Interesting comments from a representative of the American Islamic Council..
Habib Rehab is touring Britain, meeting Islamic leaders and visiting Mosques around the country..
The premis of the interview was, 'is there a lesson Britain can learn from the ways the US has integrated it's own Muslim Community?'
This is the second interview over the past three days on Islamic issues, the other being 'faith schools'.. but what is interesting that both those being interviewed overused the word 'empowerment' when discussing the state of their religious fellows...
Just what this 'empowerment' entails, when any citizen of this country, and one expects the same of the US, have exactly the same rights, the same responsibilities, and should share the same goals.
'Empowerment' suggests some degree of repression on the part of the government, the Judiciary, the public at large.
And frankly, until the terrorist attacks were perpetrated, and the plans for even more and worse discovered, there was little attention paid to the Muslim Community as a whole.
Interesting that this word, 'empowerment', is one that is used by Muslim spokemen from both sides of the Atlantic..
It suggest repeated use, and an expression circulated throughout the Community to take up as a common goal..
And it also begs whether it has not come from a central source, with orders to emphasise this phrase.. to turn it into a rallying cry.. a cause..