As a British Muslim, I am deeply concerned and dismayed about the latest pronouncements from Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation, warning British and American Muslims 'not to travel by plane or to live in skyscrapers'. The highly provocative statement, broadcast on the Qatar-based television station, al-Jazeera, only gives credibility to western allegations of al Qaeda's complicity in the events of September 11th. Spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, also advised non-Muslims to leave the Arabian peninsula and he went on to issue specific threats against British Premier Tony Blair, US President George W. Bush, his two predecessors, and the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. As British Muslims we do not need to take orders from al Qaeda, or anyone for that matter, else about where to live or how to travel. We are proud members of British society and we abide by its laws as well as enjoying its freedoms. I am therefore commend Prime Tony Blair, for extolling the many virtue if Islam. He is right when he says that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant religion and that we share many of the same values. He is also right to reiterate that this is a war against terrorism and not Islam. He therefore clarifies the fact that such terrorist
activity bears no connection with Islam as a religion or Muslims at large. I am heartened too, by the recent ICM poll, which shows that two thirds of Britons do not regard my faith as a threat to 'western values'. This confirms my belief that the great majority of people in this country are more broad minded and tolerant of other peoples believes than we are often led to believe. It is a pity that such Islamic values of tolerance, respect and justice are not practised by the Taliban government of Afghanistan. I am inclined
to agree with those Islamic scholars who say the Taliban's version of Islam reflects tribal traditions rather than Islamic tenets, leading to many monstrous injustices against the Afghan people. The second Caliph of Islam, Hazrat Omar, suspended Shari'ah law in a year in which there was a drought. This is because the punitive aspects of Shari'ah law are intended as a deterrent, to be applied only when there is a complete and effective social security system in place. This clearly cannot happen when there is a drought because
starving people will steal out of necessity. There has been a drought in Afghanistan for three consecutive years, which suggests what the Taliban are doing is morally and theologically wrong.

When the Taleban took power in 1996, they put ban on women working, confirmed their cultural misjudgement. But there are tens of thousands of widows in Kabul alone, a result of two decades of war. Forced to fend for themselves due to the death or incapacitation of their male breadwinners, and banned from seeking gainful employment under the Taliban dispensation, begging and charity were the only legal options left for women.

Last year the Taleban ordered the United Nations to close down bakeries run by women in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The bakeries sold subsidised bread to 7,000 of the capital's poorest women. The UN said most of these families survived on bread and tea. As a result of such restrictions, hundreds of Afghani women are turning to prostitution to support their families, for which they can face the death penalty, as reported by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). According to UNICEF, Afghanistan now has one of the worst records on education in the world. UN figures estimate that over 95 per cent Afghan children do not go to school. Until 1996, 70 per cent of the teachers in Kabul were women, 8,000 women were enrolled at Kabul University, and 40 per cent of the children enrolled at the Afghan capital's 63 schools were girls. In their first year of office the Taliban sent 60,000 girls back into the home and their schools were closed down. Now teachers are unable to work and are gradually leaving Afghanistan.

These edicts are in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam, which permit women to work and encourage the education of females. There is an Islamic saying, which states that if you educate a boy, you educate an individual but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation. The 20th Century Egyptian
poet, Hafiz Ibrahim, reflected this traditional wisdom in one of his poems as 'al um madrassa tun', which means 'a mother is a school', so prepare her well, so that you prepare a healthy nation. It is not only women who fall foul of the Taliban regime. Islam recommends but does not demand, that men keep a beard. Yet Afghani men can be imprisoned for ten days for simply trimming their beard. Even visiting Pakistani footballers had their heads forcibly shaved and deported for shaming public morals by
wearing shorts, deemed too immodest by the religious police.

The Taliban should take a lesson from the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, when considering their response to prolonged conflict with the West. The Prophet and his companions wanted to return to their hometown of Mecca to perform the pilgrimage and visit their relatives. But the non-Muslim Quraysh tribe refused them permission to enter the city and instead prepared for battle against the Muslims. After lengthy negotiations at Hudaybiyyah, a ten-year peace treaty was signed. The Prophet also had to agree to return anyone who came to him from Mecca, without the permission of his legal guardian. But if any Muslims went to the Quraysh, they would not be returned. The Prophet's companions were unhappy with these humiliating terms and were vocal about it. But the Prophet Mohammed felt it was better for the Muslim community to lose face rather than lose lives, in a battle when a more powerful and better-armed enemy outnumbered them. As the document was being written, the son of one of the Quraysh leaders, who had become a Muslim and been imprisoned by the pagans of Mecca, somehow escaped to the Prophet's camp. He implored the Prophet Mohammed to help secure his release. But the boy's father, Suhail bin 'Amr, said that although the writing was not yet complete, the conditions of the agreement had been concluded between them; therefore, the boy should be returned to them. The Prophet fulfilled his part of the treaty and returned Abu Jandal to his oppressors.

The moral of this story is plain. The Taliban should have sought to protect the lives of the innocent civilians under their care, by averting war. It wishes to be recognised by the world community, yet it fails to recognise and implement international treaties. Surely it is better to lose face than lives? I believe the Taliban should hand over Osama Bin Laden to the International Community to face trial in a court of law. The Taliban have so far resisted, demanding evidence before agreeing to any extradition. As a former magistrate, I know that anyone can be arrested if there is reasonable suspicion of guilt. Surely this latest statement from Al Qaeda is tantamount to admission? The Taliban must abandon its tribal tradition of providing sanctuary to guests such as Osama Bin Laden, when their televised statements link them irrefutably to international terrorism.

I welcome the extra £15m in aid being sought for Afghanistan, by the international development secretary,
Clare Short. I also agree with her view that the UN must oversee Afghanistan, following the fall of the Taliban. The Northern Alliance cannot be allowed to take control - an inclusive process under the UN is essential. The United States has signalled support for the creation of a broad-based coalition to replace the Taliban. This would include forces that presently constitute the Northern Alliance as well as Taliban defectors. Some former Northern Alliance commanders with experience in the guerrilla war against Soviet
occupation in 1979-1989 may also be drawn into the new coalition. But according to the American group, Human Rights Watch, all the internal major factions have repeatedly committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including killings, indiscriminate aerial
bombardment and shelling, direct attacks on civilians, summary executions, rape, persecution on the basis of religion or ethnicity, the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, and the use of antipersonnel landmines. Many of these violations can be shown to have been "widespread or systematic," a criterion of crimes against humanity. Although committed in an internal armed conflict, violations involving indiscriminate attacks or direct attacks on civilians are increasingly being recognized internationally as amounting to war crimes.

The various parties that comprise the Northern Alliance also amassed a deplorable record of attacks on civilians between the fall of the Najibullah regime in 1992 and the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996,
for which no commander has ever been held accountable.I therefore applaud the Prime Minister for vowing not to turn his back on Afganistan once the conflict is over but to ensure its future stability through long-term investment and rebuilding programmes. Despite their ban on alcohol and other intoxicants banned by Islam the UN has reported that Afghanistan had until recently, been the world's largest producer of illicit opiates, as well as the source of about 80% of Europe's heroin market and 15% to 20% of North America's. The Taliban's double standards could not be more starkly exhibited. As a result, in neighbouring Pakistan, there are currently estimated to be approximately 5 million heroin addicts because of the availability and low cost of the drug. In 1986, I ran a rehabilitation scheme in Pakistan to assist poor families, whose sons were heroin addicts. On a recent trip to Pakistan, I was replacing a punctured tyre, when I was approached by a ten-year old boy selling iced water out of a bucket. I asked him why he was not at school and Omar replied that he had to provide for his family because his father was on heroin. Sadly, Omar is just one of millions of children whose lives are destroyed by the effects of drugs. So let us also put an end to the opium poppy trade, by offering financial help for projects to enable the war-ravaged country's desperately poor farmers to grow other cash crops instead.

The real enemies of humankind are drugs, poverty, famine, tyranny, oppression, and racial and religious intolerance. These causes may be unglamorous but they need to be addressed, in order to break the cycle of despair, hatred and revenge, for it is that which creates terrorists. I fail to understand how al Qaeda believes that their actions protect Muslims and Islam. Do they not consider the consequences, if not for themselves, then for the Islam they profess to defend? The victims of September 11th include hundreds of Muslims but there have been many others since, as innocent, law-abiding members of the British and American Muslim community have discovered to their cost. We are used to seeing Islam disparaged and attacked as being anti-libertarian, intolerant and misogynistic. I am afraid that the Taliban by their own misguided actions confirm the worst suspicions of all right thinking people and fan the flames of Islamophobia.