!["Salaat ul-janaza [Funeral service] of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi Al Maliki, The Grand Mosque in Mecca, October 2004](../../images/janazahmalki.JPG)
CIP In the News: International Director Al-Alawi on Boris Johnson vs. Ken Livingstone for London Mayoralty, Evening Standard [London], April 17, 2008
[Note: This important statement appeared only in print editions of the London Evening Standard.]
A pamphlet was being distributed at a celebration of the Prophet
Mohammad's birthday in East London last month, instructing Muslims not
to vote for Boris Johnson as he is not good for Islam and to support Ken
Livingstone.
The Muslims backing Anas Altikriti's campaign to relect Ken
Livingstone are mainly members of radical groups, such as the Deobandi
school, the missionary group Tablighi Jamaat and Saudi-based Wahhabi
movement. They are also members of the Muslim Council of Britain, the
umbrella group for mosques in the UK. Based on the Mayor's wild past
remarks, they believe he can give them everything they want such as the
12,000 capacity "mega-mosque" in West Ham and will wecolme radical
scholars back to the UK such as al-Qaradawi.
Tablighi Jamaat's belief in separate schooling for their own
followers and that sharia law should be implemented in the UK on a wider
scale are dangerous for social cohesion in this country. Under their
influence Islamic women stand to lose freedom by being coerced into
wearing the veil and forced marriages. To show he is serious about the
effects of radicalisation and wanting to reject separatism in London,
Livingstone should publicly distance themselves from these figures.
Dr Irfan Al Alawi
International Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism