Britons would benefit if they adopt Islamic culture: Bari
London (PTI): A leading UK-based Muslim leader on Sunday said British society would benefit if it adopted certain aspects of Islamic culture such as arranged marriage, modesty and sexual restraint. Muhammad Abdul Bari, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that instead of emphasizing the threat from al-Qaeda, politicians should adopt positive aspects of the Muslim faith such as restrictions on alcohol, tighter abortion laws, stricter parenting, charity and discouraging debt. Bari, 52, who trained as a pilot in Bangladesh before moving to Britain and switching to academia, told The Daily Telegraph that Sir Salman Rushdie should never have been knighted.
"He caused a huge amount of distress and discordance with his book, it should have been pulped," Bari said. He did his Ph.D in physics from King's College London, worked as science teacher in Haringey and is currently working as a special needs educator for Tower Hamlets.
Critics say the MCB - an umbrella organisation with 500 affiliates - has itself contributed to the growing sense of unease in Britain. The government has cut funding to the council following claims that it had links with extremists. A Tory report this year accused it of promoting segregation.
The MCB was criticised for boycotting Holocaust Day but he said he did not mean to offend Jewish people: "It should be inclusive, commemorating all massacres." According to a recent report by the Policy Exchange think tank, the bookshop at the east London Mosque, which Bari chairs, stocks extremist literature.
"The bookshops are independent businesses," Bari said. "We can't just go in and tell them what to sell. I will see what books they keep. If they have book which looks like it is inciting hatred, do they have counter books on the same shelf?"
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