Muslims of Britain

[purpletigron]

Was King Offa of Mercia the first powerful Muslim in England? - "his coins have the inscription of the declaration of faith of Islam (There is no god but Allah) in Arabic." UK Islam Awareness Week 2006 will be Mon 20 - Sun 26 Nov.

History: "The sacking of the Muslim city of Lisbon in 1147 during which perhaps 150,000 Muslims were massacred, was largely the work of soldiers from Norfolk and Suffolk."

Future: "IAW aims to create an awareness of Islam in our society by involving everyone throughout Britain, irrespective of their school of thought or group affiliation. Everyone is invited to come forward and join hands in practical efforts to rid Britain of Islamophobia."

Thank you to fjm for the link.

Comments

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

I have very mixed feelings about this. It smacks a little too much of the same sort of things that went on during the Civil Rights movement in the States. People were expected to take steps to "prove" that they were not prejudiced, instead of just letting it show in their day to day lives. It was an over-reaction to the situation. Are we also going to hold Jewish Awareness Week, Catholic Awareness Week (sure to be popular in NI), Hindu Awareness Week, Buddhist Awareness Week, Pagan Awareness Week.... The list is endless. All of these groups have been misunderstood and mistreated by someone in the past. I don't claim to know what the solution to the problem is, but I'm not convinced that this is it. I'm not sure there are enough weeks in the year to give everyone a fair shake.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Late reply here...

I see where you're coming from, and I don't see the point of 'top-down mandated' Week of the Whatever. I'm slightly more sympathetic to this idea as there's a lot of anti-Islam stuff going around at the moment, and this seems to more 'bottom up thing':

http://www.isb.org.uk/
"The Islamic Society of Britain initiated Islam Awareness Week."