Yet Another Harrow Mosque Protest: Stewards Wanted
You may remember that during the last week of Ramadan this year, the group “Stop the Islamisation of Europe” (SIOE) threatened to hold a protest outside of Harrow Mosque, in London. For all their talk, only a handful of Islamophobes actually attended the event, as it was apparently cancelled before it had even begun, due to the overwhelmingly large numbers of demonstrators that attended the 'Unite Against Fascism' counter-protest.
Many of these counter-protesters were male, Muslim youths. Click here to see the footage of the chaos that results when you have a bunch of young men running around, with little leadership, and even less sense.
Such ridiculous – frankly, shameful – behaviour is not unique to Muslims; rather it can be witnessed in any situation where the existence of strong emotions overtakes the ability for rational thought, for example, at football matches between old rivals.
So, it is refreshing to see that, in the face of yet another threat of SIOE protest, the mosque's trustees are taking proactive steps to prevent such chaotic scenes from playing out again on the streets of Harrow. The following is a message requesting responsible Muslim men (yes, they do exist, masha'Allah), to step forward and volunteer as stewards at the next event:
Assalam alaikum
As you may be aware Harrow Central Mosque is once again the focal point for right-wing Islamophobic extremists who will be holding a protest on Sunday 13th December.
Harrow Central Mosque would like to have a number of community volunteers to act as stewards to try and make sure that the young people, and others attending, are kept safe and are not encouraged to do actions by others which will simply damage the image of Muslims in Harrow and the reputation of the mosque.
The key group behind the protest, Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), had made it very clear that the intention of such protests is to show how violent the Muslims are. It is our intention to refute this by making sure those who attend are not pulled into actions which may break the law or allow the media to get that “money†shot.
We are looking for up to 50 volunteers. You should be calm and level-headed and be able to speak with people in a manner which will deflate tensions. We are not here to police the event nor expect you to assist the police in making arrests or controlling opposing protesters. We simply want to make sure that we do all we possibly can to prevent the young people attending, majority of whom will be Muslim, from getting into unnecessary trouble with the Police and providing a voice of reason and trust.
Training will take place on:
Sunday 6th December
Harrow Central Mosque
(after Maghrib salah)
Duration: approx 1 hr.If you are interested in helping please contact info[@]harrowmosque.org.uk. Please do let us know if you are coming so that we can make adequate arrangements. Training will be provided by the head of the security firm hired by the mosque.
Please feel free to pass this email onto other brothers and your networks.
I commend the mosque for this plan, and pray for its success.
According to the 2001 Census, there are over 300,000 Muslim men living in London alone. The question is: considering how many are so eager to act so foolish, are there fifty souls from among three hundred thousand brave enough to answer the mosque's own call for help, against the same people who claim to defend it?
iMuslim
Mehzabeen (iMuslim) is a UK born n' bred sister of Gujarati Indian descent. She has spent a good chunk of her life trying to scrape together a formal education in the Biological Sciences, and in 2008, was awarded a doctorate for research conducted at Imperial College London, masha'Allah. Her interests include all things Apple Mac, all things chocolate-based, and all things Islam (not necessarily in that particular order). Other online projects include iMuslim.tv, SignLabs.org, and the Muslim Bloggers Directory.
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