Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha - An Ambassador of Islam

Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha: Truly an Ambassador
of Islam in letter and spirit

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha was a great dawee. He always thought it is our duty and responsibility first to remember our Creator and worship Him. He never failed to remember his Creator and submit to Allah the Almighty five times a day whether in sound health or in illness, either at home or abroad. Dr. Pasha followed Islam in letters and spirit and remembered his duty to Allah the Almighty as much as he could in his own life by performing his daily prayers wherever he was even in the Vatican city or in Moscow when it was under the communist rule of the then Soviet Union

Dr. Pasha practised every tenet of Islam
“Dr. Pasha was one of the most honest and genuinely always held fear of Allah's reckoning on the Day of Judgement. May Allah swt accept his unparalleled services to Islam. He was true to his responsibilities and faith,” said Mr. Yousuf Bhailok, former-Secretary General and now Board of counsellor of MCB, member of the UMO and close colleague of late Dr. Pasha and also Chair of Al Jamiah al Islamiyah Darul Uloom Lancashire (Training Imams).

Mr. Bhailok also said, “Dr. Pasha practised every tenet of Islam to the letter and even his message in his will was words of wisdom for us to follow. As a young man he inspired me, he taught me that Taqwa means to face all challenges with fortitude and never to compromise on Islamic principles.”

Dr. Pasha involved in conveying the true message of Islam
And secondly, Dr. Pasha thought and used to say to me, it is also our duty and responsibility to convey the message of Islam to our fellow workers, colleagues and neighbours and that’s why he never missed whether he is in good health or in sickness to organise Prophet’s (peace be upon him) birthday celebration where he invited everybody irrespective of religion, caste and colour including Ministers, high government officials and members of other faith communities. Lord Sheikh, the Peer of the House of Lords, told me “Dr. Pasha had been involved in conveying the true message of Islam and he had devoted many years not only to give this message but also being involved in promoting peace and harmony between various racial and religious groups.”

Dr. Pasha never compromise on matters
relating to the teachings of Islam
Dr. Pasha was a man of principle, ideology and commitment and he never compromised on this principle, on any matters relating to the teachings of Islam and ready to struggle and suffer like any other ideological committed person. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and presently Chairman of the Muslim Aid Trust, told me, “Dr. Pasha was a man of principle and he never compromised on matters relating to the teaching of Islam. I admired his uncompromising stand which he conveyed with great humility and integrity to Ministers and civil servants when demanding the due rights of the Muslim community.”

Sir Iqbal also recollected and said, “His role during the years of the UK Action Committee on Islamic Affairs was instrumental in bringing the Muslim community together to defend the honour of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). No doubt, he has earned a rightful place in the Jannatul Ferdous. And May Almighty Allah give all of us strength to follow his last message which he conveyed in his will.”

His Actions and pronouncement never weakened
Not only Dr. Pasha remained firm, unchangeable and unyielding in his conviction and mission, but his action, deeds and assertion never weakened. Senator Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haque, the Secretary General of the Pakistan-based World Muslim Congress, told me, “Late Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha was one of those Muslims who had dedicated all his life to the service of Islam and Muslim. Even in the most difficult times he continued with his mission and even after 9/11 his activities and his pronouncement never weakened. He was a man who respected all other religions and his positive approach was a key to his success. He was a man of continued struggle and made a very successful life.”

Dr. Pasha’s single motto was unity of Muslim community
As a dedicated servant to the motto of the Union of Muslim Organisations (UMO) to achieve unity of the Muslim communities he spent his entire life for his mission and did not find time to enter into wedlock. Sometimes I used to say humorously to Dr. Pasha that it seems that you married to UMO. Haji Ahmad Thomson said, “Dr Pasha also sought to educate in the best way those who knew little about Islam or Muslims and who therefore were the unintentional victims of their own ignorance, misconceptions and blind prejudices. Blessed as he was with a keen intellect, a sound knowledge of the Qur’an and the Hadith and above all a sense of humour, even before it became fashionable to label all the Irish and all the Muslims as terrorists, Dr Pasha made it abundantly clear that Islam is a middle way, which has nothing to do with terrorism or extremism.”

“As well as striving to unite the various Muslim communities in the British Isles, Dr Pasha extended the hand of friendship to everyone and showed genuine respect for those who had different beliefs and different ways of understanding life. In the words of Imam Junayd, may Allah be pleased with him, he was like the earth which supports everyone and like the sky which shades everything. I have never heard anyone speak ill of Dr Pasha – and shame on anyone who has or does,” mentioned Hajji Ahmad.

The motto of the UMO, which is clearly enshrined in its Constitution, ‘Hold fast to the rope of Allah and be not divided.’ According to Dr. Pasha, this is a great opportunity for Muslims coming from various parts of the world to demonstrate the potentiality of Islam as a uniting force, as a cohesive force. It will eliminate discrimination on whatever grounds; race, colour or ethnicity – all this is taken care of in the Islamic faith, because the Holy Qur’an is very clear: All humanity comes from Adam and Eve and Adam came from dust. Exactly what our Prophet (peace be upon him) said in his Farewell Message on the Mount of Arafah. So the motto of UMO is to achieve unity of the Muslim community and to promote Daw’ah.”

To achieve the above goal, Dr. Pasha pursued single-handedly all through his dedicated objective of uniting Muslim communities and uplift their situation. Even before his death, Dr. Pasha still remembered his duty towards his co-religionists and left a last message for the Muslim community which was read out by Haji Ahmad Thomson after the Janaza prayer, “It is my wish and desire that the British Muslim community plays an important role in communicating the message of Islam to the British people and rejuvenate their moral and spiritual standards in accordance with the Divine Shari’a. I have spent 40 years of my life in this country to promote unity between Muslims of various nationalities settled here and Da’wah Islamiya. This is exactly the motto of UMO (Union of Muslim Organisations) for whom I happened to be one of the founders and Secretary General of.”

Death of Dr. Pasha a great loss of Muslim community
Dr. Pasha left the Muslim Community in the sea of sadness. Dr Ahmad al-Dubayan, Director General of the Islamic Cultural Centre and the Regents Park Central London Mosque, said, “The death of Dr. Pasha is a great loss of the Muslim Community.” Because some of the works that Dr. Pasha started remain incomplete. Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham said, “I am very saddened because his work has not been completed because he was constantly trying, first of all, to introduce the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) birthday and many other events and then he was campaigning at the labour party conferences, as well as the political party conferences.”

Dr. Pasha was a great dawee and truly an ambassador of Islam in letters and spirit. Haji Ahmad said, Dr. Pasha “was both a pioneer and an ambassador in the way of Allah.”

The Muslim community needs someone to carry on the works that Dr. Pasha left incomplete. Dr. Al-Dubayan said, “What we hope now is that the Muslim leaders in our community will learn from Dr. Pasha and will have the same feeling and love for Islam and Muslims and for everybody as Dr. Pasha had.”

Swiss Minaret ban: Response and Reaction

Swiss Minaret ban: Reaction and Response
from People of different colours

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The proposal to ban the building of minarets had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in Parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation. More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.

“The last surveys suggested around 34% of the Swiss population would vote for this shocking initiative. Last Friday, in a meeting organised in Lausanne, more than 800 students, professors and citizens were in no doubt that the referendum would see the motion rejected, and instead were focused on how to turn this silly initiative into a more positive future,” tracing the background, Professor Dr. Tariq Ramadan wrote in The Guardian, London, on Sunday, 29 November, 2009.

Professor Ramadan observed, “Today that confidence was shattered, as 57% of the Swiss population did as the Union Démocratique du Centre (UDC) had urged them to – a worrying sign that this Populist Party may be closest to the people’s fears and expectations. For the first time since 1893 an initiative that singles out one community, with a clear discriminatory essence, has been approved in Switzerland. One can hope that the ban will be rejected at the European level, but that makes the result no less alarming. What is happening in Switzerland, the land of my birth?”

That is the opinion and observation of no less a person than the son of the soil, a renowned scholar and Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. But, of course, he is a Muslim by religion and practice. But people of other religious faith also denounced the ban.

Religious leaders across the world have criticised Switzerland's referendum vote to ban the building of minarets. The Vatican has condemned the Swiss ban on the construction of Islamic minarets as a 'blow to freedom of religion'. The Vatican on Monday, 30 November, 2009, endorsed a statement by the conference of Swiss Bishops criticising the vote for heightening "the problems of cohabitation between religions and cultures". Muslim figureheads from Indonesia and Egypt, as well as Switzerland were denouncing the vote as a blow to religious freedom. Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa described the ban as an insult to the feelings of the Muslim community in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Not only the religious leaders of different faith groups have condemned the action, but political leaders of different countries distaste the action. The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world. France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was "scandalised" by the Swiss decision and said it represented a "show of intolerance.” He said it was a "negative" move because banning the construction of Muslim mosque towers amounts to "oppressing a religion".

He told France's RTL radio: "I hope that the Swiss will go back on this decision rather quickly.”

The Amnesty International said, Swiss minaret ban would be discrimination against religion. A ban on the construction of minarets would breach Switzerland’s obligations to uphold freedom of religion, Amnesty International said ahead of a referendum on Sunday 29 November 2009 on a constitutional amendment. “Contrary to the claims of the initiators of the referendum, a general prohibition of the construction of minarets would violate the right of Muslims in Switzerland to manifest their religion,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International. She also added: “A ban on the construction of minarets while, for example, allowing those of church spires would constitute discrimination on the basis of religion.”

Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets. After Christianity, Islam is the most widespread religion in Switzerland, but it remains relatively hidden.

Response from Britons, Muslim and non-Muslim
Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as anti-Islamic. Irrespective of colour, ethnicity and religious affiliations, British people, from the Parliament to the leaders of the community and religious and non-religious groups and academic scholar, were united in their denunciation of the vote to ban the construction of minarets.

Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham
Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, Peer of the House of Lords of the British Parliament said, “The general consensus in the Muslim community is that the minaret ban in Switzerland is a radical, alarmist and deplorable act of Islamophobia.”

“I understand that Switzerland is party to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to the European Convention on Human Rights. In my view, the Minaret Ban is a blatant breach of the civil liberties set forth in these conventions and has placed Switzerland on a collision course with its international human rights obligations,” Lord Ahmed said.

Lord Ahmed argued, “The Muslim community of Switzerland should in no way be denied the rights and facilities to practice their faith; nor should the ban be used to pursue the Swiss government’s hidden avenue of frustration with Moammar Gaddafi and the Libyan crisis. The 300,000 ordinary, practicing Muslims of Switzerland should not be made victims of the political games being waged by Switzerland against Libya.”

Lord Ahmed also observed, “The mere idea of a minaret leading to extremism reveals the clearly discriminatory bias that underpins this decision. Rather than pose a security threat, religious monuments enrich society and promote a collective identity. In contrast, the minaret ban shows the Swiss Government utilizing scare mongering tactics and playing the ‘Muslim card’ in populist political point scoring. This fans the fires of hatred and creates a needless clash of civilizations.”

“Switzerland’s actions will fundamentally influence its reputation in the eyes of Muslims around the globe. As a member of the UK Parliament and Muslim community, I stand by any decisions the greater Muslim community might make concerning withdrawal from business and banking in Switzerland,” maintained Lord Ahmed and urged the “Swiss government to review their decision as this could have long lasting consequences on your country’s relations with the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world.”

Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London
Former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, said: "The ban on minarets in Switzerland, a country that only has four minarets, is an attack not only on Muslims, but on the most basic freedoms in society.” “Let this referendum be a rallying call for all democrats - we must challenge Islamophobia and racism if we are to stop the far right,” he added.

Dr Edie Friedman, Jewish Council for Racial Equality
Dr Edie Friedman, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality said: “It is a very sad day when such an important religious symbol is put to the vote. That anyone should even consider this is unbelievable. This could have very dangerous consequences, sending out the wrong message to the rest of the world. Far from cementing positive relations between people, this can only sew division and disharmony. I hope that common sense prevails, this decision is reversed and building a cohesive society in Switzerland is taken up with renewed vigour.”

Bruce Kent, Vice President of Pax Christi
Bruce Kent, Vice President of Pax Christi, said: “I am dismayed at this decision which is manifestly discriminatory. As a Christian, I live in an area where we have a beautiful mosque and minaret which cause no offence to anybody and contribute to the beauty of the environment.”

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, Muslim Council of Britain
Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, said in a statement, “The Swiss referendum results show how far and how quickly Europe is moving in the wrong direction in its attitudes and policies towards Muslims and other minority groups in Europe.”
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“Mosques and minarets in our European cities are manifestations of the proudly indigenous nature of Islam in Europe. It is tragic that the far right is stripping away at our illustrious heritage of coexistence between different faiths and cultures in Europe and replacing it with their warped and xenophobic outlook,” he said and added, “This is no less than a battle of ideas for the future of a plural and progressive Europe.”

Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha, Union of Muslim Organisations
Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha, General Secretary of the Union of Muslim Organisations (UMO) of UK & Eire, said, “The British Muslims are shocked to learn that the Swiss people has expressed their hostility for such a measure. Either it is sheer ignorance or Islamophobia that the whole affair is a disgusting phenomenon. It is difficult to understand in the modern liberal atmosphere which is prevailing in the West.”

“The Swiss government should ignore this decision because it contravenes the provision of the European Convention of Human Rights to which it is a signatory,” Dr. Pasha said and added, “Succinctly; it is in the interest of Switzerland not to antagonize the religious sensibilities of 1.5 billion Muslims throughout the world.”

“The Swiss people must understand that the minarets of the Mosques are symbols of Sovereignty of Allah and the brotherhood of all human beings as enunciated in the Qur’an,” Dr. Pasha argued.

Swiss-born Professor Tariq Ramadan
Writing in The Guardian, Swiss born Professor Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, said, “Every European country has its specific symbols or topics through which European Muslims are targeted. In France it is the headscarf or burka; in Germany, mosques; in Britain, violence; cartoons in Denmark; homosexuality in the Netherlands – and so on. It is important to look beyond these symbols and understand what is really happening in Europe in general and in Switzerland in particular: while European countries and citizens are going through a real and deep identity crisis, the new visibility of Muslims is problematic – and it is scary.”

Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, maintained, “Over the last two decades Islam has become connected to so many controversial debates – violence, extremism, freedom of speech, gender discrimination, forced marriage, to name a few – it is difficult for ordinary citizens to embrace this new Muslim presence as a positive factor. There is a great deal of fear and a palpable mistrust. Who are they? What do they want? And the questions are charged with further suspicion as the idea of Islam being an expansionist religion is intoned. Do these people want to Islamise our country?”

According to Tariq Ramadan, the solution lies in the following, “I have been repeating for years to Muslim people that they have to be positively visible, active and proactive within their respective western societies. In Switzerland, over the past few months, Muslims have striven to remain hidden in order to avoid a clash. It would have been more useful to create new alliances with all these Swiss organisations and political parties that were clearly against the initiative.”

Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University. His most recent book is What I Believe