Showing posts with label Dr Taj Hargey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr Taj Hargey. Show all posts

Friday, December 04, 2009

Opinion – Taj Hargey: Minarets Are Not an Essential Part of Islam

TIMES ONLINE: The Swiss vote does not infringe Muslim religious rights

Switzerland’s referendum vote to ban minarets is needlessly xenophobic but it does not infringe the religious liberty of Swiss Muslims. Minarets remain emblematic of mosques in the Muslim heartlands but there is no theological reason why houses of worship in the West have to incorporate such towers.

Their original purpose was to relay the prayer call with the unamplified voice. Today this is done by modern technology, so minarets are not integral to contemporary mosque design. European mosques should stop mindlessly mimicking Eastern design and create prayer halls that blend into the landscape.

Muslims who have settled in Switzerland (and elsewhere in Europe) should not confuse culture with creed. To become integrated into their surroundings, they must relinquish the cultural baggage of their ancestral homelands. They should practice a Swiss Islam that is rooted in the society in which they live.

Although the Swiss have been convinced by right-wing zealots that minarets are a problem, local Muslims should not embrace a victim mentality. They must confront the toxic radicalisation of their faith that is imported from overseas. The Wahhabi denomination >>> Taj Hargey | Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Dr Taj Hargey is the chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford and the imam of the Summertown Islamic Congregation in Oxford

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Muslim Cleric Who Blames British Mosques for the 7/7 Bombings, Says Multiculturalism Is a Disaster and Would Throw Islamic Fanatics Out

The MailOnline is yet another newspaper – there are so many these days – which has fallen for the guff that the Islam of al-Qaeda is a warped and twisted version of the ‘religion’. Dr Taj Hargey comes along and says exactly what these soft-thinking, ill-advised journalists want to hear! They fall for the crap. It keeps these people in their comfort zone.

Truth is, though, that OBL’s version of Islam is the real thing, regardless of what Dr Taj Hargey says. Indeed it is, as I have stated before, every bit as much the real thing as Coke is to cola! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

It raises the very important question: Where did Dr Taj Hargey learn his version of Islam? Certainly not from the Koran!
– ©Mark


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Violence: Dr Taj Hargey deplores fanatics such as the suicide bombers who targeted London. Photo courtesy of MailOnline

MAIL Online: You can usually find at least one in any saloon bar, ready to give you the benefit of their peppery views on the parlous state of Britain today.

This particular example is a clean shaven, middle-aged man with the de rigueur attire of carefully knotted mustard tie and blue, golf club-style blazer.

Brass cuff buttons flash as he pounds an angry fist on to his knee.

'I will give £5 to anyone in Britain who wants to live under Sharia law,' he declares. 'It will help pay for their ticket to Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, or wherever it is customary to live under Sharia law.

'Please, please go and leave us alone. This is Britain, not 10th century Arabia!'

We are indeed sitting in a bar, on a busy main road in Oxford.

But the man before me is no stereotypical Islamophobe.

For one, he is sipping a glass of water rather than something more inflammatory.

More importantly, though by no means obviously, Dr Taj Hargey is himself an Islamic cleric; perhaps the most controversial imam in Britain today.

In an age when the highest-profile Muslim preachers are bearded, anti-Western firebrands such as Abu Hamza or Omar Bakri Dr Hargey seems an anomaly.

He does not care much for male facial hair. He believes that women can be both seen and heard, even in a mosque at Friday prayers.

And don't even get him started on the sort of fanatics who blow up London buses, or the poisonous teachings that inspired them.

After three men were cleared this week on charges of assisting the July 7 bombers, there have been calls for an inquiry into blunders made by the security services.

But Dr Hargey has little doubt who, and what, is truly to blame for unleashing such terrorism on our streets.

'It is the extremist ideology present in many UK mosques which is the cement behind nihilistic plots such as this,' he says.

'They are twisting Islam.' >>> By Richard Pendlebury | Thursday, April 30, 2009