By IANS
London : Britons should try out arranged marriage while women should not expose their bodies too much as part of a two-way Muslim integration process, the Bangladeshi-born head of the Muslim Council of Britain has suggested.
“Everybody can learn from everyone. Some of the Muslim principles can help social cohesion – family, marriage, raising children with boundaries, giving to the poor, not being too greedy,” Muhammad Abdul Bari said in remarks published Saturday.
He said British people could benefit from arranged marriages. “I prefer to call them assisted marriages,” he told the Daily Telegraph in a wide-ranging interview.
“Marriage should not be forced on people but parents can be a catalyst… Young people are emotional, they want idealism. Older people have gone through all sorts of things and become a bit more experienced. A child will always want to eat chocolate but if he does then he will become fat. He needs to be given things that are good for him too.”
And he had other advice that could alarm ordinary, freedom-loving Britons.
“Alcohol is the worst drug long-term,” he said, adding that the government should consider banning drinking in public places, as it has done with smoking.
In a nation with high rates of teenage pregnancy and single motherhood, Bari said he believed Britain would benefit from a little more morality.
“Religion has principles that can help society… Sex before marriage is unacceptable in Islam … On adultery and living together we should try to go back to the religiously informed style of life that helps society.”
In line with Catholic fundamentalist views, he also came out against abortion and gay sex. “By the time a foetus is 12 weeks old our religion says that the child has got a spirit,” he said, adding that homosexuality is “unacceptable from the religious point of view”.
There should be more modesty too, he said: “You shouldn’t be revealing your body so much that it can be tempting to other people. I hope my daughter wouldn’t wear a bikini but I also hope she wouldn’t wear a burqa.”
Bari, who runs guidance courses for parents of all faiths, said: “Children are like plants – if you don’t look after them they will grow wild and weeds can come in.” The same is true of Britain, he says. “There is plenty of freedom in Western society but boundaries are sometimes hard to see.”
But he drew the boundary on stoning: “When our prophet talked about stoning for adultery he said there should be four (witnesses) – in realistic terms that’s impossible. It’s a metaphor for disapproval.”