In 2004, an undercover BBC reporter spent six months infiltrating the far right British National Party, uncovering a slew of invective against British Muslims by the party leader, Nick Griffin, and others. Muslims were pleasantly surprised that the BNP was caught in the act, and the resulting furore resulted in closed bank accounts and a lengthy trial for inciting hatred (though that ended with acquittals late last year). It was only a matter of time before Muslims found themselves undergoing the same type of scrutiny.

A British documentary that aired in early January (Dispatches: Undercover Mosque) featured an undercover reporter recording the statements of a number of imams at a few British mosques (predominantly the Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham), as well as the DVDs recorded by them and sold in mosque bookshops. The programme's intention was to highlight the extent of Saudi influence in British Muslim religious life. However, what was recorded was more an incrimination of the imams themselves and the mosques that hosted them. And Muslims were once again left caught between the eagerness of the media to portray Muslims in a negative light and the misguided imams who provoke it.

Among the imams featured was Abu Usamah, an American-born imam who is one of several rotating imams at the Green Lane Masjid, who was quoted as saying about non-Muslims, "We love the people of Islam and we hate the people of kufr, we hate the kuffaar" (His response? "Kuffaar is a generic term, it is not a derogatory term.") As for women, he added, "Allah has created the woman � even if she gets a PhD � deficient. Her intellect is incomplete, deficient." Dr. Ijaz Mian of the Ahl-e-Hadith mosque in Derby felt that Muslims should "live live like a state-within-a-state - until you take over," at which time, "if you don't [pray], then we have to bring the punishment on you - you will be killed and nobody will pray for you." Another speaker says that girls should be forced to wear the hijab ("If she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her"). Some of the remarks were found on offending DVDs being sold at a number of high profile institutions, including London's Central Mosque in Regent's Park (the mosque counters that the DVDs were sold by a subcontracted retailer without their knowledge). However, none of the recordings or DVDs showed these views challenged or debated.

One of the imams also featured in Dispatches was the Australian-born imam Feiz Mohamed caught on a DVD (the "Death Series", no less - who names these things?) describing Jews as pigs (accompanied by a snorting sound) and calling on Muslim children to be trained as martyrs. "Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid (holy warrior)," he said. "Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom." ("The jihad I speak of is not one of violence," he responded. "It is one of personal struggle against things like mischievousness, temptation and personal harm." No explanation, however, was given on how exactly one "die[s] as a mujahid" or sacrifices blood through this kind of jihad.)

In Australia, this expos� followed another widely publicized case of self-incrimination from Australian chief mufti, Sheikh Hilali, who had earlier likened non-Muslim women to "uncovered meat" and called non-Muslim Australians "a convict nation of liars". Hilali's defense, as with Feiz and Abu Usamah, was to claim that remarks had been taken out of context. (Abu Usamah even went as far as to release a 30-minute rebuttal on YouTube to address them.) Leaving aside the strained rationale for context (Abu Usamah, for example, stated that military jihad should not happen now, but later when Muslims are stronger), most organisations caught affiliating with them offered fervent defenses of their own work - but little condemnation of the remarks that put them in such a precarious position.

While in free speech terms, there's nothing wrong with people espouse embarrassing or even insulting views, there is a responsibility for the larger community to counter them. "We are a nationwide organisation and hold different programmes in our mosques," said the UK Islamic Mission. "Anyone can air their views." Fair enough. But how ridiculous do Muslims look when such views are accepted by Muslim audiences without debate? How vulnerable do Muslims become when these views appear threatening to the non-Muslim majorities in the UK and Australia (and rightly so)? The willingness of the media to exploit these sentiments is a given. The failure of Muslims to challenge them is not.

For now, only tepid challenges have been made to the imams caught in the act. "Documentary makers have an important responsibility though to do their research properly and carefully identify those who actually incite hatred," notes Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "They must take great care to avoid unfairly stigmatising whole institutions and groups of people. The Dispatches team may have partly succeeded with the first bit, but I believe they failed quite badly with the second." Ghayasuddin Siddiqui of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain is one of a few that goes further. "British Muslims have a problem and it needs to be recognised. If it is, then we can isolate the few extremist individuals, and the entire community will stop being stigmatised."

Like the earlier Freedom House report in the United States, where the finding of offensive literature in some US mosques was used to allege a larger conspiracy, the existence of a few truly inappropriate remarks are being used to unfairly create alarm towards an entire community. It is sensationalist, exploitative, and patently unfair to the vast majority of Muslims. But such efforts to "expose" Muslims as closet extremists should come as no surprise to any Muslim in the public sphere, especially after 9/11 and 7/7. And our religious and political leaders should know better than to allow themselves to be framed in such a manner.

There is a larger issue, however, that lies entirely within the domain of the Muslim community, which is the relevance of this kind of ideology to Muslims in the West. What is the point in insisting women are deficient intellectually (to a male audience, mind you) if not to subjugate them? What possible positive purpose can invoking violent imagery or rhetoric have when weighted against the possibility - more likely probability - that those words will come back to haunt their speakers and taint their listeners? What is the use of whipping up Muslims with exhortations to "military jihad" - only to deny followers, as Abu Usamah claims on his videotaped rebuttal, any avenues to express those sentiments?

Are we really to believe that the term "kuffar" (often preceded by modifiers such as "dirty" and "filthy") is being used in a neutral way, as Abu Usamah also claims? And how can children raised they way Imam Mohamed exhorts - wanting to "die as a mujahid" - become well-adjusted members of the Western societies in which they live? What possible context could this language have that would eliminate the impression that this speech is intended to militarize Muslims in the West? And if the intention really is to militarize, how could doing so possibly help Western Muslims?

Imam Mohamed at least expressed "regret" for snorting like a pig in reference to Jews, saying that he was caught up in the emotion of the moment. But that begs the question of why imams so often let their emotions get the better of them while they are taping comments for all the world to see. Surely it doesn't take much restraint to avoid "becoming emotional" or otherwise incriminating oneself on camera. Isn't control of our base instincts something we are supposed to master during Ramadan?

Our leaders and imams - whether selected by the community or not - are there to serve Muslims, not the other way around. Once again, Muslims are wasting resources defending the indefensible. Once again, we are being told to not question militant teachings that are harmful to the Muslim psyche, not to mention the relations between Muslims and society at large. In the absence of Muslims holding (or being allowed to hold) our leaders accountable for their actions, non-Muslims are doing the job for us. Regretfully, our collective inaction leaves us little room to complain.

Disgusting, the comments of these so-called imams and leaders. I was also distressed to hear the comments from some Muslim religious leaders in Britain who were full of inflammatory rhetoric. This was reported in a CNN special featuring C. Amanpour and once again portrayed these idiots as the rule rather than the exception.
The Muslim community needs to wake up and denounce all of this hate speech as such. It has been my experience that even though the vast majority of Muslims are moderate they are hesitant to denounce others who verge on the extreme. This applies to a variety of issues from hijab and women's issues to participation in the political process. We should refuse to worship behind these hypocrites who twist and defile our faith to fit their own twisted perceptions and ideologies.

Couldn't agree more with you Zahed! Excellent analysis of the shameful situation.

I disagree that these cases are isolated incidents or that hate content is scarcely available inside mosques. In the US at least, mosque after mosque have long been taken over by saudi financed or saudi influenced individuals. The problem is not that these mosques teach a particular sect's beliefs, rather they strongly oppose any differing view points. They impose their view of Islam on the rest of the Muslims and simply fail to grasp the concept of rights of others.

Excellent article. Thanks for saying this. As a Muslim, I'm tired of the notion that we should "protect" these crazies by our silence. Enough. They don't belong in the pulpit. As irresponsible and immature as they are, if they really want to get in trouble, why keep them from it?

The fact of it is that as muslims we're taught to be silent on matters of principle. We're taught that it is our responsibility as muslims to wipe Kufr from the face of the earth. KUFR is every aspect of the western system and western way of life. When people espouse peace or reciprocity, we're told that they're fitnah bearers and hypocrites with no knowledge of deen and no respect for the traditions. We're told that they are jahils, far from ahlesSunnah for espousing womens rights, freedom, democracy and EQUALITY. We get rhetoric enforcing the torture of muslims worldwide and make duaa for mujahid to justify this.

FACT.. many people who educate themselves traditionally in fields of Islam and become Imaams end up being hate filled provocoteurs. And they do this in the full hope of gaining Allahs favour on judgement day through the destruction of the west. I can't even think of a muslim who hasn't had the destruction of the west reinforced as an ideology. We can't play around with this anymore.

Its a matter of madrassah principle that we're paying people to stand on our pulpits and speak this way. They don't stand there and encourage volunteerism or dialogue. We're taught that muslims are far from the Sunnah and any person vaguely different from that construct is a sinner and traitor. We're taught these things. And as much as truth and common sense defy the fact .. it keeps on growing as Islamic enterprise. It keeps on becoming the identity of masjids.

You're worrying about safe passage and a fruitful life in the US .. and people are engaged in thought of its destruction.

DO NOT DOUBT THAT MUSLIM BROTHERS ARE PURSUING VIOLENT IDEOLOGY. IT IS THE ISLAM THAT THEY INFORM IN THEIR MINDS EVERYDAY IN EVERY DUAA.

PS Where is DrM? Anyone know if he's OK?

I just have to add a comment. I am not a muslim though I have read the Qur'an and have given serious thought to conversion. However every time i think about conversion i come across another message board filled with hate, hate which is not logical or rational and to be honest does not seem like it comes from people who worship a merciful God. And then i come hear and my heart is glad because i see that there are rational people who seem to implement the Islam that i read in the Qur'an. So thank you for giving me hope

It appears that some Muslims have failed to uphold a very important Islamic principle in communication, dialogue, & exchange: to "speak in thoughtful & wisest of terms" (rough translation).

It is okay, a right and even a duty, for us to voice opposition & strongly & affirmatively point to concern about contributions to injustices, or differences about which we feel may not be suitable for us, etc., where and when they occur.But we equally have a responsibility in doing this in a wise and responsible manner & equally avoid virulent demonization and undignified speech, etc--not just because a lack of wise and reasoned approach wrongfully reflects on the community, but also because it risks eating at our sense of Islam & being Muslim.The Qur'an obligates us to defend our rights, but also warns us not to let injustice lead to blind hatred & reciprocal injustice.Recognizably it is hard to maintain this balance,but the consequences of failure, I worry to think, would be just as critical and harmful.

The collary to Muslim responsiblity (for poor action when it occurs) is that both Muslims and others need to come as close as possible to fully understandg why injustices and grievances (& contentious harmful differences) occur and/or persist and to work toward real & equitable solutions--involving the analysis of factors contibuted by both Non-Muslims & Muslims.Just as the above approach would help Muslims to avoid dehumanizing Non-Muslims,this approach I think would be thoughtful in avoiding dehumanization of Muslims while they suffer or while they are being watched suffering by their Western counterparts. Unfortunately,mainstream outlets--particularly mainstream media--appear shy at best, stubbornly resistant at worst, (with relatively rare or occasional exceptions)towards this approach is risking an analysis of Musilms/Islam that is often simplistic, stereotypical, sensational, &/or counterdistinctive (& 2 some extent one that may come off as self-righteously judgmental).