Defender of his faith
The unofficial leader of Britain's Muslims has long been a fearless opponent of the radical, fatwa-happy elements of his community. Now, at 80, and with war looming, Zaki Badawi's voice of reason matters more than ever, writes Jack O'Sullivan Jack O'Sullivan
In another age, Zaki Badawi would probably have held the title "Grand Mufti of Islam in Britain". Everyone would have known that, on matters of faith, his word ranks alongside that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. But when the Ottoman empire collapsed in the 19th century the post died. So now Badawi competes with a melee of Muslim politicians, local imams plus any hotheads the media chances upon: imagine a cardinal battling for attention with Gerry Adams, the odd turbulent parish priest and the comedian Dave Allen on matters of Catholic doctrine and you get the picture.
Yesterday, however, a party marking the Egyptian-born leader's 80th birthday celebrated his attempts to establish a modern Islam that can fit comfortably with British values. Attended by senior figures from the major faiths, alongside representatives of Prince Charles and the prime minister, it demonstrated that, with war looming and fears of British Islamic support for al-Qaida, Badawi's views matter.
His message, combined with his seniority, explain the uniqueness of Badawi, chair of the Council of Imams and Mosques. Far from portraying Islam as being at odds with modernity, he sees it as the immigrant's route to becoming a contented Briton. "There is no theological problem in Islam taking on a great deal of western culture and values and incorporating them."
He has waged scholarly war against, for example, forced marriages and female circumcision, practices he sees as having cultural rather than Islamic bases. He first coined the term "British Islam", much to the annoyance of those preferring ethnic terms such as British Asian or Black Briton. "Within a couple of generations," he says, "Muslims will lose their cultural baggage. Indian and Pakistani ways will disappear. They will adopt western cultural values and the whole community will be brought together as British Muslims."
Badawi is, however, more than the acceptable voice of Islamic learned scholarship. As a pioneer of Islamic mortgages and insurance, his schemes, now backed by the Treasury, could soon transform the lives of British Muslims. Free from religious problems around paying interest, many more may soon be able, with a free conscience, to buy property here. Badawi has likewise revolutionised the training of Islamic thinkers in Britain, challenging the traditional inward-looking, rule-based education of most British imams with a broad, multi-faith training grounded in western philosophical study. It will not be easy for Osama bin Laden to hijack these updated, westernised Islamic scholars.
We meet at the Muslim College, which he founded in west London. His wife, Mavis, opens the door. She is a child psychologist whom he met in the 50s when both studied psychology at London University. He is small and confident, a little curmudgeonly but bursting with vitality. He carries battle scars: the Rushdie affair, Bin Laden, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq conflict have all threatened to place British Islam beyond respectability. Yet at each turn he brandishes his Koran to rally his community around non-violence, tolerance and loyal British citizenship.
September 11 was "a violation of Islamic laws and ethics", he declared after the attack. He has urged Muslim British soldiers to obey their commanders against Saddam Hussein and ridiculed claims that 7,000 British Muslims would fight alongside the Taliban. "I said that if they could find seven, I would give them a medal. In fact, not a single British Muslim fought against the British forces - the only ones who went there were on humanitarian work."
When Bin Laden issued a fatwa on Americans, he dismissed it as being without religious authority and declared acerbically: "Fatwas have become a cheap business. Since Ayatollah Khomeini issued his against Salman Rushdie, everyone has opened a fatwa shop." It is 14 years since Bradford's Muslims publicly burned Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses. It set their community on a collision course with liberal Britain and brought Badawi to prominence as he urged Muslims to spurn the book but save the man. He broke ranks - leading him to fear for his own life - and declared on television that if Rushdie was being chased and knocked at his door, he would give him refuge.
His sentiments are not those voiced by the radicals of the Finsbury Park mosque, I suggest. "I've been called an Uncle Tom," he laughs. "Some people even said that I was working for the British government. I have never received a penny from the British government. I am naturally a rebel. I have always refused to be deferential, even to heads of state. Irreverence is part of my Islamic culture, of my training at Al-Azhar."
He is referring to Al-Azhar University in Egypt, Islam's Oxford, where he spent 23 years, going on to teach and lead communities in Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore, before he came to Britain and was appointed the first chief imam at London's Regent's Park Mosque in 1978. "I was horrified that none of the other imams could speak English. I was amazed that they didn't understand anything about other religions and were so unfamiliar with western culture."
Such statements occasionally leave Badawi looking isolated in his ivory minaret, an arrogant, elitist Arab, disparaging followers who come largely from a rural community rooted in the Indian subcontinent. Why does he attack his own people? "I blame my community because they have the ability to remedy the things I am asking them to do." He believes they are often ill served by their representatives. "Muslim politicians have misled the community. They have taken upon themselves tasks that are beyond them. For too long, we have had Muslim chemists or businessmen represent us in a religious function. Because they lack knowledge they are often rigid, whereas a scholar can be more flexible."
So how will he establish clear religious leadership? Not by taking a title such as Grand Mufti: "I don't want the Muslim position focused on an individual but on the concept of Islamic scholarship." He explains plans to establish in the spring a council of British Muslim scholars, whose authority will exceed rival voices and prevent Islam being hijacked.
"I want the government to help me in training better imams," he says. "Governments plead poverty. That is their mantra. But my argument is that it is cheaper than having to combat the effect of bad imams."
Are ministers listening to him? "The government has appointed Muslims to the House of Lords. There are three [Muslim] MPs and we now have four or five Islamic schools funded by the government. It is through this process that we are coming to dig our roots here."
And are they listening to his opposition to war with Iraq? "If I were a British prime minister I would find it difficult not to see my interests being served by joining the Americans," he says. "I see the Americans as brute force tempered by wisdom from Britain. But Bush's economy needs to capture some free oil. I don't think the people of Iraq will oppose the invasion. After all, the inspectors are there to make sure that everything is OK, that the Iraqis have no weapons to oppose with. But if the Americans think a lawless world favours the strong, they are wrong. In the long run it destroys the powerful. Anyone reading the history of Rome should know that."
The Guardian
By: Jack O'Sullivan
15 January 2003
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