14 July 2011

Muslim leader from Leicester says Islam must integrate

Islam should develop further to become a "normal and integral" part of British life, the new president of a national Muslim society has said.

Leicester's Dilwar Hussain, from Islamic Society of Britain (ISB), hoped to encourage the Muslim community to "think very seriously" about its place in the nation at large.

Mr Hussain, who was elected in June and is based at the Islamic Foundation in Leicestershire, would like to adapt Islamic practice to feel more British and European.

He said that there were universal principles in Islam as there are in Christianity.

But he added Christianity had found a home in cultures very different from the time and place in which it was founded. "Christianity began in the Middle East, but nobody in Europe thinks of Christianity as a Middle Eastern religion," he said. [BBC] Read more