs. We simply cannot allow non-Barelivi Kafirs to corrupt our innocent youth and naïve congregation.
It is as simple as that.
What can anyone say when faced with a situation like this? What can anyone do? How does anyone deal with something so preposterous and so egregious? My answer, however, was simple and direct. And here it is: "No!" I said. Then I explained: I do not consider Thanawi or the Ulema of Deoband in general, or the Ulema of Bareili, or the Ulema in any other place, Kafir. They were all good people, who did some good work in their own way, during the tenure Allah gave them on earth. Now they have all gone back to meet their master and he will decide what their fights and issues were all about.
Fallahu Yahkumu Bainahum Yawmal Qiyamati
Feema Kaanoo Feehi Yakhtalifoon (2:113).
Now our job - those of us who are left behind in this world, and who claim love, respect and allegiance to those Alims and Shaikhs and Pirs and Auliyaa' from our past - is not to continue and perpetuate their ancient fights and disagreements, but to join hands over what was common among them: their love of Allah, Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, Islam and Muslims and their desire to serve the Muslims of their time and place in every way they could. We must take that joint heritage and work with it to make the condition of Muslims and the world better in our own time and in the places that are home to us today, whether it is Halifax, Bradford, UK or somewhere else. That means instead of creating divisions and weaknesses in Islam and Muslims using the names and work of our past leaders and Ulema and Shuyookh, we must use their blessed memory and legacy to unite and serve Muslims and make Islam stronger.
Here is what the Hadith says about people who use their past to ruin their present:
Innamaa Ahlakalladheena Min Qablikum Kathratu
Masaa-ilihim Wakhtilaafuhum Ala Anbiyaa-ihim.
