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December 15, 2005

UK: Mosque Closures Dropped From Terror Bill

The government plans to temporarily close mosques where "extremist" Islam is preached, contained in a clause of the anti-terror bill currently receiving its second reading in the House of Lords.

As we reported earlier, these plans had been condemned by the Association of Chief Police Officers, and also religious groups. They had also criticised the clause on "glorification" of terrorism.

Now the government has dropped the controversial clause allowing mosques to be closed, as reported by the BBC. The civil rights group Liberty had also criticised the proposed clause as the "worst type of response to terrorism". The assumed reason for the Home Office's removal of the clause is given as a potential inability for it to have secured a majority approval.

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) also reports on the issue, but attributes the cause of the decision change to the actions of Muslims, namely the Muslim Council for Britain. While the Iranian government does not follow international law, copyright issues are here ignored:

UK drops new powers to close mosques after Muslim opposition

Dec 15, IRNA

The British government announced Thursday that it was shelving controversial proposals to give police new powers to close mosques after widespread opposition from Muslims, other religions and groups.

"The Government has decided not to introduce a new power in the legislation currently going before Parliament," Home Secretary Charles Clarke said.

"However, we will keep the situation under close review," he added in a statement obtained by IRNA.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) issued a strong rebuttal against the proposals put forward in October to include the new powers in the government's latest terrorism bill.

"We do not in the circumstances accept the logic or basis of the suggestion that places of worship are sources of extremism because to do so we would need to accept that worship or faith in itself is a form of extremism," the MCB said.

The Muslim News warned that the proposal to allow powers for a mosque closure, irrespective of whether a person was successfully prosecuted for failure to comply with an order, was a "kind of collective punishment."

"Provoking an issue with mosques is totally unwarranted and would send out further signals that the war against terrorism is against Islam," the monthly said in its October editorial.

The Church of England described the plans as "disproportionate" and challenged the government over why it was it is trying to single out places of worship in its campaign to root out extremism following July's bombings in London.

Clarke's announcement of dropping the proposal was seen as only one concession among a whole raft of measures the government is adopting following July's London bombings, in which 56 people were killed and hundreds injured.

His concession was accompanied with the confirmation that he had ruled out holding an independent inquiry demanded by Muslims into the series of attacks on the capital's transport system.

"The Government does not believe that such an inquiry would add to our understanding of the causes of those atrocities," he said in his statement.

"Additionally, to establish one would be to divert the attention of our police and security services during an extended period of time when they are still actively engaged in both the murder investigation which continues and the detection and prevention of further atrocities," the Home Secretary argued.

The MCB, which has been leading calls for a judicial investigation, condemned the refusal and urged the government on Wednesday to reconsider its decision.

"It is vital that we try and fully understand what happened on July 7th and 21st and also why it happened so that we can learn appropriate lessons about how to reduce the possibility of similar events taking place in the future," MCB secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie said.

In his statement, the Home Secretary said that the government had made "very significant progress in tackling the scourge of terrorism and extremism, including strengthening the grounds for deporting and excluding extremists and bringing forward new laws to enhance our ability to deal with terrorism."

But Muslim leaders, including those selected by ministers to chair working groups to advise the government, have criticized many of the extreme measures being adopted.

In their report, the working groups blamed British foreign policy, especially in the Middle East as being a "key contributory factor" for the bombing."

"Most if not all the strands see that the solutions lie in the medium and longer term issues of tackling inequality, discrimination, deprivation and inconsistent government policy," they advised Clarke last month.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 15, 2005 12:10 PM

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