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Issue 175, Friday 28 November 2003 - 4 Shawwal 1424

Muslim leader’s detention condemned

By Ahmed J Versi

The Muslim community has expressed its outrage at the detention of a prominent and well respected Muslim scholar by the security forces under Terrorism Act. Shaykh Yusuf Motala, a British citizen, was prevented from going to Makkah for ‘Umra (‘lesser pilgrimage’) and then to Madinah for the last 10 nights of Ramadan after being questioned at Heathrow airport for nearly seven hours on November 11.
Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Iqbal Sacranie, told The Muslim News that the Muslim community is taking this incident “very seriously”. He said he was writing to the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to seek express “our outrage and shock at the Shaykh’s detention” and seek assurances that “this profiling of Muslims will not happen in future”.
Shaykh Motala, speaking from Bury, told The Muslim News that he was “surprised” that he was stopped at the airport as the questions posed by the security forces were the ones that could have been asked at any time. He said he was “sad” that he was not able to continue with his journey to Saudi Arabia after having to answer “trivial” questions. “When I told them this, they got very angry”, he said.
Shaykh Motala, former Rector of Darul Uloom Al Arabia Al Islamia, (photo) in Bury, Lancashire, which was established in 1973, is also a spiritual guide to other Darul Ulooms in the UK and other Islamic institutions. He has also a large following amongst Muslim scholars and ordinary Muslims. He is a highly regarded and respected Muslim leader and has a vast following in the UK. His institution educates Imams at various Darul Ulooms in the UK
On November 14, the Muslim Safety Forum, set up in the wake of September 11, to liase with Metropolitan Police, called an emergency meeting with the Metropolitan Police to demand explanation why the respected Shaykh was detained at the airport on his way to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The Muslims attending the meeting were told that Shaykh Motala was detained because of “intelligence information” received by the security forces. However, the police refused to discuss what this information was but promised to look into the matter further.
“I am disgusted with the police action,” the MCB representative on the Forum, Dr Abdul Rahim Khan, told The Muslim News, adding that the intelligence used to detain the Shaykh was “very poor and needs to be questioned.”
The Shaykh, who arrived at Heathrow from Manchester Airport, was detained for over 7 hours, missing his flight to Makkah. He said he was interrogated by three officers, an Immigration officer, an anti-terrorism officer and MI5 officer.
Shaykh Motala related that when he was stopped he was asked by an MI5 officer in Urdu why he was being detained, he replied that it was because of his black case which contained his computer. “No, said the MI5 agent, adding in Urdu to me – ‘aap bahot bade admi ho.’ (You are a very important person). I replied, that I wasn’t. He replied, ‘Aap bahu mashhoor aadmi ho, Brtainia aur aqwame alam mee’ (You are a well known person in the UK and internationally),” the Shaykh said in reference to the initial encounter. He said that most of the questions he was asked were on Islam, on what is taught in Darul Ulooms and his views on various aspects of Islam. “I told them that they could have asked me these questions at another time and not at the airport on a journey to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The officers got angry at me when I said this.” He was also asked about “jihadi groups” and if he was associated with them, to which he replied in the negative.
His followers told The Muslim News that they left him at midday at Heathrow, after the Shaykh had passed through the security checks. The next time they saw him was in the evening at their local mosque, Azhar Masjid, in Forest Gate, East London, when he joined them for tarawih (special prayers in Ramadan) prayers. “We asked him, why he was not on the plane. We were shocked to seem him. We thought he was on the plane bound for Makkah and Madinah to spend the last days of Ramadan,” Maulana Ismail Gangat, Imam of Azhar Masjid told The Muslim News. He added that Shaykh Motala was involved in building bridges with the non-Muslims and encourages his students to study secular subjects. “More than 75% of the English speaking Imams in the UK are graduates from the Darul Ulooms,” said Maulana Gangat, a graduate of Darul Uloom and London School of Oriental and Islamic Studies. They also provide Imams for HM Prison Service, hospitals, etc. Darul Uloom in Bury is affiliated with the University of Lancashire in Preston. The Darul Ulooms also teach GCSEs and A Levels too. “Attack on Shaykh Yusuf Motala is an attack on the entire Muslim community,” said Maulana Gangat.
A neighbour of Shaykh Motala, Maulana Ahmad Sidat, who lives in Blackburn, told The Muslim News he was shocked to hear about the detention and tried to trace his whereabouts after receiving the Shaykh’s message on his answer phone. Maualana Sidat eventually traced to him to Heathrow airport and telephoned the Foreign Secretary’s office to ask for his help (as Jack Straw is their MP), but he was not available. “However, his office has told me that Jack Straw has said the case will be investigated thoroughly,” he said.
Chairman of Lancashire Council of Mosques, Ibrahim Master, was also very angry at the detention of Shaykh Motala. He told The Muslim News that he had written to the Prime Minister, Home Secretary David Blunkett and Director of the MI5 on the Shaykh’s detention. “We support the Government’s initiative on national security, but not at the hounding of innocent Muslim citizens,” said Master, who knows the Shaykh personally.
The MCB described the detention as police harassment. Sacranie said the profiling of Muslims was making British Muslims “feel discriminated against and victimised” by the police. “They are losing confidence in the police. It is tragic that this unacceptable behaviour by the security forces, which breaches civil liberties of individuals and is prevalent across the Atlantic, has now been imported to our country,” he said. A spokeswoman for David Verness, who heads anti-terrorism section at the Met, told The Muslim News that they “do not discuss any individuals”.