SHAFAQNA – Just before the beginning of the month of Muharram, Shafaqna sat down with Seyyed Mohammad Bahmanpour from the Islamic Centre of England to discuss community, faith and solidarity.
SHAFAQNA – The Islamic Centre of England has done a great deal in terms of offering the local community a space where to discuss faith, solidarity and social responsibility. How have your programs impacted onto the youth? I’m referring to your studies programs.
Sheikh Mohammad Bahamanpour – It is very difficult for the general public to differentiate between members of different denominations of another faith, however, I think the top politicians are quite aware of such distinctions. Therefore their duty is to inform and educate the masses about the realities out there. The wave of Islamophobia is fueled by many politicians and journalists who know about these differences but prefer to disregard them. Regarding Wahhabism and its main hub, Saudi Arabia, there is a bigger problem. Because of the oil and of the very lucrative business with Saudies, the authorities’ especially in the UK, are reluctant to blame them or anything related to them. This attitude towards Saudi Arabia will have dire consequences both for Islam and for the West.
Sheikh Mohammad Bahamanpour – To be honest, Shi’as today live in relative comfort. Compared to those Shias who lived at the time of Bnu Umayyah, we have the luxury of security in faith. There was a day in which if anyone reported a merit of Ahl al-bayt, especially, that of Imama Ali (a), they would have been either imprisoned or killed in the most brutal way. However, although we do not experience that situation anymore, but still we suffer from ignorance of Muslim masses including certain people who call themselves muftis and scholars. We are being accused of disbelief, of believing in a different Quran, of worshiping the Imams, of prostrating to idols, of shirk and of many other things which are all false and baseless.