[Reader-list] "Muslims must quit UK armed forces"

[Kshmendra Kaul]

These are the kind of Islamic precepts that are sought to be infused in Muslim citizens of  Non-Islamic countries.
 
In this context:
 
- is it surprising that the loyalty of Muslim citizens to their Non-Muslim countries tends to  be viewed with suspicion?
 
- does the "going Muslim" of Maj Hasan of Fort Hood massacre seem far fetched?
 
Kshmendra
 
 
 
Sunday, November 15, 2009
 
"Muslims must quit UK armed forces : Iranian envoy" 
 
* Cleric says Islam forbids Muslim involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq wars 
* Iran entitled to pursue nuclear ambitions for peaceful purposes

Daily Times Monitor 
 
LAHORE: The Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative in Britain has told Muslim servicemen and women to quit the British armed forces, saying that Islam forbids their involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Talking to The Times, Ayatollah Abdul Hussain Moezi, personally appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, also urged Muslims to defeat the opposition to the Iranian regime. 

In his first interview with the newspaper, Moezi, director of the Islamic Centre of England, said he regretted that protesters were killed by the Iranian security forces after the presidential election in June but that their deaths were “unavoidable”. 

Prohibition: The cleric, the most senior Iranian spiritual leader in Britain with thousands of Shia followers, said that it was wrong for Muslims to serve in the armed forces, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq where Muslims were being killed. 

“Not only do I not accept it for Muslims to go there, I don’t accept non-Muslims to go there as well,” Moezi said. “We say that Muslims are not allowed to go and kill Muslims. Do you think that Christians are allowed to go and kill Muslims?” 

The cleric, 65, condemned the massacre in Texas last week of 13 American soldiers at the Fort Hood base by a Muslim military psychiatrist and insisted that the incident should not be used to tarnish the image of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslim population. 

He said the 9/11 attacks and the London bombings were wrong but accused the forces of “Zionist imperialism” of using the atrocities to smear Islam and its followers. 

“I believe the Islamic revolution has been absorbed to the deepest parts of our society,” said Ayatollah Moezi, who has been in Britain since 2004 after serving as Khamenei’s special envoy to Vienna for four years. 

During the interview, he expressed his unease with some of the questions put to him, including those about the political situation in Iran. But he insisted that he would answer such questions to set the record straight and show that he was not afraid of being transparent and accountable. 

Moezi said he regretted the death of Neda Sultan, 26, a student, who the regime believes was killed by its enemies. The opposition maintains that she was killed by Iranian security forces. 

He said her killers should be brought to justice. Sultan, an Iranian student shot on June 20, has been held by Iran’s opposition movement and many in the West as a symbol of the regime’s brutality and suppression of human rights. 

Nuclear ambition: He said Iran was entitled to pursue its nuclear ambitions for peaceful purposes. “The fact that Iran is entitled to use atomic energy has been admitted by the whole world,” he added. 

Moezi believed that Islam and politics were “inter-mixed” because religion “could not be ignorant of social issues. And part of social issues is politics, therefore Islam should have some sort of eye on political issues”. 

He insisted that his role in Britain was to provide spiritual advice to all Muslims, irrespective of their sectarian background, and encourage them to become more involved in British society through education and employment. 

“My personal belief is if Muslim migrants are better Muslims in this society, they can shape their individual lives in a better way and could be better members to this society,” he said.