Today I had to take the tube to a meeting in London. I did this with some trepidation, not because of fear of death: when your number is up its up, but because of how others would react to me, an obvious muslim woman. Already stories of attacks on muslim have started to come to the fore.
As i stood in the carriage people definitely kept their distance, then a middle class middle aged white gentlemen boarded the carriage. He walked purposely towards me and stood next to me. A seat became available behind him, he lent towards me and said ‘Excuse me, would you like to sit down’ I wanted to hug him. It felt to me like he was saying I know how hard it must be for you and I want to extend my hand of freindship.
Bouyed up by this experience I went to my meeting. It was at a 5 star hotel, where you hardly see any non white faces. At lunch the maitre’d interupted my conversation and said ‘Excuse me madam, the chicken here is halal but on the buffet table it is has been placed on a bed of ham, may i get you a fresh piece’ I was dumbstruck. Again he went out of his way to make me feel welcome.
On Friday I had delibrately gone to my Gym class, a mixed race lady came up to me and said, you must continue to be courageous, do not let the negative things affect how you live. We must not let them create divisons between us.
This why I love London and the British. It is easy to feel the need to hide but we mustn’t give in to that. We have to be out there doing what we normally do, we must make contact with other people, speak to them, let them know what we are like and get to know what they are like. All the people i mentioned above were telling me they understood how i must feel but also showing they know the difference between us who are the victims and people who commit atrocities. We will not let them change the way we live our lives.
On Saturday I took my children to lay flowers at Kings Cross.
That's lovely Dips. Especially touching because you live and work in London, the heart of where it all took place.
It's a shame that these people go unnoticed, whereas the (very) small minority that are causing trouble for Muslims end up in the papers and on the news.
Not to take anything away from good people in London, but I was also extended similar feeling here in Dallas, Texas. Right after 911, when I arrived at work I had no idea what was going on (at that time planes were "hijacked") but shortly after I went to my boss made an excuse (which was geniune) went home. The next day when I showed up at work, my boss called me up and said "if anyone has said ANYTHING which hurt you yesterday, just let me know and he 'll go down". His boss (AGM) showed up in my cubicle (one of rarest occasions) and talked to me, just to make me feel comfortable. If they hadn't showed support, I probably would have quit shortly afterwards.
thank you for a much needed heartening and cheerful anecdote Serendipiti.
May God grant the virtues of tolerance and forbearance to us all - Muslims and Non-Muslims alike... along with the wisdom to fathom the ordinary majorities in every religion from the marginal oddities that cause harm.
Man, if only people in DC would act the same towards Muslims as they did back before September 11th. Well, then again, DC people aren’t very nice to begin with
Khair, that’s really nice to hear :). Very considerate of them.
My sister was in highschool back when 9/11 happened, and after about a week when people found out that "Muslim extremists" were the ones responsible for the terrorist attacks, somebody had put a note into my sister's locker saying something like "Muslims will all die" or something like that (don't remember the exact wording). My sister does hijaab, so maybe that's the reason why they felt so much hate, I dunno.
Anyways, so after the school found out about it and my parents went in and talk to the Principal and stuff, one of my sister's teachers had the kids in class make a bunch of really nice notes all colored with nice messeges on them like "Don't let them put you down", and stuff and they put those in her locker.
Well 3 of the attackers have been revealed, they were British Pakistanis from West Yorkshire & 9 frustrated britishers killed a pakistani student in Nottingham. Lets hope for the best.
Illiterate lunatics r all over the world, imagine this would have happened in Pakistan, pakistanis would have burned the British High Commision (in pakistan)down. Now wt our concern is wt made those kids of age 19-22 who would have been enjoying their youth made do these terrifying suicide attacks, Wt???. These fights will never end & I guess this is the way world might come to an end, whatever it may be may ALLAH give us imaan to stay on the right path & fight our fears until the end of time. Ameen
Nice post Serendipiti, the Brit public are not usually haters they’re just human like the rest of us and have the same aprehensions as us, some are xenophobic but it’s perfectly understandable one because of the terrorists who associate themselves with our religion and secondly because of the attitude of the social-outcaste South Asian descended kids towards White people. The rest of us Muslims need to make it known through our words and actions that we’re just as human, not here to blow anyone up and that this country is just as dear to us as a home as it is to them.
**God bless our land! **
**Firm may she ever stand ****Thro’ storm and night! **
**When the wild tempests rave, ** Ruler of wind and wave
**Do Thou our country save **
**By Thy great might. **
**For her our prayer shall rise **
**To God above the skies; **
**On Him we wait. **
**Thou who art ever nigh, **
**Guarding with watchful eye, **
**To Thee aloud we cry, **
Message to my fellow Brit-Muslim youth: At this moment in time bigotry, smart arsed comments and counter-violence wont do Muslim Britons any good (likes of which I've seen coming from some of the Muslims my age in colleges in response to taunts from the White kids), we have to win their hearts over with our good manners and return their hatred with love and look towards the merciful example of the noble Prophet (saw) for guidance and remember how he forgave those who tried assassinating him, tortured him and and even those who slaughtered and mutilated his family members.
If any BNP types are unfair with us we have to bare it patiently, not that we're scared but like I said counter-violence wont do us any good in the long run, their frustrations are perfectly understandable and a part of human nature, we have to work on easing those tensions. Don't go biting the hand that feeds you (like some Afghans do in Pakistan), this country has given us a lot more than Pakistan or India or Bangladesh ever could, I don't agree with the foreign policies of our government but we have to diplomatic in expressing our opnion on that as well especially at times like these. Just don't be ashamed of your religious identity be proud of it and let that be known but don't be arrogant neither because that will do more damage than you can ever imagine, be down to earth & humble and remember how the Muslim traders who went to foreign lands in the olden days were and how their host communities after dealing with them and appreciating their Islamic good manners and Islamic honesty would embrace Islam themselves, that's what we need today, only good manners and patience can destroy hatred, let me tell you a personal story when my mother was in hospital there was a nun belonging to a non-mainstream "Christian" cult in the same ward, the nun was so mean to my mother and told the nurses to not let the "heathen" use the exit/entrance near her door but my mother was always nice to her in return, you know how Asian relatives are like with presents normal people would take a carton of juice or a bouquet of flowers but Asians will take crates and crates of fruit and edible stuff and that's what our friends and relatives use to do, and my mother would distribute most of it amongst the nurses and fellow patients and despite the nuns' awful attitude towards my mother my mum never left her out and would leave something by her bed side table, and do you know what? Today that same nun is a devout ninjabi Muslimah, head of the sister wing of the Islamic society in our town, she leads occasional female congregations in prayer, teaches young girls of our community religion and holds religious lectures for the women in our community centre.
