"This present life is only like water which We send
down from the clouds so that the luxuriant herbage sustaining man and beast
may grow; until when the Earth puts on its lovely garment and becomes
adorned, and its people believe that they are its masters - down then comes
Our scourge upon it by night or in broad day, laying it waste as though it
had not blossomed yesterday. Thus We make plain our revelations to
thoughtful men." Quran: Sura 10: 24-25 (Interpretation of meaning.)
Having seen a recent television programme in which you
made certain remarks about Islam - and having listened to various interviews
given by you following the broadcasting of that programme - I consider it the
honourable thing to do, given my own knowledge and experience, to ask you some
questions, and make some comments about your anti-Islamic remarks.
Firstly, from whence comes your knowledge - if that is the correct term to
describe your opinions - about Islam? Have you read the Quran? If so, in what
interpretation? Have you read the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad? Have you
spoken to an Alim - an Islamic scholar? Have you travelled to a country where
the majority of people are Muslims? Have you talked to any Muslims about Islam -
been invited into their homes? Have you even ever visited a Mosque?
I fully expect the answers to most, if not all of these questions, will be "no".
If that is indeed the case - and I am quite willing to be proved wrong - then it
would seem that your views and opinions about Islam are based upon prejudice,
and that you have the temerity to speak, in public and as a leader of a
political organization, about a subject which you yourself have little or no
knowledge of, and little or no personal experience of. No doubt you believe that
the so-called "West" - and what you and others have referred to as the
"indigenous culture" of Britain - is superior to the Way of Life which is
Al-Islam, but this belief, joined with your prejudice about Islam and Muslims,
is quite simply dishonourable and uncivilized: the attitude which gave rise to
the abuses, and torture, of Muslims, by "Whites", in Iraq and places like
Guantanamo Bay. Have you condemned - will you condemn - such abuses of Muslims,
by "Whites"? If not, why not?
For myself, I can speak and write about Islam from direct personal experience,
and from a study which has spanned many years and involved a great deal of
travel. I can also speak and write about such organizations as the BNP - and the
people who support them or join them - from personal experience. Contrary to a
great deal of propaganda about such organizations and the people involved with
them, I know that there are honourable, decent people, in such organizations,
and supporting such organizations. But such organizations, like most if not all
organizations, attract diverse individuals, some of whom are far from being
honourable, and some of whom are subsumed by prejudice.
As a leader, do you consider you have a duty to do what is honourable? Do you
even understand what honour is - what it means and implies in terms of one's
deeds, words, and life? Are you motivated to do what you sincerely believe is
right, and honourable, for what you regard as your own people, or are you merely
using your position to fulfil some personal, and prejudiced, agenda? Not having
met you in person, I have no personal opinion about this - and honour demands
that I give you the benefit of the doubt. Therefore I assume your motivation is
sincere, and your intentions are honourable. If this indeed the case, then
surely you have a duty to speak only from knowledge and personal experience, and
a duty to strive to respect the culture, the beliefs, the Way of Life, of those
whose culture, beliefs, and Way of Life differs from yours? For that is what I
know honour to be - a respect for others; a striving to be reasonable. Honour
sets ethical limits to our behaviour - and prejudice, of whatever kind, is
surely a negation of honour.
In respect of Islam, I know from my own experience, studies, travel and
involvement, that Islam is a noble, an honourable, a civilized, Way of Life.
Indeed, I would go so far as to express the view that Islam, correctly upheld
and correctly implemented, is far superior to the way of life which dominates in
all of the societies of the West. I also know that many people in the West - and
especially the governments of the West - are arrogant, and prejudiced, and that
they act in a dishonourable way. This arrogance, prejudice and dishonour was and
is so evident in places like Iraq, and Afghanistan, where armies and government
agencies - the majority of whom are "White" - ignobly occupy Muslim land, treat
Muslims with disrespect, and have little or no understanding of Islam, and
little or no desire to understand Islam. Indeed, the majority of such "Whites"
are full of prejudice toward Islam and toward Muslims, and many of them - and
their governments in particular - are intent on changing Islam, so arrogantly
sure are they that the materialistic, un-numinous, ways of the modern West are
"right" and "superior" to Islam, which they - like you, it seems - regard as
"backward".
In this, you - and they - are assuredly incorrect. I know from my own
experience, travels and studies that Islam produces - has produced and can
produce - honourable individuals and an honourable society: that it is a guide
to living in a noble, civilized way. Why? Because Islam is numinous - that is, a
revealing of what is divine, sacred. It is such a revealing which sets limits to
our behaviour, which provides the guidelines we need to prevent us being
arrogant, prejudiced, uncivilized, profane, and it is this numinosity, this
awareness of the sacred - and the humility, the reverence, which derives from it
- which the West and many of its peoples llack today but which Islam possesses in
abundance. Which, of course, is one of reasons the West is so intent on
suppressing and destroying genuine Islam.
In conclusion, I invite you to Islam: to discover Islam, to learn about it, to
experience it. For surely, the honourable thing to do in this matter is for you
to so learn, to gain some first-hand experience of Islam itself?
"Allah is with those who restrain themselves and those
who do what is honourable." Sura 16:128 (Interpretation of meaning)
Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt
(David Myatt)
July 17th 2004 CE
30 Jumad Awaal 1425
