Repeatedly over recent years, newspapers have labelled as extremists people whom many Muslims consider to be voices of moderation. Week after week, just before the radio phone-in host denounces the alleged actions of another extremist amongst us, we hear the tired refrain, "The vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people..." But who are the vast majority of Muslims and what do they believe? How are they defined and who defined them? In many senses I find my belief in Islam a continuation of my upbringing, not a rejection of it, and I have hardly suffered an identity crisis because of my beliefs. Yet with the use of undefined phrases such as "the vast majority" and "moderate Muslims", and the claims that are made on our behalf--if indeed we are the people intended--our place in society does seem to be in question.

Not even a century ago, as a wise Muslim noted, Jews were forced by the frenzy of state and media to debate their place in society; would it be integration or isolation, tradition or reform? Were they moderates, or fanatics obsessed with a law which should have no place in a modern secular society? Today, for all the lessons that were supposed to be learned from history, little has changed. Like the good moderate Jews before us, we too must become secular. If not, then once more the talk will be of parasites on society, of an ungrateful community burdened by their religious law and plotting the nation's downfall from ghettoes in its midst.

Too often discussion about Islam starts--and sometimes finishes--with the topic of fundamentalism, writing off any dimension of spirituality amongst the community's faithful in the process. Generous authors often concede that fundamentalism is common to all faiths, but it must be acknowledged that what is meant in each case is actually very different. In the Christian context it is generally used to signify conservative Protestantism characterised by a literal interpretation of the Bible as God's unadulterated word. In the case of Islam, by contrast, all orthodox Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the word of God, but the term fundamentalist is not generally used in this sense. Instead, fundamentalism when speaking of Muslims is more often aligned with ideas of extreme militancy, although this wholly depends upon who is using the label.

What is meant by a term needs to be specified from the outset. If Muslim fundamentalism is viewed in the same light as conservative Protestantism it becomes not a radical reaction against other forces, but merely a manifestation of accepted dogma. However this is clearly not what is meant; the idea of Muslim fundamentalism has entirely different connotations. We are not witnessing different expressions of the same concept, but rather different concepts given one name. Hugh Goddard has one of the definitions of fundamentalism as "the conviction that the authentic version of their faith is to be found in the earliest period". This surely best describes the common ground for the term when used for both Christianity and Islam.

In the community in which I live I could not say that there is a problem of extremism amongst the Muslim youth. Not "Islamic Extremism" in any case--anti-social extremism maybe. In this community, our concerns are with drug use, alcohol consumption and anti-social behaviour. A friend tells me that some young Muslims are bringing drugs into the area to foster a previously non-existent trade in the town. Our local press has reported on a number of occasions about youths in our town being given Anti-Social Behaviour Orders; troublingly in each case the recipients have had Muslim names. Late on Friday and Saturday nights, young Muslims gather in the centre of town, smoking perpetually and ranting aggressively with sentences littered with expletives. This is probably not what the middle-class commentators have in mind when they call for Muslims to integrate with society; still here the Muslims certainly are adopting the culture of those they find themselves amongst. The behaviour of the natives is the same.

Undoubtedly British Muslims have a duty to tackle extremism in our midst, where it exists, but there is also an urgent need to tackle the vast array of huge social problems which have emerged. A friend of mine was until recently the head of department in an inner city London secondary school and he was appalled by the behaviour of his students--more so, he lamented, because the majority of them came from Muslim families. Apart from having no knowledge of their religion whatsoever, these young people had no manners, no respect for the people around them and were frequently members of gangs. The Muslim community makes up barely two percent of the British population and yet seven percent of the prison population. The Muslim Youth Helpline draws the following inferences from research carried out by Muslim organisations:

- Drug abuse and smoking are shown to have a significantly higher prevalence amongst Muslim youth between the ages of 16 and 25 years.

- Mental Illness occurs more frequently amongst Muslim youth, particularly those that enter Britain as refugees. Almost one-half of Muslim Youth Helpline clients complain of mental anxiety, depression or suicidal feelings.

- Muslims make up 7% of the country?s prison population, a figure that is five times that of the total Muslim population in Britain today.

For the past few years I have been working with a national helpline charity which aims to help Muslim women in crisis. Domestic violence is rife, divorce rates are high and the issue of forced marriage is not going away. It is sad to report that huge numbers of unwanted babies are being abandoned by Muslims in the care of social services, often by Muslim girls who become pregnant outside marriage. Meanwhile educational achievement amongst young Muslims remains poor. All in all, as a community we have huge problems and the question of extremism is only one of them.

When the Prime minister addressed the Muslim community on the topic of doing more to tackle extremism, the first response was naturally one of defence. We asked what power we have, given that the extremist groups quite deliberately do not frequent established mosques. If wider British society is understandably not asked to root out the extremism of the BNP, we asked, why should the Muslims be asked to take on the role of the Police and Local Government? But once these initial objections passed, we were faced with a very uncomfortable truth: despite pockets of light--and there are many examples of the Muslim community making a positive and successful contribution to society--there are issues which we as a community must address ourselves.

Merely resorting to the very un-Islamic sense of victim-hood is not going to help any of us. Merely condemning terrorism is not going to help us either, nor is my writing about social problems. Like my friend who went into teaching or those running the various Muslim helplines, there is a realisation that we need to get out into the community to engage in social works. It is time that we awoke to the realities facing us. As we move on after the massacre on the London transport system in 2005, the focus on the Muslim community will no doubt intensify. Some of it will be unfair, some of it deeply insulting, some of it untrue, but Muslims must not pity themselves for we have a lot of work to do. If one of you sees something bad, our religion teaches us, you should change it with your hands, and if you cannot do that you should change it with your tongues, and if you cannot do that you should hate it in your heart, and that is the weakest of faith.

Salaam Alaykum wrwrb Tim

Jazakallah khayr for sharing this amazing journey and such intimate thoughts..it resonates deeply with my own ideas and struggles along this incredible journey...Alhamdulilah, happy to have stumbled across your site.

May Allah grant you the closeness you seek.ameen

Assalaamu alaikum,

One might argue that the problems you describe ARE an example of "Islamic extremism", but not that way it's usually used. I ofthen think that there are two extremes, and the one that actually causes more problems in society is the extreme of not knowing Islam and not following it.