was watching this program and thinking this is 'so cheaply made' ...alot seemed to be taken out of context and the views that channel 4 dispatches were in favor of were not necesarily obtained from a reliable source.

Looking at the people mentioned at the beginning of the program such as Anwar Awlaki and Abul Ala Maududi...it seems almost a laughable concept that they are labelling them as extremist individuals ..Anwar Awlaki a respected scholar whose work can be openly seen on youtube and there is nothing extreme about it. Maududi also put together Tafhim al-Qur'an...yet they are being labelled in a negative way.

Looking at where the program quoted Maududi saying that wherever a muslim is he should implement islam ..... yet what does this mean ... it 'may' mean that muslims wherever they are should do dawah work and yes we should perform dawah work

...no we cant force a non muslim to accept islam yet we it is a duty upon every muslim to spread the message of islam just as the jehovas witnesses stand on the streets and give out leaflets and talk to you about their religion ...if they can do this then why is that when a muslim does it ...its suddenly frowned upon..

The point where the brothers/sister are sitting seperate in the mosque ... for this to be criticised is also a laughable concept ...yes we want out brothers and sister so sit seperate in the mosque it is a part of islam ... nothing wrong with it im sure this happens in a majority of mosques all over the uk and indeed the world.

George Galloway and ex labor MP ... he opposed the war in iraq/afghanistan ... well im sure he is not the only one to oppose...and i myself attended the protest against the war in iraq...i saw many non muslims there in opposition of the war ..and even now there is a iraq war enquiry happening ...so again this was a stupid point to bring to anyones attention.

Now in a mostly asian/muslim society if a muslim candidate stands for election...then it is perhaps foreseable that he/she will gain a good percentage of votes...especially when that candidate is not representing any extreme views.

Also if the whole process is legal and inline with proper procedures then should it be criticised that when muslims are elected into political possitions...

surely whoever is criticising is being negative of the system that has been used in the uk for centuries. yet the system only works when it favors the higher players ie the parties in majority.

Yet is it that muslim politicians are extreme or is that they are muslims representing the true islam not just cocunuts like many that were seen on the program.

Dancing in the streets at carnivals etc ... we should ask ourselves honestly is this allowed in islam for our sisters and brothers to be dancing in the street to music in plain sight of a brother or sister that is not mahram to that person....is this extreme or is this islam??? plese do tell me if im wrong.,

Is this not a democracy we live in ..or is it rather, just use the term democracy when is suits the individual. when it does not suit then there seems to be some form of corruption.

Tower Hamlet being a mostly asian area, it is defnintly possible that an asian individual could come in to politics...so criticising it therefore does that mean labor is an exclusive white members party...

the mention of prayer breaks at town hall...is this really a problem ...should other peoples religion not be respected...i felt that this was an extremely cheap point to be raised in this program.

the point where ramadan was being discussed and how other non muslims councellors should be 'refrained' from eating...it can be questioned whether 'refrained' was the term used...it may have been that they were asked nicely not to eat in front of those fasting which seems to be acceptable....yet there was no proper evidence and sadly evidence is needed when such claims are made.

Basically watching this program makes me think that the goverment doesn't want islam to be a way of life in the uk ... even tho islam is a way of life for muslims...it seems that by law its fine for us to practice islam in our homes by reading our prayers etc yet the moment we step outside we have to suddenly be cautious about how we practice our religion.

Dispatches is not "the government".

The Labour MP Jim FItzpatrick also has his own agenda - after ignoring the Muslims in his constituency are voting for stuff that they did not like, he may actually suffer and lose his seat because they got sick of him ignoring them and are offering an opponent.

As London Muslim put it:

Lets get this story into perspective by providing some fair and balanced context. Fireman Jim is for a few more weeks only the MP for Poplar and Caning Town a constituency in East London with one of the largest Muslim populations in the country. Historically New Labour's Jim an ardent Blairite who voted for every anti Muslim piece of legislation and foreign adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken his Muslim vote completely for granted.

Chicken's coming home to roost.

If this was done by anyone other than Muslims, it would be hailed as strong community action an a good thing.

It does not seem to be on 4od yet. :/

not seen it and won't because it will just anger me by the sounds of it. i just wanted to say anwar awlaki is an amazing scholar. if you are unaware he was prisoned in yemen to this day he does not know why he was prisoned. he went on holiday to yemen since he was born there. moved to usa when he was young. He's usa citizen on return usa said they won't let him back in no reasons why nothing just refused entry to his own country?

personally i think it's to do with usa agenda to silence those scholars who are popular with muslims. Anwar awlaki was very popular in uk and usa and still is. He is not afraid to speak about his imprisonment and dislike of usa foreign policy. so what does that make him an extremist? i can't see any evidence he has done anything wrong.

His talks are freely available for purchase and download if he was regarded as a threat his works would be banned from sale in uk and usa. he is known for his brilliant recordings on lives of the prophets, life of muhammad (Saw) and lives of caliphs.

he continues to produce work for download online via his website, and i think he is still working on final part of prophet (saW) biography

Clearly Andrew Giligan was trying to stretch a thin thesis into an hour-long programme. All the contributors siding with Giligan's line had an agenda and there is probably alot more to this than what meets the eye.

However, the officials at ELM and the members of IFE can't expect to create some Islamic utopia using tax-payer money and not expect questions to be asked. Nor can they engage in undermining democracy, forging petitions and puting mates in political positions and then justify it by saying that they are doing it for Islam. Religion should not be used as a cover by power hungry "community leaders".

If people are given a stage at ELM to be homophobic and misogynistic, then mainstream society will take issue. Let's not be taken aback by that.

As for George Galloway, clearly he played the IFE rather than the other way round. He got elected with their support and then went prancing about on Big Brother.

Hajjar wrote:

not seen it and won't because it will just anger me by the sounds of it. i just wanted to say anwar awlaki is an amazing scholar. if you are unaware he was prisoned in yemen to this day he does not know why he was prisoned. he went on holiday to yemen since he was born there. moved to usa when he was young. He's usa citizen on return usa said they won't let him back in no reasons why nothing just refused entry to his own country?

word is going around that he passed away in a bomb attack....yet there has been no confirmation of this...nor any evidence against it.

this snake appears on pres tv ..