However, in my opinion, the most interesting development surrounding the election has the been the launch of not one, but several voting campaigns targeted at Britain's relatively small community of Muslim citizens. The concentration of Muslims within a handful of constituencies, combined with the strong possibility of a hung parliament, has motivated community leaders from various backgrounds, to urge their followers to simply, “Get out and vote!”.

The following are links to web-based campaigns I have come across so far:

Continue reading at MuslimMatters.org…

As some of you may have heard, a coalition of fascist groups are planning to hold a static demo outside the Harrow Mosque in NW London, tomorrow, i.e., on Jumuah, Sept 11, 2009. A counter-protest has been organised by 'Unite Against Fascism', with support from various elements of the London Muslim community.

It is clear that tensions are now running high in the lead up to the event. I, myself, have received numerous text messages from Muslim acquaintances encouraging their fellow Muslims to go “defend the mosque” – without actually explaining what that means. I can't help but feel that this is all reminiscent of several violent clashes between fascist protesters and Muslim youth, that have occurred in the recent past. In this regard, sister Yvonne Ridley gave clear warning to attendees of the protest, via her Facebook profile… continue reading.

I actually heard about the event earlier in the week, but didn't really know what it was about, so I mistakenly ignored it. It's only when I received yet another text message about it this morning from a good friend, that I was spurred into writing something, worrying that all this buzz was leading somewhere bad, God forbid.

I am praying that the right-wing media, and the fascist thugs, don't get the anti-Muslim front page headlines they are no doubt salivating for, and that there are no casualties – on either side (I'd rather the opposition be guided, than beaten up, tbh; besides, doing so would only serve to start up a cycle of revenge attacks).

It's for my article that was published today, over at MuslimMatters:

As I've mentioned on more than one occasion, I am subscribed to alerts from They Work For You – a free site that allows the public to keep track of parliamentary proceedings. Even so, I will continue to remind you all of this fact, because I think everyone should make use of this amazing service. I am hardly politically astute, but I still choose to keep an ear open for when the British government decides to talk about me (or rather, things dear to me), i.e., Islam and the Muslim community.

Recently, there was a sudden rise in the number of alerts I received, containing my keyword of choice, “Islam”, all because one particular British MP, Ben Wallace (Conservative MP for Lancaster & Wyre, Former Conservative MSP for North East Scotland), has been asking a lot of questions on the subject lately – six questions in just two days. After reading through them, I become somewhat alarmed, as they described a number of initiatives that have the potential to directly affect how Islam is understood and practised in the UK. This includes scholarly efforts to 'contextualise' Islam in Britain, and the teaching of Islamic Studies in universities. To add some further context, several of these questions were posed in relation to “Paragraph 9.21 of the UK Strategy for Countering International Terrorism“.

The six questions and answers are presented below.

Continue reading…

I was quite worried about how this article would be received – mainly because politics is not my forte. However, I don't consider this article to be 'political', rather, the intention was simply to be informative. These are matters that concern me – and the rest of the British Muslim community – and I felt it my duty to spread the news.

I am also concerned about sounding like 'just another paranoid Muslim, thinking the government is out to get us'. But the thing is, though my own opinion can be utterly ignored, the facts cannot. And that is what I have aimed to do: present a set of facts – without editing, and providing original sources – then analyse those facts, and present my own theory. The theory could be way off, but the facts remain as facts. Facts, facts, facts… FACTS. [I thought I'd throw that word in a few more times for added emphasis.]

I asked a friend of mine to read over the article while it was still in draft form, and she wasn't aware of any of the initiatives described therein. I'd call her an 'average' Muslim – in that she is conscientious, but not politically active, as such. She, too, was alarmed at the information. So, I am hoping that I am not way off base with my assessment.

Thanks to Indigo Jo for giving the article a once over too, and confirming a mistake that I had made. Though he never told me whether he agreed with my paranoid instincts or not – I'm sure he'll share his opinions soon enough, inshā’Allāh.

The email linked to a debate regarding an amendment to Clause 15 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, which covers the issue of post-mortem examinations. Muslims (and as it turns out, Jews as well) require the body to be buried as soon as possible after death occurs. In addition, generally speaking, many people have a special sensitivity towards surgical autopsy, as they don't wish the body of the deceased to be 'harmed' in any way.

The debate revealed that Manchester's coroners jurisdiction has been offering MRI-based autopsies for some time, developed in response to the needs of its sizeable Muslim and Jewish communities. Apparently, not only is the procedure non-invasive, but it is also much quicker than the traditional, dissection-based method, as it does not rely on the analysis of biopsies, which can delay the results of a post-mortem for days, or even weeks.

Continue Reading at MuslimMatters.org…

Communities and Local Government

Community Relations: Islam

Paul Goodman (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Wycombe, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what meetings Ministers in her Department have had with groups of British Muslims on the possible effects of events in Gaza since 27 December 2008 on community cohesion; and what the names were of the individuals who attended each meeting.

—

Sadiq Khan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Community Cohension and Fire and Rescue Service), Department for Communities and Local Government; Tooting, Labour

Since 27 December the following meetings have been held:

On 6 January I and Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs met a range of representatives and individuals from a number of organisations including but not limited to the Quilliam Foundation, Muslim Council of Britain, British Muslim Forum, the Sufi Muslim Council, the Al Khoei Foundation, the UK Ismaili Council and the Ithna Asheri Khoja Shia World Federation.

On 8 January I and Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, met members of the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group (NMWAG).

On 10 January I met the Young Muslims Advisory Group (YMAG) at their YMAG residential meeting.

On 12 January the Communities Secretary, the Foreign Secretary and I met representatives and individuals from a number of organisations including but not limited to the Quilliam Foundation, Muslim Council of Britain, British Muslim Forum, City Circle, the YMAG, British Muslims for a Secular Democracy, the Sufi Muslim Council, the Al Khoei Foundation, the UK Ismaili Council and the Ithna Asheri Khoja Shia World Federation.

On 13 January I and Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, met members of the YMAG.

On 15 January the Communities Secretary and the Home Secretary met representatives and individuals from a number of organisations, including the Sufi Muslim Council, Al Khoei Foundation, the NMWAG, the Ithna Asheri Khoja Shia World Federation, Association of Muslim Social Scientists, the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, Active Change Foundation, and Quilliam Foundation.

On 15 January I met members of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board.

On 15 January I also met front line providers and deliverers to hear their concerns.

Not all of the above named groups are supported by the majority of people that they purportedly represent. But for whatever reason, they're the ones who the government are prepared to talk to. That means they are shaping policies – policies that affect the rest of us – whether we like it or not. In that respect, the repeated mention of the Quilliam Foundation is worrisome.

What is it?
When was it written?
Where can I find a copy?
And most importantly – who is it enforced by?

Because according to several commentators, Israel has repeatedly broken “international law” and is guilty of committing war crimes – and not just with its recent acts of depravity in Gaza – but since its inception.

Humanitarian laws, U.N. resolutions, the Geneva Convention, etc, etc… blah blah blah.

So. What.

Have they ever been held accountable for it? What is the point of establishing a system of law, that is never enforced? Is it some kind of political in-joke?

“Oh, look… there goes Israel, breaking 'international law' again. The rascals!”

Let's face it. No-one can seriously expect the US or UK governments to enforce this fabled “international law”, as many of their members would be the first ones to be prosecuted. In fact, most nations with any influence and power are guilty of something.

I really hate to write blog posts that are essentially pointing out the obvious, and complaints with no merit; a modern version of armchair politics. But I find such blatant hypocrisy and idiocracy so darned frustrating, it has to be vented somewhere.

The PSC has issued a press release giving further details of Israel's recent, alledged war crimes. I don't know why I used the word “alledged”. It's not like they are going to court. Not in this life, anyway, subhanallah.

I couldn't read it all. It just became a string of meaningless words and statistics after a while.

—

I watched Disc 1 of Occupation 101 last night. What touched me most was the following scene of a little Palestinian girl complaining about the destruction of her personal possessions:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have actually seen that clip before, online, but it touched me even more this time round.

All I could think was: “What a little madam!”

She reminds me of so many cute girls that I have known over the years. The kind you just have to engage with, because they are oh-so-clever, with their big words, and telling you what's-what! And when they fall, or break their favourite toy, and the tears inevitably begin to fall, you are compelled to hug their pain away, and say: “Shh, baby. Don't cry. I'll buy you a new dolly”. Even if you're skint broke, and have never met them before in your life: the tears must stop.

That's all I wanted to do for that little girl.

—

I'm sorry to rub it in. To repeat what has already been written. Even this same apology has been written over and over.

I'm also sorry for not giving equal attention to all the other ongoing disasters in this world. Indeed, I am most likely being played by the fickle media machine.

But, in my defence: what laments a sick person the most? The crippling, chronic arthiritis in their joints, or a freshly sliced stab wound to the guts?

Taken outside the Egyptian embassy in London, at the end of a demonstration calling for the opening of the Gazan border.

Photos taken at a public demonstration against the bombing of Gaza, held outside the Israeli embassy in London.

Some highlights:

Lord Renton of Mount Harry (Conservative) “… there was a proposal for young Muslims to be taught citizenship in school so that they could see that there was no necessary conflict between Islam and British life? That is a difficult task, but has the process started and is it succeeding?”

I can't imagine it would be any more difficult to teach citizenship to Muslim youth, than to any other average young person. Can anyone add some insight – teachers, young people, youth workers, etc.?

—

Lord Hylton (Crossbench) “My Lords, do the Government recognise that British Muslims and others should be free to make political criticisms of military occupations and regimes, where these occur, without automatically being labelled as extremists?”

Baroness Andrews (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government; Labour) “My Lords, we certainly agree with that. Our work to prevent extremism is simply to build up the resilience of local communities to deal with distortions of the faith. That is why we are working at civic and community level and with faith groups to put into practice some of the opportunities, for example new activities for young people and leadership programmes for women and young people, which can help to challenge such distortion.”

Government meddling in religious affairs… that always ends well… </sarcasm>

—

Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Spokesperson in the Lords (Discrimination Law Refrom), Women and Equality; Liberal Democrat) “My Lords, is there a danger in lumping people together into different communities… People within those groups are individual human beings with very different positions. If we classify them in that way, will we not create a divisive rather than a united system?”

—

Baroness Warsi (Shadow Minister (Community Cohesion), Communities and Local Government; Conservative) “My Lords, can the Minister confirm that British Muslim communities are part of the general communities which make up Britain? If that is so, can she explain why the British Muslim engagement unit is based in the Foreign Office?”

Hilarious!

—

Baroness Falkner of Margravine (Spokesperson in the Lords, Home Affairs; Liberal Democrat) “My Lords, in January we saw the appointment of 19 women to the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group… in the interests of equality, why a Muslim men's group has not been established…?”

Baroness Andrews (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government; Labour) “My Lords, as the noble Baroness well knows, we work with women because they are underrepresented as leaders in the community… She will know that men in the Muslim communities—this is a rather mischievous question—are very well represented”

Roughly translates as: “Oy, Miss Cheeky! Stop stirring!“