Being Muslim is Controversial

  • I was really stumped about what to write about when told the topic for this issue of Al-Badr, I mean what do I know about controversy….

    But then on the way home last week, a passer-by spat at me and followed up his vulgar behaviour with a string of swear words that would make even the hardened swearer ashamed. This person was clearly drunk. Although shocked by the incident, I ignored the behaviour and deep down, I felt sorry for him. No one should carry around so much hatred. Besides the guy was drunk; people do lose their senses and understanding in such a state.

    The next day, when making my way home from Euston station, a couple of men made some insulting comments about Muslims as I passed. This time however, they were not drunk and to my utter surprise they were suited and booted. To top it off, one was of oriental origin.

    The following day went without incident, thank God.

    But the day after that was again followed by insults, by random people passing by… this time I really and truly ignored it, as I am unable to give a description of what they looked like.

    At first I thought what on earth am I doing to cause such reactions from random strangers??!! Surely I’m doing something controversial to cause such a response? And I couldn’t understand the number of incidents in such a short space of time, as I’ve not really dealt with such frequent anti-Islamic sentiment before. Upon reflection I thought there must be something that has happened in the public domain for there to be a sudden rise in this sort of behaviour. The media is, after all, a powerful tool to control the masses and what they are thinking.

    Lo and behold, our Prime Minister had made a speech at the Security Conference in Munich the weekend before, where he heavily focused on Muslims and terrorism. Even by coupling these words together so frequently over the last decade, they still don’t belong together. That is just not happening. I will be the first to admit that we have problems within our Muslim community; it is a sad fact. I don’t think that David Cameron gave a speech that would start to address these issues, but instead he has given wind to inflame an already delicate situation. Although there was some sense in what he said, for the most part I would describe the speech as a big whinge where he used the platform to essentially hate on Muslims; any of the good and sensible statements he made were lost in the sea of negative comments. Furthermore, some of the negativity was not explicit but implied, which in a way is more dangerous. (Worthy advice: learn to read between the lines).

    I do agree with one thing that was mentioned in the speech and that is that there is no defined British identity. In the past, British identity was intrinsically linked to the Christian faith, but as we have moved towards a secular society and the majority are moving away from any form of religion, I would like to know where the identity and values are to originate from. Who is to tell us what morality is, when as humans we make mistakes, and a person who is in Parliament is no better than someone who is not. Would you want a politician who has been unfaithful to their spouse to be making up the rules of how you live your life? I wouldn’t!

    The fact that the BNP leader and the EDL have both applauded the Prime Minister for his speech in Munich is a telling sign of how it has been received. The reaction by the general public – or those who I have encountered this past week makes me think, is it now becoming socially acceptable to hate on Muslims? Is this the new accepted form of racism? Remember, the anti-Semitic sentiment in Nazi Germany did not happen overnight, it was a conditioning of the people over years….

    We, British Muslims, need to be a positive force in our society. We need to engage, interact and try to get back to being the people who were known for standards, morality, justice and good conduct. Don’t let others tell us who we are – show the world we are better than how we are being portrayed.

    SparklyDiamond


    March 4th, 2011 | admin | No Comments |

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