What it means for British Muslims to have Boris Johnson as PM?
A chilling start to an open letter to Boris Johnson, the newly-minted Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Ajmal Masroo, a British imam and broadcaster.
“I cannot help myself but shiver with fear of what is to come under your premiership. I wonder how you will look into the eyes of your fellow Muslim citizens and accept them without prejudice or how the Muslims of the United Kingdom could ever accept you as their true Prime Minister?”
This is how the letter starts and there is little doubt Mr Johnson did not read the letter which is the last thing you will think of while getting the accolades.
<<Johnson made scathing and damaging remarks towards Muslim women wearing the ‘Burqa’ — the complete face-covering scarf.>>
Masroor is a Bangladeshi-born British citizen who is listed as a politician and is well known in the UK as a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels.
He has a ‘public figure’ Facebook page with 7,769 likes which determines how influential he is or how much is said about him is hyped.
But the message to Johnson has some interesting elements and we are adopting some of his comments for our review of the UK’s political situation after it anointed a new PM.
Jonhson’s era is rigged with challenges left behind by the weaker Theresa May whom we said was not going to last too long as British PM at the beginning of the year.
Will Johnson deliver Brexit? Sure he will, the European Union is ready to kick them out come October 31. Whether it will be a soft or hard Brexit will depend on how Johnson deal with the latent issues.
It is the after October 2019 event that matters the most to the British Muslims in particular.
Imam Masroor wrote: Dear Mr Johnson, in an essay titled And Then Came the Muslims, added to the 2007 edition of your book, you wrote: “There must be something about Islam that indeed helps to explain why there was no rise of the bourgeoisie, no liberal capitalism and therefore no spread of democracy in the Muslim world.”
The Imam tried to explain that in Islam we do not condone the rise of a small group of people as <<bourgeoisie>> but we are more socialistic in nature and less capitalistic in practice.
Which is fair but not totally true. Islam is also open to all forms of capital gains, personal or societal and national. It is not communism, hence it does allow for a few to enrich themselves. This is how one gains dominance in society but there is the state that leverages for the less fortunate and this is called a welfare state.
Nevertheless, putting the ‘Islamism’ aside at some point in the never-ending letter, Masroor quoted Prince Charles’ <<historic speech>> on Islam in which he spoke of education and civilisational Islam.
The Imaam who is also a <<Relationship Counsellor>> went ballistic attacking Johnson on his perceived ignorance of Islam which he says is based on deep-seated hatred of the religion of peace.
<<I get the distinct feeling that like Donald Trump, the president of USA, you really harbour extreme disdain for Islam.>>