Observations of a High Court Judge

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave in his judgement observed that the Holy Quran and Islam teach peace

Ahmed Hassan, an Iraqi asylum seeker, was taken in by the UK and provided with free food, accommodation, education and medical facilities by our country. He repaid us by trying to blow up an underground train at Parsons Green Tube Station. Sentencing him to a minimum term of 34 years, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave made the following observation:

“Finally, Ahmed Hassan, let me say this to you. You will have plenty of time to study the Qur’an in prison in the years to come. You should understand that the Qur’an is a book of peace; Islam is a religion of peace. The Qur’an and Islam forbid anything extreme, including extremism in religion. Islam forbids breaking the ‘law of the land’ where one is living or is a guest. Islam forbids terrorism (hiraba). The Qur’an and the Sunna provide that the crime of perpetrating terror to ‘cause corruption in the land’ is one of the most severe crimes in Islam. So it is in the law of the United Kingdom. You have, therefore, received the most severe of sentences under the law of this land. You have violated the Qur’an and Islam by your actions, as well as the law of all civilized people. It is to be hoped that you will come to realise this one day.”

This is a wonderful summary of Islamic teaching. We are saddened that our own brothers and sisters fail to understand the Holy Quran and Islam. On the day that Mr Justice Haddon-Cave was making these remarks, yet another Muslim was holding hostage innocent women and children and killing them.

Muslim do have genuine grievances which need to be redressed but terror is not the way to redress them. We should occupy the moral high ground and show by our action and our patience that we are the injured party and that the world should listen to us.

Blowing up innocent people going to work, or taking and killing hostages in countries which have been kind enough to give our brothers and sisters sanctuary is not the answer.

The Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was established in Lahore in 1914 to promote the informed understanding of Islam in the West. In the UK it operated the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking until the early 1960s. Its new headquarters is at Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4JQ, UK. In 1924, in Berlin, it built the first mosque in Continental Europe of the modern era. The German Government recognises the Berlin Mosque as part of the German national heritage. From its European and other centres around the world this organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect between all communities and nationalities.

• Submissions in 2016 to UK Parliament Inquiries:
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