Britain 'should approach Hamas'

In pictures: Gaza six months on The UK government has come under rising pressure from MPs to start making contact with Palestinian group Hamas. A Foreign Affairs Committee report also said it was "regrettable" UK-supplied military items were "almost certainly" used by Israel in the Gaza conflict. The cross-party group, which monitors foreign policy, called on the EU to make relations with Israel conditional on its peace-making efforts. Hamas was also criticised for its use of rockets on Israeli civilian targets. 'Ineffective strategy' But committee chairman Michael Gapes said the committee saw "few signs that the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas" was effective. He added that the government "should urgently consider engaging with moderate elements within Hamas" as it had with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier this year. The wide-ranging report condemns Israel for the continuing growth of settlements and for its blockades around the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. It was unacceptable, said Mr Gapes, to deny unrestricted access for humanitarian assistance. And the report also called for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to declare whether it considered war crimes had been committed during the December 2008 to January 2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel. Hamas came into criticism for its rocket attacks, but MPs concluded that Israel's military action in Gaza was "disproportionate". Who are Hamas? Mr Gapes said: "Rocket fire from Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups on civilian targets in Israel is unacceptable. "It generates the risk of a renewed escalation in violence, and constitutes a central obstacle in the way of Israeli willingness to move forward towards a two-state settlement." The report welcomed the endorsement by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a two-state solution to the conflict. The committee added that the split between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was a central obstacle to creating a united and democratic Palestinian state, and called for elections that could be accepted by all parties. Former prime minister Tony Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, was commended for "making an important contribution to Palestinian economic and institutional development". But movement, access and administrative restrictions on the West Bank continued to represent a "major obstacle to further Palestinian economic development," it added. Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation

Scientists 'kept at arm's length'

Scientists and engineers provide advice to ministers deciding on policy The government is keeping scientists at "arm's length" and treating science as "a peripheral policy concern," a group of MPs has said. The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee says knowledge from experts is not being properly used to make informed policy decisions. Instead of being sidelined, scientists should be able to communicate directly with the prime minister, it argues. Former chief scientist Sir David King said reform was "critical". A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) rejected the accusation, arguing that science was fundamentally central to government operations. 'Bargaining chip' The current chief scientific officer, Prof John Beddington, and his staff are part of the Government Office for Science (GO-Science). Until two years ago, GO-Science lay within the Department of Trade and Industry, but was then re-housed to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. After another reorganisation, GO-Science has recently returned to the department responsible for industry - now (BIS). The IUSS committee said that "shuffling the body responsible for providing cross-departmental science and engineering advice from one department to another" flew in the face of the government's stated aim of "putting science and engineering at the heart of policy". Scientists are kept arm's length in some departments Phil Willis Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee "It reduces science and engineering advice to, at best, a peripheral policy concern, and, at worst, a political bargaining chip, " the report said. Sir David told the BBC it was an "oddity" that the post of chief scientific adviser was relegated to a department rather than based in the Cabinet Office close to the prime minister. "The state of knowledge developed by people in our institutes and universities on very complex matters is now quite remarkable, but there is a still a big gap between decision-making and the use of that knowledge base," he said. "When I was in government, although I had a good relationship with both prime ministers I worked with, it was always a battle to get through the office into Number 10 and get that advice through when it was needed." Climate change Committee chairman Phil Willis agreed that scientists must be given better access to ensure that policies are underpinned by sound evidence. "Scientists are kept arm's length in some departments and they don't have access to the prime minister as clearly they need to do," he said. Mr Willis said the government had "a good record" in funding scientific research. "But it's how you use that science," he added. Sir David King said he had to 'battle' to be heard by ministers "For example, we've got a huge climate change agenda, we've got a huge energy agenda. Where are we using the scientific and engineering advice? "Unless at the policy stage ministers are urged to ask that basic question, 'Where is the evidence to support our policy and if there isn't, how do we get it?' "That makes good government." The committee said that too often advisers came under intense pressure to agree with the government's stance on an issue. They cited the case Prof David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, who was "hung out to dry" by ministers after claiming that recreational drug use was no more dangerous than horse-riding. A BIS spokesperson said: "Science sits squarely at the heart of government and is key to helping Britain return to growth and build a stronger and more competitive economy. The chief scientific adviser reports directly to the Prime Minister and for the first time a science minister (Lord Drayson) now sits at Cabinet. "This government has given an unprecedented level of commitment to science. We have committed to a ring fenced budget of record levels rising to £4bn by 2010/11 more than double what it was in 1997. "Science is central to the work of the new Department for Business Innovation and Skills as evidenced by the central role it plays in policies to build Britain's future prosperity including a new £150m Innovation Fund to invest in high tech companies, a radical low carbon industrial strategy and a blueprint for life sciences."

'Real Islam' just a phone call away

A user and a scholar show how the helpline's website works

A telephone and internet helpline offering advice about the true teaching of Islam is being launched in the UK today.

Callers to the Islamic Hotline will get answers to their questions within 48 hours, from scholars trained at one of the world's principal Islamic universities. Users are also able to email their enquiries through the service's website.

The Islamic scholars behind the helpline hope it will combat radicalism in Britain and help ordinary Muslims answer difficult questions about their faith.

The Islamic Hotline believes it has good news for British Muslims - keeping the laws of Islam is not as difficult as you thought.

But it also sounds a warning - the UK has a large and growing population of young Muslims who are dangerously out of touch with the older generation, and often cut off from the real teaching of their religion.

Prof Aboshady gives advice to those who call the hotline

The hotline's backers have singled out Britain as the country most urgently in need of the service.

El Hatef, as the hotline is known in Arabic, was set up in Egypt eight years ago to counter radicalism by bringing the minds of the nation's best Islamic scholars to bear on people's doubts and questions about their religion.

Since then, two million questions from Egyptians have been answered, mostly from women, and many about sex.

Some are naive, deeply personal and only obliquely related to religion.

Others betray the sort of ignorance or error onto which militants fasten when recruiting Muslims to their cause.

Is violence sometimes justified to defend Muslim interests? Should Sharia take precedence over domestic laws?

Should Christians be considered infidels? What should be the punishment for converting to another religion?

'Tranquil Islam'

The hotline's founder, Cherif Meguid, accuses the radicals of trying to enforce only a single, narrow and oppressive form of the religion.

"Radicals have hijacked our faith," he says. "This brand of Islam is radical, is harsh, is hard-line, as opposed to the brand of Islam which is available in Egypt, which is quite tranquil... at peace."

But does the hotline not simply promote Mr Meguid's own alternative interpretation of the religion?

This gives Islamic law some flexibility  Professor Anas Aboshady Al Azhar University

He says its authority rests on the prestige of Al Azhar University in Cairo and its thousand-year tradition of examining all four of the main schools of thought within Islam.

Al Azhar, which carves out an oasis of relative tranquillity amid the bustle of Cairo's chaotic Islamic quarter, is the closest thing that Sunni Islam has to a central source of authority, a sort of Muslim Vatican.

Compared to the Salafi movement in Saudi Arabia, its rulings might be considered liberal, except for one important principle, one which the Islamic hotline hopes to export to the UK.

That is that Muslims have always been offered latitude in the rules of their religion, a choice as to which of the schools of thought they follow.

One of the Al Azhar scholars who answers hotline questions, Professor Anas Aboshady, says only 10% of rulings within Islam are generally agreed. In 90% of cases there is disagreement.

Prof Aboshady provides callers with a sense of the varying interpretations of Islamic law and then recommends one in their particular case.

"We are not sticking to one view, or one school of law," he says. "What we present is what we believe is suitable to people in different times and places and let them choose which is suitable to them.

"This gives Islamic law some flexibility, so we are not changing the religion or creating new religion, but simply give people the chance to choose which is suitable to them."

The effect, according to Prof Aboshady, allows Muslims to live as easily in modern times as in the past - and in Britain as easily as in Egypt.

Abuse

Hanaa Ismail called the line about what she calls "issues in the family, about the relations between a man and his wife, what a wife's duties are".

She says one key to the hotline's effectiveness is the anonymity it offers to callers perplexed by deeply personal issues.

"They get embarrassed to ask even their own mother about them.

Hanaa Ismail says she values the anonymity the hotline offers

"She might be abused by a man for a long while and yet she could get embarrassed to talk about it. This has been... an Arab tradition.

"With this helpline she can ask for help without any embarrassment, and [the scholar] won't know who she is, and she can ask about all the details."

Rizwan Ali dropped into an internet cafe in north London to examine the Islamic hotline's British website.

It will be possible to place questions online as well as by phone, in Urdu and Arabic as well as English. It will cost about £4 to have a question answered.

For Rizwan, the advantage lies in being able to get tailor-made advice appropriate to life in Britain - help he says is otherwise hard to find.

"For someone like myself born and raised in the UK and living a London-orientated life, this website is great, giving me one-to-one contact with scholars who offer impartial advice."

Rizwan types in his own question - about whether the traditional Islamic rule that women should travel only with their husband's permission applies in modern Britain.

In Cairo, Prof Aboshady gives his judgement.

He says the rule was designed to protect women at a time when travel was dangerous. In Britain that no longer applies.

Prof Aboshady says true Islamic teaching was designed to make life easier for Muslims and for the non-Muslims with whom they live.

The backers of the Islamic hotline believe it is an idea that can help defeat the radicals and their austere vision of Islam