Mosques teach meditation to help ease ethnic tension
RACE-related attacks and ethnic tensions have triggered a pioneering project by two Kirklees mosques.
A Positive Citizenship scheme is being rolled out to help steer Muslim youths away from anti-social behaviour.
The response has been sparked by incidents in Thornhill and clashes between Pakistani and Kurdish youths. The rise of the extremist fringe group Islam4UK, which wanted to stage a march through Wootton Bassett has also been flagged up as a factor.
Mosque elders believe boredom is behind much of the race-linked problems in the area. But the imams insist inactivity is no excuse for bad behaviour. And they have launched special meditation sessions for young people at mosques in Hanging Heaton and Heckmondwike.
The weekly meetings are being held at the Jamia-Al-Saeed Mosque in Hanging Heaton on Wednesday evenings and on Thursdays at the Kanzul-Iman Jamia Mosque in Heckmondwike.
The idea is backed by senior Muslim scholar, Mufti Shams-Ul-Huda Khan Misbahi.
He said: “During these special Islamic ‘Zikr’ meditation sessions, Muslim youths listen to soothing religious poetry, a presentation on what Islam says about positive citizenship, a short talk on finding inner-peace, then some deep-breathing exercises.
“The young people feel relaxed and refreshed afterwards. It helps clear their minds and develops a positive outlook.”
The scheme is a joint initiative by Lifeline Kirklees and Kirklees Faith Network (KFN) and follows last year’s successful project when police visited local mosques to lecture on the dangers of drug use and gun and knife crime.
PC Peter Whitehouse addressed more than 500 children in several mosques.
On behalf of KFN, Hafiz Sultan Salahuddin said: “We are developing ideas to roll out a whole project aimed at trying to strengthen positive citizenship.”
Imams such as Qari Hafiz Abdul Ghani from Jamia-Al-Saeed think the first thing in a Muslim school-leaver’s mind is a desire to quickly find a job.
As a result, a separate scheme is being developed to help young Muslims find work.
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
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