So, So, they tell me I am now a suicide bomber. (Yikes! Has that immediately earned me an M15 trace?) Or rather a would-be suicide bomber (still the M15 trace threat). Well that's what people think since I became a Muslim, and I do come, admittedly, from that hotbed of Islamic terrorism, the West Country. Yes, I was born in Plymouth and once visited Exeter, so that, of course, gives me the profile of a potential terrorist. It's thick with it down there.

 

With the national press in convulsions over the upsurge of military Jihad in an eaterie in a really rather naff shopping centre in Exeter, I expected another round of verbal assaults on me following my decision, after years of prayer and thought and learning about the Middle East, to embrace Islam some months back.

They came, but then I have had all sort of nonsense said about my decision, and all represent a fatuous, one-dimensional expression of views hand in hand with utter ignorance. But then in criticising Islam you can get away with anything these days. Therefore, to the non-Muslims I know, an unfortunate who was doing something tragic and silly because he had met the wrong sort of people entirely summed up Islam and its history, its ummah, its deen. "He was brainwashed by extremists." Fact. Better watch it, matey.

It is a shame just how strikingly absent a heavyweight pro-Islam PR presence has been in the wake of this story. Or at least one that would put things in context, and save no doubt countless Muslims from jibes that they are just some evil sect that brainwashes the mentally handicapped and turns them into bombs.

Stupid headlines and the simplistic attitudes they generate among the uncritical quickly amount to an appalling desecration of an entire religion, and one that would not be countenanced elsewhere. The Church of England, for example, exhausted energy and time last year getting on its high horse for Resistance: the Fall of Man, the Sony computer game that featured the nave of Manchester Cathedral. Innocent Muslims may have died in horrible numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Britain's state church made a big noise about the virtual desecration of a virtual nave.

The Church of England did shout, however. It made noise. In the Nicky Reilly story, the Muslim community has not said enough. It risks allowing an odd case to, yet again, damage its entire image.

As sub-editor for national newspapers. I can see some of the processes at first hand. I can't speak about the tabloids, but in the 'broadsheets' I work with responsible and very intelligent, broadminded people. But national newspapers and magazines are busy places. Some reporters, and they can be surprisingly lazy people, need reminding of the bigger picture or they will end up following tried and tested routes to selling the rags and their brand positions. And I do think that proactive, prayerful Muslim response to this case would be listened to, and not regarded as some bubbling up, Jyllands-Posten-style, of insurgency.

Islam after all has a mission to mankind, and more reverts will be claimed if mosques become less bashful in the public arena. There is something graceful about this bashfulness - by its very nature it would appeal to potential reverts with its prayerfulness, and its rhythm and profundity, not to mention the extraordinary friendliness with which reverts are met. Yet many potential reverts will fail to revert because of Muslims' failure to respond vigorously - in any part of the country - to stories that "terrorists may be targeting mentally disturbed or disabled people in Britain in a bid to form a new 'brigade' of home-grown suicide bombers" (Sunday Times 25 May)

I spent some time looking through the various papers to see the robust response of Islam to a nutter being used for wicked purposes by er.. nutters.

Well in one paper we have: "Worshippers arriving at the Islamic Centre, where Mr Reilly occasionally worshipped, said that many were staying away from Friday prayers because of what had happened". (TheTimes) How did they know?

A little bit more effort is, tragically enough, made by the Daily Mail. But again, we have the impression of a local Muslim community burying its head in the sand, or - and this is far more likely - not having the faintest idea who this bloke is. I note from the Mail article that 'Reilly attended prayers at two Islamic centres in Plymouth. He stood out as the lone English convert at the Islamic Centre for Plymouth and Cornwall in the Mutley area, said a spokesman. His last visit is thought to have been about seven months ago. Reilly also visited the Plymouth Islamic Education Trust, a community centre. Its deputy director Abu Moganzy confirmed he had been there at least six times.

Bit short of the Salah congregational duty, then. And so, not a true Muslim, really.

But depressingly, from the Telegraph, I read: "Sources close to the investigation said if the corruption of a vulnerable young man was proved, it would be a "new horrific low'' for Muslim extremism in Britain."
And this is the problem. A few poor idiots, entirely unrepresentative of their Muslim community, or Muslims, probably with the most superficial knowledge of Islamic teaching, hand the Daily Mail et al screaming headlines depicting Islam in the very worst light. And millions of Britons will go with this. It will define their opinion of Islam.

I think of the glories of Qu'ran Sharif, the Hadith, of the Prophet (PBUH), all the numerous aspects of spirituality, contemplation, history and political and social concern that I searched for and eventually drew me to Islam. To the average British newspaper reader in the past few days this has been reduced to this zenophobic rubbish about "suspicious-looking characters" (The Mirror). Or from the Telegraph: 'Another local resident, Scott Allen, 19, said that groups of what he believed were Muslim men had been gathering in the area "in increasing numbers". "We wondered why they were standing around," he added. "I would say they picked on him because of his vulnerability. He had always been a follower and had always wanted friends." Mr Allen said there was considerable local sympathy for Mr Reilly. Meanwhile, the chairman of the local Islamic Centre, Syed Rahman, said Mr Reilly may have prayed at the mosque but denied any knowledge of him. "Certainly no one who attends our mosque has anything to do with extremism," he said. "This guy may have come to us, but we do not know him and we do not recognise him."
What they should recognise is the damage being done to Muslim communities in Britain by shock-horror tabloid headlines about events that have nothing to do with local mosques. Plymouth has a 3,500-strong Muslim community.They should find a way to counter this in a positive fashion that may even bring people to Islam.

Even in the face of devastating evidence of wickedness as this, from The Mirror: 'A package was delivered to Reilly yesterday from an Islamic clothing store. The parcel from Saudi Arabia was spotted at a Plymouth sorting office. It was from a company called Desert Store which sells "Islamic clothing for the family"

What further proof of guilt need there be?

Author: Mustafa Davies

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