A senior delegation of Muslim and Christian religious leaders last month visited Chaldean Arch Bishop Gabriel Kassab to express their compassion for the Christians and other indigenous communities being persecuted in Iraq.
The group has issued the following statement:
- We condemn the oppression and forced expulsion of the Christian, Yazidi and other minority communities from their homes and homelands.
- We denounce all forms of violence, sectarian discrimination and terrorism, especially in Iraq and the Middle East, as these acts undermine the peaceful co-existence of the diverse religious and ethnic communities in the Middle East.
- We stand in solidarity with the displaced families in the region who have every right to live free from fear, and we pledge any support that eases their hardship.
- We uphold the safety of our homeland Australia and Australian people, with our cultural and religious diversity, as this is an integral part of our divine teachings.
- We affirm our commitment to continue this solidarity and maintain open lines of communication with each other and with the Australian government.
The signatories were:
- Dr. Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, Grand Mufti of Australia.
- Arch Bishop Gabriel Kassab, head of the Chaldean and Assyrian Catholic community in Australia and New Zealand.
- Bishop Robert Rabat, head of the Melkite Catholic Church in Australia and New Zealand.
- Bishop Antoine Cherbel-Tarbay, head of the Maronite Diocese in Australia.
- Sheikh Yusuf Nabha, Imam at Al Rahman mosque.
- Sheikh Malek Zeidan, Lebanon Fatwa Council.
- Sheikh Khaled Taleb Amin, NSW secretary to Australian National Imams Council and representative of the Lebanon Fatwa Council in Western Sydney.
- Father Paul Menika, Chaldean community.
Subject: Jihadi John
The three Jihadi Muslim girls and the Jihadi John were in a wrong place at a wrong time in a non-Muslim school with non-Muslim teachers during their developmental periods. They suffer from identity crises. They are unable to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. They were not radicalised at a non-Muslim school, says principal. But the school with non-Muslim teachers are responsible to create identity crises. Muslim children must be in state funded Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. Why should we be surprised? They have gone through a rotten education system where there is no consequences for anything and they have grown up in a rather pathetic, wet nation with a liberal criminal justice system which actually seems to view law upholding people with pure contempt. Jihadi John has been identified, tried and convicted by the media. Surely this would prejudice any criminal case against him. In my opinion, he was also radicalised by MI5. To stop radicalisation of teens we need to find out the cause. We will get no where if all we do is just condemn but to actually stop this we need to find the cause and stop immediately, that includes All the way from extremist imams to extremist family members AND the pressure and the factor some of the security forces have upon teens.
A teacher claims Jihadi John had anger management therapy because of fighting and bullying. Muslim children in state schools have been victim of racism and bullying, All schools tried their best to hide such incidents under the carpet. Native teachers are chicken racist and they do nothing. When a Muslim child take the law in his hand by attacking the culprit, he is referred to anger management therapy by the teacher or punished by the school. Because of such treatment, Muslim children are unable to develop self-respect, self-confidence and self-esteem. In my opinion, it is a crime against humanity to send Muslim Muslim children to non-Muslim schools with non-Muslim teachers. Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim. I have been campaigning for state funded Muslim school since early 70s because of racism and bullying. I set up the first Muslim school in 1981 in London, now there are 188 Muslim schools and only 18 are state funded. I would like to see each and every Muslim child in a Muslim school with Muslim teachers, otherwise, the number of Jihadi John would be on the increase.
The details of Jihadi John’s background as a computer-science graduate from a wealthy West London family only adds to what is an increasingly challenging portrait of the appeal of ISIS to certain young British Muslims.Where commentators were quick to point towards familiar explanations of poverty and social exclusion in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Woolwich murders, Jihadi John’s seemingly comfortable upbringing hardly seems like an aberration, either. The attempted ‘Pantsman’ bomber in 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – was the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker and held a degree in mechanical engineering from University College London. Similarly, Nasser Musthana was a medical student from Cardiff before joining up.
In Islam there is no commandment to kill people by making such allegations against them. The cartoonists had exercised their freedom of expression, and freedom of expression is totally allowed in Islam. Even during the Prophet’s time there were several instances of ridicule, however the Prophet and his Companions neither punished such persons nor asked anyone to do so. On every occasion of this kind, the Prophet’s Companions always tried to positively disseminate the message of Islam. They never tried to punish these people. The killing of those people who had published the cartoons is a gravely un-Islamic act in the name of Islam. What did killing Saddam Hussan do. What did killing Oshama Bin laden do? NOTHING!!!. There is a long long line of replacements. I don’t know the answers. He was asked by MI5 to join them…so you know he is working for them.
Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector.
There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society.
The British establishment is wrong in thinking that Imams are to blame for extremism. Imams are not solution to the problem for extremism. Extremism is nothing to do with Imams. Extremism is not created from abroad, it is coming from within. Britain fails to help Muslim communities feel part of British society. Race trouble is being predicted by the Daily Express, because of an ethnic boom in UK major cities. Muslim communities need imams for the solutions of their needs and demands in their own native languages. Muslim parents would like to see their children well versed in Standard English and to go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. The fact is that majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because monolingual teachers are not capable to teach Standard English to bilingual Muslim children. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit.
None of 7/7 bombers and British Muslim youths who are in Syria and Iraq are the product of Muslim schools. They are the product of British schooling which is the home of institutional racism with chicken racist native teachers. It is absurd to believe that Muslim schools, Imams and Masajid teach Muslim children anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-western views. It is dangerously deceptive and misleading to address text books and discuss them out of their historical, cultural and linguistic context.
When a native Brit goes to Middle East, he is called a voluntary fighter. When a Muslim goes there he is called a terrorist. Double standard by the British society. Also lot of British Jews went to Israel to fight but on their return no action was taken against them.
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk