Why are you here?
Why have so many Muslims chosen to forsake Dar al-Islam and settle in the West where there is so much that is injurious and unconducive to their Islamic faith and morals?  Is Islamist activism among immigrant communities just a glaring symptom of a guilty conscience among those who have migrated not for the cause of Allah but for worldly benefits?  A self-righteous magazine article prompts British convert, Michael Young,  to question the methods,  priorities and very commitment to Islam of Muslim immigrants.

"Stripping off street porn", proclaimed a headline in a British Muslim magazine I came across a while back.  The accompanying feature detailed the activities of a group of Birmingham Muslims who paint over advertising billboards which they deem offensive.  An article on the website of Muslims Against Advertising or MAAD, as they style themselves, gives a flavour of the posters they object to:

• an advert for a car which featured a man looking inside his pants with the legend “size does matter”.

• a poster selling hair dye with a picture of a woman looking inside her pants with the slogan “so long lasting you’ll forget your natural hair colour”.

• an advert for a bra which showed two people simulating sex and the words “moan, moan, moan”.

How could a Muslim not take offence?  How could we do other than have sympathy with the motives of the "poster improvement experts" of MAAD.  Indeed does not the Quran say:

"They believe in Allah and the Last Day, and enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency, and vie one with another in good works. These are of the righteous."
(Quran 3:114)

But perhaps things are not quite that simple.  Perhaps there is more than one dimension to this issue.  Sympathy with MAAD's motives is one thing, but their actions?  And what about the wider picture?

Firstly, are not men commanded to look down when they see a woman and vice versa?  And if they happen to look, although the first glance is excused, is not the second haram?

"Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them, and God is well acquainted with all they do.  Say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty."
(Quran 24: 30-31)

Now I can't help thinking that the young men of MAAD spend quite some time looking at the immodest images of scantily clad women on these posters.  Indeed, instead of lowering one's gaze, their website advises others who may wish to emulate their actions to actively seek out "multiple locations displaying the same advertisement".

Another reservation I have about MAAD's activities is that by their "direct action" they are imposing Islamic moral values on the wider population.  It is quite legitimate for Muslims or anyone else for that matter who are offended by certain adverts to take action through the official body, the Advertising Standards Authority. And if the advert in question has gone beyond the generally accepted guidelines, then the ASA will take appropriate action. But the UK has long since ceased to be an actively Christian country sharing many moral values with Islam.  And it is certainly not a Muslim country either.  Indeed the entire combined ethnic minority population of the UK - Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Afro-Caribbeans (some Christian, many non-religious) - is only 7%.  Therefore many people in this society do not necessarily have a problem with the advertising posters which MAAD objects to.  For example, they may view them as humorous, sexy (a positive attribute in their eyes) or simply in keeping with the spirit of the age and popular culture of this country.

When MAAD take matters into their own hands and explicitly identify themselves as Muslims acting out of Islamic religious motivation, I cannot help but feel that this group and their fellow travellers are violating Allah's command that "there is no compulsion in religion". (Quran 2:256)

Would it not be more appropriate to follow the commands of Allah (swt) and the example of prophet Mohammed (saw) and deal with this issue in a milder way?

"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious." Quran 16:125

"You have two characters which God likes; gentleness and deliberation."  (Muslim).

"Verily, God is mild and is fond of mildness, and He gives to the mild what He does not give to the harsh." (Muslim)

Why not request the advertisers to respect the sensibilities of the local population in predominantly Muslim areas and close to mosques?  And why not speak to the advertisers in a language they understand, that of commercial gain.  It stands to reason that by placing such advertisements in areas with a significant Muslim population, they are targeting the wrong audience thereby wasting their money.  In fact, they are actually creating ill-will against their brand, not enhancing its appeal.

The real issue for Muslims
Turning now to the more general point of how Muslim who choose to live in a non-Islamic country should behave towards that society; just as non-Muslim visitors to and residents of Islamic countries are expected to respect the way of life of the local population, is it not reasonable for the non-Muslim natives of Britain to expect a bit of peace and quiet to go about things their own way in their own country?  And do they not as a bare minimum have the right to expect that these "holier than thou" Muslim immigrants obey their own Quran?

"Give the unbelievers some respite.  Deal with them gently for a while."
(Quran 86:17)

Muslims constitute a small minority of the UK population and the great bulk of Muslims who do live here are non-indigenous - first or second generation immigrants.  They either chose to settle here and/or not return to their (extended) families in an Islamic country.  Which brings me to my final and most important point.  What Muslims consider "indecent" advertising is but one small aspect of a British society which places little or no worth on the values Islam holds dear.  It is a society which prevents Muslims from attending to even their most basic duties - how often in the last year have you been able to attend weekday Zuhr salat in a mosque or even pray it anywhere on time?  It is a society which corrodes the Muslim soul and whose all-pervasive influence imperils the Islam of the next generation of Muslims - do you have any idea of the atrocious behaviour of many Muslim pupils, male and female, in the state school system?

This begs the question:  Why have so many Muslims chosen to forsake Dar al-Islam where these influences are much less to the fore?  Why have they chosen to come to live here and stay here where there is so much that is injurious and unconducive to their Islamic faith and morals?  Prophet Mohammed (saw) has told us:

"To strive for the cause of Allah from daybreak to noon and sunset is better than the goods and enjoyment of the whole worldly life."
(Bukhari)

And in another hadeeth from Sahih Bukhari, Allah's Apostle (saw) said,

"The reward of deeds depends upon the intention and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for Allah and His Apostle (peace be upon him) then his emigration was for Allah and his Apostle (peace be upon him). And whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration was what he emigrated for."

Could it be that all this posturing about un-Islamic advertising is simply a token gesture to appease a guilty conscience?  Could it be that the many Muslims who have left the lands of Islam and made their home in the West, have in fact emigrated not for the cause of Allah and His Apostle but for material, worldly benefits, with their Islam coming off a poor second?

Oh, and a word in passing here to those Muslims who have come to Britain claiming not to be economic migrants but to be seeking refuge from persecution, often on the basis of their Islamic activities.  The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has fifty-five member states in which to seek refuge in a Muslim environment.  Funnily enough, the last I heard, the United Kingdom was not one of them!

Short of moving to an Islamic country, it appears there’s no escaping sex in advertising.

That was the conclusion drawn by the writer of the feature from the MAAD website which I referred to earlier.  That article was originally published in the Sunday Times.  The writer was one Matthew Taylor who, I assume, is not a Muslim.  "Short of moving to an Islamic country…"  Or staying put in one.  If even a non-believer can recognise that, then why can't so many Muslims?

© IslamForToday.com 2002

Read other articles by Michael Young here.