I had an Islamophobic incident at work yesterday, a bit of a wake up call for me because it was from people I considered friends, since 9/11 everything’s been getting worse and worse and it keeps deteriorating…
I don’t blame them for their hatred, given their limited one-sided knowledge of current political events, our black-sheep and our apathy to remedy the situation it’s natural…
…It’s not their fault, they’ve been brainwashed the same way people in remote areas of Pakistan are brainwashed against the entire West with only one-side info and half truths…
…I guess they are just worried about their culture and country and that’s natural…
…But for a few minutes I could see how it would have felt like for a Jew when his German friends suddenly turned against him or a Bosnian Muslim when his Serb family and friends suddenly turned against him…
The Islamaphobic views expressed in right-wing newspapers like the Sun, Daily Express etc. emanated from the mouths of those that I considered friends (my only friends outside my family)..
Yesterday I could relate to the movie My Name is Khan.
…I could see very clearly why a lot of British born Muslims/Asians don’t integrate, why they don’t feel patriotic or loyal towards their country the same way American or South-African Muslims do.
It all became clear why British Asians prefer to stick to their own cliques and look down on coconuts like me, why they feel more loyalty and brotherhood with a Muslim in Afghanistan or Palestine than with fellow Brits of
a different faith..
Because when British Muslims like me do try to chummy up with Caucasian Non-Muslims they are pushed away…
Everyone wants to belong to a group and be accepted…
I realised how dangerous the tarring of all Muslims in the same brush and Islamophobia (you can’t divorce Islam from Muslims) by the EDL/BNP and their followers can be…
It just makes British Muslims more alienated, detached and disillusioned from mainstream society, it drives them further away from integration and assimilation into mainstream British society and an easy target for brainwashing by terrorist groups who capitalise on racism, islamaphobia, western foreign policies and the suffering of Muslims worldwide.
Up untill now I mostly blamed British-Pakistanis for being insular and not stepping outside their little cliques but I guess I was being naive, the early Pakistani immigrants were pushed away from mainstream society by the BNP for being brown curry-eating foreigners and today we the British born generation are being pushed away from mainstream society by EDL and its likes for being Muslim…
We Muslims need to do something to remedy the situation, and extremism is not the answer, it will just worsen things…
…I know religion is greatest source of solace at times like these (a safe, hiding place) but we should use it positively to strenghthen the bond of Muslim brotherhood amongst Muslims and also to build bridges of understanding, love and tolerance between Muslims and Kafirs (I don’t mean this as an insult, it simply means ‘rejector’, even Muslims are described by this word in the Koran in certain contexts).
We need to do more to show people that our religion is a religion of peace.
We need to do more to disassociate ourselves and our religion from terrorism and extremism.
We need to tell our countrymen that we don’t want to take over their country or impose Shariah on them like the EDL suggest. Even the Prophet PBUH didn’t apply Islamic law to the Jews and Christians in his empire but he gave them autonomy to judge by their own Torah’s and Gospel’s, and this is not even an Islamic state, nor do we have any agenda to make it as such.
British Muslims are just happy to be allowed to believe and practice the Five Pillars of Islam without our religion being bashed and insulted everywhere, we want nothing more…
We just want to live here and make ends meet because because Pakistan or Gujarat are not nice places anymore.
We Muslims need to be more practical and remember the “the pen is lifted…” hadith when it comes to removing the veil for security reasons or when we have to go through a full-body scanner, these are neccesities and by refusing to do these things we are making a tit out of ourselves, fellow Muslims and Islam.
We Muslims need to stop demanding special rights such as prayer-breaks and not serving customers certain products in supermarkets etc. If we want to practice Islam then it’s our duty to find a job in which break-time coincides with prayer-time and it’s our job to only work in an establishment where we’re not required to serve haram products…
We can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Other people shouldn’t have to go to any inconvenience or trouble so that we can practice our religion, one of the main factors in Islamophobia is when we infringe on their rights in the name of religion…
…Religion in general is despised in this country, and now Islam in particular due to the political situation… Let’s just work on removing those misconceptions first and not infuriate people further with our stupid little demands in its name.
One we could flaunt our religion and still be accepted, people were more tolerant then, the 90’s were a golden age, now it’s kalyug.
This country gives us a lot of rights but just because they give us a inch does not mean we can take a mile. In fact today it would be prudent to even turn down that inch because that’s what the EDL use.
Recently the council was giving out free cars to veiled Muslim women in a certain area because they feel vulnerable on public transport, that’s ridiculous, it’s because of incidents like this when we leach off public funds that people start hating us.
We need to demand that hate-clerics who are leaching off this country’s benefits and living in council flats be deported.. Just imagine if this was Pakistan with a welfare system and Nick Griffin was leaching off the Pakistani state whilst preaching hatred against Pakis and Muslims, how would we feel?
Also in this age of phobia and intolerance it would be prudent of Muslims to tone down the cultural aspects of our identity such as dress, language and architecture…
There is no need to wear thobes or shalwar-kamiz, build onion domes and minarets or converse in our native languages…
Most people don’t even know about politics but it’s these visual cultural aspects of our identity which make them paranoid.
There is nothing wrong with wearing western clothes, any clothing is Islamic as long as they’re modest, secular (not a vicars crucifix or a nun’s rosary) and not of the opposite gender.
Fair enough beard is mentioned in Ahadith but there is nothing wrong with an Imam wearing a three piece suit over a white thobe suited to the desert climate…
Also our sisters who wear Hijab/Niqaab, it would be prudent of them to replace their black gowns/veils (which stand out and draw attention) with long ankle-length western style coats and headscarves in mild colors which blend in (if you think the situation is right you can even cover your face with the edge of your scarf)…
The ninja-look scares people away from Islam.
Last we should be nice and polite to everyone and patient in the face of hostility…
If someone wants to know about Islam we should preach Islam with “wisdom and beautiful preaching”, with diplomacy, without making the listener feel insulted..
Simply the good manners (akhlaaq) alone of our beloved Prophet PBUH and the early Muslims converted nations to Islam.
Tis not graciss … MUCHAS GRACIÁS !