Top sheiykh appeals for Muslims to ‘open up’ during visit to Cleckheaton

Oct 30 2009 by Nick Lavigueur, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Top sheiykh appeals for Muslims to ‘open up’ during visit to Cleckheaton

A TOP Muslim scholar has urged followers of the faith to reach out to other communities to improve understanding.

Sheiykh Allama Moalana Shahid Raza Naeemi OBE, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), believes the move would greatly help community cohesion.

Mr Naeemi – who today praises the Huddersfield Examiner for the way it covers different communities across the town – said: “Muslims should be more forthcoming. They should open their homes, their institutions, their mosques, their madrassas. They should be more transparent and should be having a friendship on a personal level with their next door neighbours.’’

Mr Naeemi, who has previously told Muslim extremists to leave the UK, is one of the most senior moderate Sufi Muslims in the country and is an advisor to the Government.

He visited the Examiner offices after a question and answer session about community cohesion at the Quaker Church in Scholes, Cleckheaton.

MINAB brings together all the different denominations within Britain’s Muslim community and represents all of the UK’s estimated 1,300 mosques.

Mr Naeemi has been visiting community groups, schools, churches and mosques across the UK to listen to people’s concerns about community cohesion.

He said the Scholes session had included questions about Muslim women covering their faces, the Hijab, integration and faith schools.

“As an Islamist scholar I don’t think covering the face is necessary,” he said.

“Islam provides very clear guidelines about the dress code but there are no particular designs of garments proscribed by Sharia law.

“They can wear T-shirts and jeans.

“I am not in a position to demand people what to do and what not to do, but I can express my own opinion. That is in a society where we live with so many communities. As a minority, we have to have some wisdom.

“It is our responsibility to be as flexible as possible so that we do not become the targets.

“We have made our homes here out of our own choice. We have not been forced to live here.”

Mr Naeemi agreed there was plenty of negativity surrounding the perception of Islam but said he was optimistic things would improve.