An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

I write to you through the media because I want you and the non-Muslim British nationals to hear from the Lahore-Ahmadi Muslims how Muslims see the current political situation.

Prime Minister, I write to speak out for the innocent in Syria and elsewhere. For those who, when they lose their lives there will be few to shed tears, for the women and children who, after you start bombing them, will go without shelter, warm clothing or even food in the bitter cold. If this organisation is the only one to cry and cry out for them, we shall do so, knowing there is a power greater than you, which will one day decide between us.

Prime Minister, I write to you because the Holy Quran tells us: In their histories there is certainly a lesson for men of understanding, (12:111) whereas history tells us that the only lesson of history is that no one learns a lesson from history. And, despite the continuing killings of innocent men, women and children in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the US, you are about to embark upon a course of further killings.

Prime Minister, you and your Secretary of State for Defence tell us that you are to embark upon this course to defend my country. Not so many years ago, another British Prime Minister said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that we needed to defend ourselves against those weapons. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powel, said the same to the Security Council. Despite efforts of loyal British Muslims, the British government embarked upon a misadventure, which unleashed a course of events that destroyed Iraq. Forget what Muslims said. The UN Inspectors told the British and the US governments that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but they were ignored. How then do you expect me now to believe or to trust what I hear from the British or the US government?

Prime Minister, tell us whether this policy of bombings and invasions has made the world a safer place? Are there more terrorist attacks now, or less? Actions of the Western governments have created terrorists and not eliminated them. And if you attack Syria you will create many more. The US Government has been bombing Syria and Iraq for over a year, Australia has been bombing Syria and Iraq, France has been bombing Syria and Iraq, and Russia has been bombing Syria. Please tell us how what you are going to do is different and will eliminate terrorism?

Prime Minister, when this bombing fails, what will you do? Will you put boots on the ground? The young men and women who set out on the road of life full of hope, will return from Syria, incapacitated and invalidated to be ignored by the British government. But then, they should expect no better from a government, which refused to give asylum to those Iraqis who helped them after their invasion of Iraq.

Prime Minister, what is the international plan for what will follow? Will vultures fight over the carcasses of dead women and children and ruins of Syria or will you ignore it, just like you ignored Afghanistan and more recently with Libya? You will not make these lands any more ‘land fit of heroes’ than did Lloyd George make Britain when incapacitated soldiers returned from trenches to live on the streets. As the Holy Quran says: “Behaving proudly in the land and planning evil. And the evil plan besets none save the authors of it. So they wait for naught but the way of the ancients. But thou wilt find no alteration in the course of Allah; and thou wilt find no change in the course of Allah.” (35:43)

Prime Minister, please help us because we are confused. At one time Gadhafi was a pariah. The British and the US governments bombed his house to try and kill him but ended up killing his young child. There was no uproar in the West about the murder of Gadhafi’s child. Gadhafi then offered the British government oil exploration rights and he became respectable and the French and the British ministers started visiting him. Yet, a short time later Gadhafi was bombed by Western air forces and that country destroyed. Are people there better off now? A year ago you were saying that it is President Asad whose forces should be bombed. Now you are saying President Asad should be left in place and it is his opponents, the people who you originally supported, who need to be bombed.

Prime Minister, a statute of Ghandi has been erected in the parliament to honour Ghandi’s commitment to non-violence. Your recent statements make me wonder if this was genuine admiration for non-violence or a cynical attempt to curry favours the Indian government for lucrative contracts. When we see that many countries in the region behave in the same, or worse, manner as the country you want to bomb and yet you support those governments and sell them arms and armaments worth tens of millions of pounds. When challenged you tell us that quiet diplomacy is more effective. Why doesn’t the same argument apply to Syria?

Prime Minister, loyal British Muslims advise you “Forgive and enjoin good and turn away from the ignorant (who advocate violence) (The Holy Quran, 7: 198–199) and after that “Continue then in the right way . . . And be not inordinate. . . . incline not to those who do wrong. (11:112–113)

Prime Minister, I doubt if you this letter to do but like Pilate I wash my hands and let the blood of the innocent stain yours. I will sit and watch unarmed civilians being bombed and killed by your bombs or the cold or starvation. As tears run down my face, I will not take up arms. Rather than seek revenge, as you are doing, I will repeat these words of the Holy Quran “I shall pray to my Lord to forgive thee. (The Holy Quran: 19:47), for the murder of innocent women and children you are about to embark upon.

The Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was established in 1914 at Lahore to promote Islam in the West. In the UK it operated the Shahjehan Mosque in Woking until early 1960s. It’s new UK headquarters is at the above address. In 1924, it built the first mosque on the Continent at Berlin. This mosque is now recognised by the German government as part of German heritage. From its European, and other centres around the world this organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect between all communities and nationalities.