Dear Sir,
            
As one of the 60,000 or so white Britons who are reverts to Islam, as one whose wife wears the veil, and as one who resides in Jack Straw’s constituency area, I have viewed the latest round of Muslim-bashing with some alarm and with a wish to have my thoughts on the subject made
public.
            
As always, however, when an aspect of our religion comes under attack by non-Muslims who are ignorant and given to wilful misunderstanding, it is difficult to give a conclusive response in brief.
            
Happily I have in this case been able to formulate one – but these are not my own words. It will suffice, I believe, to quote the Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb, who passed away quite recently ( May Allah have Mercy on him ), and who said thirty years ago:
           
‘Those who doubt and arouse doubt concerning Islam are terrified by the purity of the moral element in its make-up… scared by its duties, imagining them to be fetters and obstacles preventing man from striving for what he desires. This is an illusion arising from a misunderstanding of the essential nature of the Islamic faith.’
          
‘This morality is in its essence a constructive and positive force : a motive force for continual development and self-realisation, characterised by purity… in reality it represents a liberation from slavery to passions, and the exaltation of human will so that their indulgence may be chosen within the bounds of decency and within the sphere of legitimate enjoyment decreed by God.’
          
‘Islam regards sins and vices as bonds and fetters which imprison the human soul, weigh it down and drag it into the abyss. It counts release from the ties of base desires as true liberation, and its entire moral system is based on this foundation.’

Our virtuous veiled sisters form a large proportion of those who best understand this : they are, generally, precious pearls in the ocean of the spiritual heart of mankind and, when it comes to being deemed unfit for Mr. Straw’s presence, the reality is  that it is he who is unfit to be in theirs.

Straw seems to have begun to believe himself more important than God – perhaps he has been following too closely the example of his boss, Tony Baloney.  In 23 years as our MP in Blackburn, he clearly hasn’t been listening to us.

DAOUD ABU MARYAM
(Blackburn)