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The Crisis of Criminality in the Muslim
Community Excerpt from Being a Real Man in Islam Yahya Birt The latest Home office statistics make grim
reading for the Muslim community: Muslim prisoners have doubled in the
last decade to reach a total of between 4000-4500 — amounting to 9% of the
total prison population — which is treble our proportion of the total
population. One in eleven prisoners is Muslim. This surge in Muslim crime
is not being discussed openly within the community, most probably out of a
sense of shame. But in reality, we should feel ashamed precisely
because we are not discussing these problems openly and confronting them.
Shame should impel not prohibit a constructive response. So what sort of crime is being committed
and who is doing it? Sadly, but not surprisingly, over 65% of these
prisoners are young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty. This huge
figure does not include youngsters under the age of 18 who are in
custodial care. We should not forget to add that 10% are women. The sorts
of crime committed not only include petty theft but also violent and
obscene muggings. [1] Maqsood Ahmed, the Muslim Advisor to the Prison
Service appointed by the government in 1999, says that currently (as of
June 2000) 1005 out of the 4003 Muslim inmates have committed crimes
related to drug pushing or drug use. So one in four of British Muslim
prisoners have been convicted for drug-related offences. [2] Muslims and the Global Drug Trade We need to face facts: Muslim involvement
in hard drugs is not confined to Muslims in the West. Of the traditional
‘natural’ drugs, Muslims are heavily involved with the planting,
harvesting, refinement, smuggling, and distribution to Europe of heroin
and cannabis. While cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance in
Europe, heroin, the most deadly drug, is little used in comparison; but it
is most associated with social marginalisation and addiction. Cannabis Today, Morocco is the world’s largest
cannabis exporter, with a crop of 2000 metric tonnes, having had a tenfold
increase in production from 1983-1993. While the Moroccan government has
made agreements with the European Union (EU) to grow substitute crops and
domestic seizures of hash have risen, total production has increased at
the same time. There is deep government involvement, going right up to the
Royal family; an assertion that can be given some credence because the
Ministry of Agriculture produces highly accurate and confidential
statistics about the total acreage of hash under cultivation every year.
One estimate puts the value of hash exports at two thirds of Morocco’s
total exports, or 10% of the country’s income. Most hash enters Europe
through Spain, where it distributed by Moroccan and Dutch criminal
elements among others. Heroin Of the world’s two major heroin
suppliers, Afghanistan overtook Burma as world leader in the late 1990s.
In 1999, it supplied 77% of the world’s heroin, a figure which has been
publicly acknowledged by the Taliban. [3] We can also note the increased
production and refinement of poppy seed in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan. [4] Hitherto, the drug, in a semi-refined state, has been
shipped from Afghanistan through Pakistan to the West. It was CIA intervention—in support of the
Mujahedin who were fighting Soviet oppression in the early 1980s—which
was crucial in turning Afghanistan and Pakistan from local suppliers into
international ones by providing the necessary political protection and
logistical networks. The CIA in co-operation with Pakistan’s
Interservices Intelligence supplied arms to the Mujahedin in return for
payment in raw opium. It was only after Soviet withdrawal that the US gave
serious monies to combat poppy seed production. Pakistan had started the
1980s as a major producer of poppy seed, but government anti-drugs
measures have virtually wiped out production (2 metric tonnes) by 1999.
[5] When the Taliban first captured Kandahar in
1994, they announced a total ban on drugs, but this stance was quickly
dropped when they realised that narcotics provided an invaluable source of
income and, furthermore, that an outright ban would greatly alienate
farmers dependent on the crop. So as Taliban control spread, production
rose by a massive 25% up to 1997. ‘Abd al-Rasheed, the head of the
Taliban’s anti-drugs control force in Kandahar said in May 1997 that
while there was a strict ban on hashish, “opium is permissible because
it is consumed by kafirs (unbelievers) in the West and not by Muslims or
Afghans.” [6] In the process of institutionalising and guaranteeing
income from the drug trade, the Taliban started to levy zakat on poppy
cultivation and charge tolls on the transportation of the poppy residue
under armed Taliban guard out of the country. [7] An increasing number of
drug laboratories were set up in Afghanistan. Even if not much drug profit
stays in Afghanistan and Pakistan—only about 9% of the total Western
street value—this still added up to about $1.35 billion US dollars in
1999. Poppy seed, either as a raw crop or in its initially refined form as morphine, has until recently been the major source of income in a war-shattered economy both for farmers and the government. Yet despite this economic dependency, it must still be said: the remark of the Taliban official quoted above was hypocritical and cynical. There is not one standard of upright conduct for Muslims and another for non-Muslims: our religion requires us to behave impeccably with both. And far from Muslims being unaffected by Afghani heroin, Pakistan now has the highest heroin addiction rate in the world. In 1979, Pakistan had no addicts, in 1986, it had 650,000 addicts, three million in 1992, while in 1999, government figures estimate a staggering figure of five million. Nor is the problem confined to Pakistan.
Despite one of the toughest anti-drugs policies in the world, where the
death-penalty is given for the possession of a few ounces of heroin, Iran
officially had 1.2 million addicts in 1998 (off the record, officials
admit to the figure being more like 3 million). By 1998, only 42 % of
total heroin production was exported out of South Asia; 58% of opiates
were being consumed within the region itself. So heroin addiction is not
only a Western problem, but also a deeply Muslim one. Between 1997-1999, Kabul offered to end
poppy seed production—to both the US and the UN—in return for
international recognition, which suggests that the Taliban leadership was
not serious in the past about ending production but used the whole issue
of drug control as a diplomatic lever. [8] Thankfully, the Afghan
government seems to have recently changed its public position. In 1999,
Amir Mullah Omar Mohammed announced that poppy seed production should be
cut by one third. On 28 July 2000, Mullah Omar ordered a complete ban of
poppy seed cultivation, and appealed for the assistance of the
international community in funding crop replacement schemes. [9] The
official figures for 2000 showed a reduction of 28% on 1999, but this was
mostly attributable to the terrible drought the country suffered during
that period. [10] It has now been confirmed by outside agencies that the
Taliban have wiped out the 2001 harvest, as a UNDCP team reported in
February that the major growing areas were virtually free of poppies,
which was corroborated by the US Drug Enforcement Agency in May. Despite
the DEA’s prognosis that the ban will hit farmers hard, the US has
pushed for continued UN sanctions because of its campaign to bring Osama
bin Laden to trial. [10a] After being put into its morphine base,
either in Pakistan or Central Asia (and previously in Afghanistan), the
drug is transported to Turkish laboratories, where it is further refined
into heroin. About 80% of Europe’s supply is refined into heroin proper
in Turkey, although the Turks are facing increased competition from the
Russian Mafia in second-stage refinement and smuggling into Europe (via
Eastern Europe and the Baltic). As with Morocco, the Turkish civil and
military secret services are heavily involved with the drug trade. This
complicity was highlighted by a car-crash in November 1996 involving four
people: an extreme right-wing criminal on the run, a high-ranking
policeman, a beauty queen, and the only survivor, a parliamentarian of
ex-Prime Minister Ciller’s party. About 75% of Europe’s heroin is
transported from Turkey in small quantities overland via the Balkan route,
which is impossible to police effectively because of the high volume of
traffic. [11] Once in Europe, a lot of the heroin is then distributed by
significant numbers of European Turks among others, and it is then sold on
to the dealers, who sell smaller quantities to users on the street. Islamic Ruling on Drugs
(non-alcoholic Intoxicants) Ibn ‘Umar (radiya’Llahu ‘anhu)
reported that the Messenger of Allah (salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)
said, “Every intoxicant (muskir) is wine (khamr) and every intoxicant is
forbidden. He who drinks wine in this world and dies while he is addicted
to it, not having repented, will not be given a drink in the Hereafter.”
[12] This hadith is one of the primary texts that prove the prohibition of
anything that intoxicates like wine. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (rahmatu’Llahi
‘alayh), considered to be among the foremost legal authorities of the
entire late Shafi‘i legal school, has classified the consumption of
hashish (hashisha) and opium (afyun) as an enormity or a major sin. [13]
Imam al-Dhahabi (rahmatu’Llahi ‘alayh) defined an enormity as “any
sin entailing either a threat of punishment in the hereafter explicitly
mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith, a prescribed legal penalty or being
accursed by Allah and His Messenger (salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).”
[14] Among those classical authorities who wrote of the prohibition of
hashish were Imam Zarakhshi, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Qirafi, Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi
and Imam Nawawi (rahmatu’Llahi ‘alayhim). In short, the four legal
schools agree that all intoxicants are unlawful, and they include plants
that intoxicate under this category of prohibited substances. [15] There
is a misconception among Muslim users that although drugs are unlawful,
smoking hashish is not so serious. Or they say that at least we don’t
drink! They seem to divide drugs into hard and soft drugs: a division that
is quite baseless according to Divine law. All drugs are Class A according
to our religion. British Muslims and the Drug Trade The drug trade in Britain is breaking and
shattering young Muslim lives. But to our great shame, we are not only
talking about the many Muslim victims of drug use, but the fact that
British Muslims are also heavily involved in street level drugs pushing.
From the late 1980s onwards, according to Maqsood Ahmed, it appears that
Asians replaced Afro-Caribbeans as the main drug pushers on the streets.
[16] However, Maqsood Ahmed says that it is only
the small-time Asian street pushers, not the major suppliers, who are
being caught and incarcerated. A retired lawyer, Gavin McFarlane, who once
worked in the office of the Solicitor for Customs and Excise, confirms the
view that the ‘Mr Bigs’ of drug crime are usually never caught. [17] I am not suggesting that drugs are the only
issue relating to crime, but because of the nature of addiction, drugs can
do more to destroy the moral will and the social fabric of the Muslim
community than any other type of crime. It appears that drug use among
Muslim youth matches national levels: we have no more ‘moral immunity’
from drugs than anyone else. It is instructive to look at the example of
NAFAS, a Muslim-run outreach, educational and rehabilitation programme,
based in Tower Hamlets in East London, which aims to target drug use among
Bangladeshi youth. One NAFAS activist, Abdur Rahman, has worked among
Muslims in the area of drugs, crime and mental health issues for the last
ten years. I interviewed him in order to get a real sense of what is
happening on the street. [18] In his experience, it is mainly Pakistani
and Bangladeshi youth that become involved with drugs, but it effects all
the various ethnic Muslim groups. Commonly, the parents of these young men
neglected their religious training, and instead left matters in the hands
of the madrasas. Their experience in the madrasa has been of rote learning
without any understanding, an experience that has left them bored and
alienated not only from the madrasa but also from religion itself.
Frustrated imams throw the more disruptive kids out of the madrasas onto
the streets. Clubbing together in gangs of around 20-30, these young men
are listless and bored. The result has very often been the emergence of
gang violence and turf wars. By far the most commonly used drugs are
hashish and then alcohol. Heroin is used much less. Most that smoke
‘weed’ (as hashish is known in street slang) will not touch heroin,
which is seen as a dirty drug. But the picture is complex, because 90% of
those who do use heroin say that their first drug was hashish. Those
Muslim youth that do use heroin do not use needles because they see it as
a dirty practice. Habitually, those who take heroin also use crack
cocaine. According to local police figures for the Borough of Tower
Hamlets, 50% of drug offenders referred to drugs agencies are young
Bangladeshi men. Of these, 90% are under twenty-five and more than 60%
have never received any help to get off drugs. It was in part this last
statistic that brought about the founding of NAFAS. There are no figures
for young women, but the word on the street is that hashish use is
increasing among them as well. Normally such women smoke hashish in the
home. Abdur Rahman says that taboos are breaking down. It is becoming more
common to see hashish being smoked and alcohol being drunk in the street. What are the attitudes of these young men
to religion? There are some that mock religion openly. “Islam is drab
and boring,” they say, “it is only about things you are not allowed to
do. There is no fun and laughter. We are young and now is the time for
enjoyment.” Others, who have a stronger sense of being Muslim, say they
want to practice but argue that the bad environment discourages them.
Abdur Rahman says it is easier to reach those who have some religious
feeling in them, and that these boys can point to examples where someone
they know has come off drugs and has started practising Islam. There is a real internal problem facing
this community and it will not go away if we are merely content to
highlight problems within the British criminal justice system, schooling
and welfare. However necessary, this critique of the system is only part
of the answer. To make myself absolutely clear, I am stressing the fact
that the crucial element in any response is moral and religious guidance,
which, of course, only the community can provide. This is not just a
problem of young Muslim men who have lost their way, but a failure of the
whole community to bring them up with Islamic values. We have neglected
their spiritual training (tarbiya) and failed to teach them how to live in
this world in accordance with the pleasure of Allah (akhlaqiyyat) in a way
that makes sense to them. We have even ignored their secular education; so
that on the streets of despair turning to drugs seems the best way to make
a quick buck or to escape from the pressures of racism, Islamophobia and
unemployment. What we all need in front of us, young and old, is a clear picture of what being a real man in Islam means as opposed to being a fake one. Guidance comes with our comprehension of what religion expects us to do for ourselves, and for others, for the pleasure of Allah Most High. The rest of this essay is devoted to outlining the nature of negative and positive masculinity.
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