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RSSTariq Jahan interview: "I don't see a broken society"
The grieving father talks to the New Statesman about tougher sentencing, and his Islamist past.
By Mehdi Hasan Published 17 August 2011 17:07
The grieving father talks to the New Statesman about tougher sentencing, his Islamist past and his memories of his son.
In this week's New Statesman, on the newsstands tomorrow, Tariq Jahan -- the grieving father whose son Haroon was killed during the violence in Birmingham last week -- speaks to me about tougher sentencing for criminals and looters, David Cameron and the "broken society", his own surprising Islamist past and, of course, how he is coping with the loss of his young son.
Here are some extracts from the interview (and it was probably the most difficult and heartbreaking interview I've ever had to do):
On tougher laws and sentencing
In a rebuke to the Prime Minister's call for a "fightback" and "crackdown" against the antisocial elements of British society, Jahan says there is no need for "more stringent" laws:
To David Cameron, to parliament, I say: don't make the laws any more stringent. Don't make the laws any tighter. It doesn't help. Joe Public hates authority. Don't make yourselves out to be tyrants, oppressing the people. We don't need to be pushed back against the wall.
Later in the interview, he again remarks:
I don't think tougher action will make any difference . . . We've had enough tough laws as it is.
Jahan is particularly concerned that the police will overreact in future.
What I don't want to see are the stop-and-search seizures all over again.
Nor is he interested in harsher sentencing -- for the looters or for the killer of his son:
Don't change the law just because my son was killed. Changing the law to make the punishment even greater does not bring my son back. It doesn't bring those two brothers back.
On the "Broken Society"
He rejects David Cameron's rhetoric about society being "sick" or "broken":
I don't see a broken society. I see a minority of people who took advantage of the country when the country was in crisis. They didn't think of the country and only thought about themselves, their own personal greed and satisfaction.
And Jahan says he will "never, never blame England for what happened to my son. It wasn't the country's fault. Was the whole country after my son? No."
He is scathing about the conservative historian David Starkey's recent attempt on BBC Newsnight to blame the rioting and looting on black gang culture.
Nonsense. Why blame the black community? Why point fingers? I totally disagree.
On his Islamist past
In a surprising admission, Jahan tells me that, as a teenager growing up in Slough, he was a "miscreant" who started moving in Islamic religious circles that grew increasingly extremist. He ended up attending events held by Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the radical Islamist organisation that has been accused of being part of the ideological "conveyor belt" of violent extremism and terrorism.
He wasn't ever, he says, a card-carrying member of Hizb ut-Tahrir but he does admit to working as a bodyguard for the reviled cleric and former HT leader Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has since been banned from Britain.
At the age of 20, Jahan says, he got married, moved to Birmingham and left "HT and all those other religious groups" behind:
I got involved with my own family and had my three kids.
Asked for his opinion of modern Muslim extremism, Jahan says some young British Muslims need "to cool down" and he adds:
There are too many bleeding extremists now.
However, he says he disagrees with the Conservative Party election manifesto pledge to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir and advocates a dialogue with home-grown Islamists:
If you've got an extremist group, sit them down and communicate with them. We've been at war in Afghanistan for the past ten years and now we've decided we want to talk to the Taliban. If we can talk to the Taliban, why can't we talk to these [domestic] extremist groups?
On his son's death
Jahan speaks movingly in the interview about Haroon and how hard it has been to cope with the fallout from his murder during the riots:
Publicly, you won't see a tear from me or my family.
In private, however, it is a different matter:
Me and my wife, we sit down in our bedroom each night, we put our heads together and we cry and we cry and we cry, until we can't cry any more.
Tags: Tariq Jahan Riots
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Mehdi Hasan is a contributing writer for the New Statesman and the co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader. He was the New Statesman's senior editor (politics) from 2009-12.
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129 comments
@ Muslim and Proud, your talking total shit. More Muslims kill Muslims everyday but that doesn't seem to bother you?
There are Muslims equivalent of Breivik who are blowing themselves up, killing, maiming, Muslims and non Muslims everyday, its like talking about the weather.
Islam has serious issues and its not the fault of free thinking and free speaking individuals to discuss these issues and there subsequent effects of the world.
Giving to charity or volunteering doesn't make you a good person if your not motivated for the right reasons, you sound very immature.
@MuslimandProud
Perhaps you can educate us infidels as to why moslems are carrying out suicide bombings against their own mosques in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan? Why exactly do moslems derive so much satisfaction from stoning their own women to death? Could it be because unlike the two great monotheistic religions, unlike the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist religions - yours is just a death cult!
It seems to me that Tariq is a credit to our WHOLE community.
M&P Moslems are at war with the Jews. Moslems are at war with the Christians in Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Egypt. Moslems are at war with the Russians in Chechniya. Moslems are at war with the Chinese in SE China. Moslems are at war with Buddhists in Thailand.
Is there anyone that you are not at war with (apart from the Eskimos). Is there anyone you actually get along with?
Why confuse this man's bereavement with his Islamist past? Everyone sympathizes with his tragedy. But Islamism is a fascist creed that has deliberately killed thousands of non-Moslems simply because they are non-Moslems. What message is Mehdi Hassan trying to put across?
sana, you make no sense, Julia is highlighting facts about Islam and your are no equating it with Islam. Honour killing is something found in Islamic society. Jordan is ruled by religious muslims and there isnt a separation between mosque and state, unlike the UK.
Is the true Islam the same one people keep misundestanding and killing in the name of??
"And a clue to this is in his own past links with HT and islamic fundamentalism. You can't have a dialogue with people with closed minds like HT."
Swatantra, Britain had a dialoue with the IRA and UDF and look at the progress that was made there.
One thing is for sure, they wouldn't want to have a dialogue with closed minds like yours.
what's your opinion on the bankers then julia, or the mp's who have stolen taxpayers money? or murdoch? or the police who have taken bungs? if a young kid gets 2 years for nicking an ice cream, surely life without parole for those bloodsuckers???????
course not. no-one cares about those bloody thugs from the inner city. we'll keep robbing you of your prospects and throw it in your faces every chance we get but dont get out of line because if you do, our eton educated toffs will sort you out.
bloody working class rubbish!!!!!!
@SVEN KING well volunteering and giving to charity is a good place to start building relations between people of all communities. I am a young asian girl, that volunteers with children, I am also studying to be a teacher. I have shown so many young kids that are islamophobic like yourselves or kids that are 'trying to understand islam' that not all muslims are terrorists and the 'KORAN' does not preach hatred. I may be young and somewhat immature but atleast Im taking an active stance in my community and becoming a positive influence.
You seem to be talking about extremist muslims killing muslims therefore don't you see it is a problem for us too. However once you start to generalise and demean the whole religion of islam and slander a religion I hold dear is something I have a problem with. Just to be 100% clear...@flashbuck Islam does NOT CONDONE violence against any race or religion. Islam is a beautiful religion, its such a shame you cant see it. Anyways all I'm after is peace and unity...
My message is peaceful as was the one before. khudafis. God bless. Guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree, as I have no more time to waste arguing with individuals such as yourselves.
oh @julia harris if u saw my previous post/response was aimed @flashbuck. Nobody asked for your opinion on islam, however if you wanted to air your opinion do not claim that it was because of me. Thanks
Mr Tariq Jahan, may your son R.I.P.
What common sense! The still small voice of calm. RIP Haroon and the others.
Julia, you are spot on, its the same old narrative from the left, its all because of Iraq...try telling that to all the Hindu's, sheikhs, buddhust and christains who happen to live next to Muslims or under Islamic rule...
Muslims can never be accoutable for there actions, we cannot try to understand to phenomenom without being called Islamaphobes, but we know it is the Koran and its Hate preachers that propagate the violence and the Sharia as a day to day means of controlling the believers and subjugating the non.
I'm sorry for your loss! If there were more like you on every side, life would be better!
What a man. His insight and humility transcend anything this government or political commentators say. His comments about extremist groups, the Taliban and communication are spot on. How sad we had to read this because of the death of his son.
@ julia well see this link if you think the 500,000 dead was made up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions
Today the poor fellow in croydon whose furniture store was burnt down has backed the tough sentencing being handed out to rioters and looters. Now, will there be a similar outcry against him for making political points as there has been by some on this blog against Tariq? Probably not, and probably because the guy's name is murray and not mohammed, malik, etc!
Mehdi
there are some points here I REALLY agree with, but like I said earlier..
The father dealt with the death of his son immculately. It should have been left there, as he asked.
However, look at the above threads-look at what you started!! if the father were to read this do you think he'd be pleased to see this? The really sick aspect of this is I watched the interviews he gave, and saw his inspiration and it's very positive effect. At no point, though, did it feel he was making politcal points out of his son's death- you're article did. Sick, shameless, cultureless, direspectful is what you are- genuinely, it ranks alongside phone hacking, and it's the reason why the left is so messed up in this country. think about it, you took advantage of a man destbilised by his grief, then twisted things- you're messed in the head fo doing so- I will never be able to read anything you write without remebering this TOTAL lack of judgement.
@ Flashbuck
You are a cretin, go away.
Parliamentary Reform should consider limiting the number of terms mps serve, their method of selection, by introducing AWS and ABAME seats and AWorkingClassSeats, so that we get a more representative Parliament. And the abolition of safe seats by introducing PR and open primaries. http://www.homeremodeling101.org/
Again! does every single event have to be linked back to Islam and so called 'extremism'?? What on earth does this have to do with the Riots, bloody ridiculous! This journalist should be ashamed to even write of the two in the same article!
An example to us all. A man of great integrity. Not sure why the NS thought it was important to bring up his flirtations with Hizb ut-Tahrir.
HT in the UK are no different to the socialist workers party, ive been to them both. HT would spend all the their time talking about injustices, and yes western hippocracy and corruupt 'muslim' Dictators. It was a palce where yougn people could vent their frustratiosn at the world. That all Hizbutahrir did. Mehdi Hassan i thought it was very opportunitstic of you to have brought out that issue when he was 17 or 18. When your young and facing racism, HT speaks to your heart, sense of injustice which you feel in society, then see it aroudn the world. HT were a young group angry at the world for the curruption it sees. Naively it believed that eutoopia can be found via the khalifah. But we all grow up and realise how stupid an idea that is. As human beigns are flawed, no system will ever be perfect.
Attending a few Hizbutahrir lectures, and supporting few Hizbutahrir members in your youth, does not make you an islamist. When your young your exploring, you are trying to find yourself. If we did not have deep seated racism in our society, groups like Hizbut tatahrir would not exist.
cant beat a breakfast of oats, fresh fruit, some yoghurt and a bit of bile from JH
Rob A - you summed it upped better than I could.
@Herbert&gideon. For 500 years Europe was at war with most countries around the world and then with each others finishing with the finale 'The holocaust'. lets not try and get high and mighty.
If it wasnt for racism in Europe, we woudl not have had the holocuast, if it was not for the holocasut, Palestine not have got annexed and countless made homeless. And today we would not have the palestinian israeli conflict, where one side feels all their rights have been taken away, lost their land, the israelis who feel they have suffered enough and ounishing the palestinains for what we in Europe did to them. Causes of racism and injutce? look at the world people we have created it.
summed it up even
Mr Jahan seems to me to be a wise and admirable man who has learned enough from life not to be fooled by anything.
A fine example of the very best that England still produces.
My commiserations to him on his families great loss.
Fairplay, your Idiot, its typical weak minded clap trap your spouting, what about this, what about that, trying to make some other equation to justify the means.
@MatthewBlott: And you, sir, are far too polite. But I agree with you.
As for why the NS needed to raise the issue of HT - well, it's because otherwise certain areas of our wonderful free press would have revelled in "exposing" it. As it is, it clearly defuses the whole issue and puts it nicely into context.
He made a major contribution to stopping Birmingham from completely exploding, and that's more than any of us can say. I respect him for that.
Tariq Jahan continues to talk sense, and with considerably more honesty than most of our politicians. What an admirable man!
@julia harris well said julia - i agree whole heartedly with what you have to say - btw fairplay is an A-hole... FACT!!!
Look who's STUPID now!! Julia !!! its ROMANA spell it right!!!
As for the above, I wrote all that, all you could see was ISREAL!! you really are a ignorant racist FOOL!!! you really fit the bill of a islamaphobic, you should be blogging on Melanie Phillps web site, she's right up your street!!
Oh and you really need to do your research the facts speak for them self, hard to belive all these people dying for the west's desperate greed for oil!!
Oh and the Evil leaders of the Middle east as you put it, were put there by the west for there own greed, now that is a fact!!! when the leaders don't play by the wests rules, or when the west have other motives they divide and conquer. That's what the west is Famous for!!
As I said before and I know you can read , this is about a British Muslim who lost his son!! show some dignity and respect !! because it could have gone so horribly wrong and lets praise his humanity.
Muslims are far from perfect, but neither are the rest of the religions. Why is Islam always a target? why do you not see the bigger picture? well thats because you have been fead by this media frenzee on Islamaphobia. To really understand go to a Masjid and explore the hard work they do amoungst there community, find out how they work with young youths, as I said before think out of the box.
Julia you have anger management issues, I analysed your blogs you really need to stop transferring!! and if your blogging show respect to the other bloggers, calling others here Stupid, Thick, Idiot Islamofacist. really doesn't do you justice and just goes to show your pathetic.
GROW UP!!!
I did not blog to read to your trivial abuse, I blogged to be a part of a MATURE discussion which you have hijacked and blown out of context!!
Davide- perhaps you miss the point? Extremism is something that is bad- yet here is a man who has turned from extremism and become a gentle natured citizen of the UK and is very much respected for his dignity in the face of loss. The riots, gang culture - of which any form of religious extremem is- is shown to be bad- perhaps Mehdi is attempting to show that people can escape that gang culture/ anti-mainstream society mentality and become more communal like this man?
You sound asif you have anger issues, Romana - is that the new Pizza in Pizza express?
Islam is the issue, not Muslims, unfortunately Muslims are so controlled and indoctrinated by Islam one cannot separate the person from the Ideology.
No other religion has such a viscous and violent track record as Islam. No other religion see's so many human rights abuses committed in its name.
Without question Islam is the most violent religion the world has ever known.
Why dont you leave Islam, then you wont feel victimised? Be Free?
Oh I forgot that if you leave Islam you can be put to death for Apostasy...
Romana u sound like an amazingly intelligent woman full of the virtues of yr faith...there should be more wme like u out there defending the rights of humaity..Islam is a true faith and these heathen non believers like Julia cant handle the fact that the quran contains everything there is to know in leadinga good n honest life...i mean the girl is so fascnated by the faith she has researched the subject in detail..I mean u wd only do that if u clearly have a fascination with the religion..i reckon she ison the way to converting we just need to hook her up with a nice muslim bloke who can kick her ass into shape :)
Grow up!! how pathetic!!!! Seven Kings , isn't that a train station!!
Romana you sound like a young, naive, and impressionable person. Your at an age when you might be led by a compliment such as Shane is giving you to heart. This will take you deeper into something you cannot escape from (death for Apostates). This is part of Shanes, (dawa) where he spreads his testicles to trap stray fish.
He might literally find a Muslim to bloke to Kick you into shape. Unfortunately if you get married to him he might also punch you or beat you which is setout within the perfect Koran.
He single handedly stopped a riot turning into inter-communal violence while grieving and in shock. How many of us could do what he has done? Even if I wanted to I don't think I could compose myself. I have great admiration for Mr Jahan. My deepest sympathies to him and his family.
David Cameron and his crew could learn a lot from this high minded and decent man if they were only capable of it. I felt humble reading this interview.
why don't you join us an learn the divine beauty of Islam, as I keep saying you should'nt belive everything you read.
Its Mr Jaahan's faith that keeps him so humble his faith!! and what is he? oh thats right a Muslim a humble Muslim.
Hey I didnt mention Islam in the equation until the Muslim and Proud and you started spouting your rhetoric.
I'm not angry at all, you sound enraged like you are ready to blow?
You don't need Islam to find divine beauty.
How do you reconcile all the human rights abuses committed in the name of Islam?
I agree with Sven, give up Islam and be free.
oh please !!
As i said your Transferring, it has a knock effect, you have a enraged ideology.
I on the hand am a free!! and very happy Muslim
Dear Julia
Why are you so insulting?
Andy
Its worth reading Les Abbey's excellent article on the Labourhome site, as to where exactly we went wrong.
It could all have started with Herbert Morrison drafting in a lot of middle class socialists because the working class socialists weren't 'up to being members of parliament and didn't know how to speak up for themselves'!
Now, we have a House full of professional politicians who've never had a proper job in their lifves, spds and researchers like Dave Ed and Nick pararchuted into safe seats with jobs for life.
Parliamentary Reform should consider limiting the number of terms mps serve, their method of selection, by introducing AWS and ABAME seats and AWorkingClassSeats, so that we get a more representative Parliament. And the abolition of safe seats by introducing PR and open primaries.
That might go towards repairing te malaise in society, by culling the decision makers at the top.
And by analysing carefully who are our supporters.
Flashbuck...you're a prick...enough said
@ sean drew
Life , religion, spirituality is full of paradox- this dosen't mean you can draw any conclusions about religion.
If you're talking about dogmatic religion, then i agree (it's like politically motivated argument, it is baseless).
However, never underestimate the power of a mind that is enquiring of it' s spiritual nature-true, we are spatio-temporal beings, but that is not our essence, so it is perfectly reasonable for a man to have faith in Allah (if i am offending any muslims in writing his name in this way, please excuse me as I am not certain of the protocols on this), yet also perfectly natural for the man to mourn the loss of his son in ANY way he sees fit. The fact that we exist in space and time means we form bonds in this dimension of the physical world- this is where our material attachment 'manifests' itself.
uwivmebruvv??
"He single handedly stopped a riot turning into inter-communal violence while grieving and in shock."
Well said Michael Johnson. I will be buying this week's magazine (unlike the right-wing trolls on this comment thread)
And why is your punctuation so appalling?
It doesn't help your case when you write so badly.
oh dear, lol
Dear Andy,
Because the world is full of dangerous idiots who need to be put straight and put in there place.
Now get back to watching big brother and don't trouble me again.