Written by Tabbasam Hamid
After watching the BBC’s ‘My Brother, the Islamist’ last week, I was reading some of the comments that had been posted on the BBC blog site, and they seemed to somewhat mirror the tone of Robb Leech’s own experience: mothers grieving for lost sons, friends and relatives distraught and bemused. Their loved ones had been taken from them, except they did not die a physical death, but it was as if a wicked imposter had assumed the physical form of their beloved and initiated an indefinitely long ceremony of cruelty against them. And what led them away? They believe it was Islam. As if the religion hasn’t been denigrated enough, now there are people who believe that the Islamic mission is one of destroying bonds of kith and kin, and conditioning young men to look on any non-Muslim as subhuman.
Robb Leech tries to follow his step-brother ‘Rich’ in this poignant documentary, only to be confronted by a ‘Salahuddin’ and some of his associates. I must clarify that Salahuddin and Rich are the same person, but after Rich’s conversion to Islam, he becomes, in a sense, unrecognisable to his stepbrother. Robb is by no means Islamaphobic, but reacts as any person would to his brother turning against him in such a cold and inexplicable way. He recounts their life growing up together, their closeness, and the mutual affection; and at times when he interviews his brother, you can sense the very feint remnants of a bond. But all this is completely swept away by Salahuddin’s bigotry and vitriol. It really was heartbreaking to see, especially when Robb learns that some of the brothers shake his hand with their left hand because they class him as among the ‘dirty kafir’.
Robb also follows a 17 year old convert to Islam who falls under the influence of Anjem Choudhary and his cohort as well. His mother feels distraught at the thought of her son becoming radical, but resolves to allow him to make his own choices in life, however much hurt that may cause her.
Under the tutelage of Choudhary’s group young men have been led down a path of delusions and falsehood. It is true that they constitute a negligible minority and extremist fringe, but they have a grotesquely disproportionate influence in forming public opinion about Islam. It is a shame that the media converges on these fools to give them a platform to tar our religion. Where is the voice of the ‘moderates’ people ask? It’s not sensationalist, too dull to listen to, is the answer.
Another thing I noticed watching this was that when Salahuddin and his posse film messages in their makeshift studio to upload to youtube, in the background there is always a banner of the shahadah in black and white- black writing and white background, or vice versa. And I think that this black/white colour code they seem to have runs in parallel with their thought processes: their world view too is black and white, incapable of viewing the panoply of human diversity or the goodness in human beings as human beings. Their views also lack any frame of reference, existing at the level of parrot-fashion imitation. They are like machines: capable of saying an array of words in the right order (sometimes!) but never even beginning to understand their meaning or their weight.
This is a beautifully made and thought-provoking documentary, on BBC iPlayer now.















Will you be lining up to buy an iPad soon? If you did, how would you like to read emel? Would you download and read an emel iPad or iPhone app if we offered one? Please leave your thoughts and comments below 







Have you ever been lost in a maze?
A few people have asked about my reference to a butterfly in my most recent editorial: “Any attempt to prematurely escape from such challenges before they have had the chance to impact your character is like the butterfly that is hastily urged out of its cocoon – it will be unable to truly fly.” (









































By Ali Khimji



















Ways you can help the people of Japan
There is no doubt that you would have seen the calamities that have affected Japan in recent days. So far, at least 2,500 casualties have been confirmed, with 1,800 injured and over 3,700 people missing. And that’s without mentioning the millions that are without access to clean water, fuel or food.
There have also been three explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, and technicians are struggling to prevent a meltdown. Civilians have been evacuated from a 12-mile radius around the area.
The Red Cross is the main organisation overseeing donation collection, and they have around 80 teams on the ground.
One of the amazing things is that countries who have undergone recent disasters of their own have pledged aid to Japan, such as Pakistan and Bolivia. On Sunday, Reuters reported that the mayor of Kandahar city in Afghanistan has pledged $50,000 to relief efforts.
Aid doesn’t have to be in the form of money either; the president of Maldives is sending 86,400 cans of tuna to help with food shortages. This is in acknowledgement of Japan’s help following the 2004 tsunami.
Unfortunately, scammers have jumped on the donation bandwagon and have created illegitimate websites to hoax people into sending money. According to one set of research, an estimated 1.7 million scam websites can be found through Google (although multiple pages will be listed with different search terms), and 14,200 were added between Sunday and Monday.
There are a number of ways that you can help those in need:
You can also try and raise money in your local community through bake sales, football tournaments or other sponsored initiatives.
There has been some debate as to whether we should be sending money and aid to Japan, as they are a wealthy country themselves. However, what gives us the authority to say who should be on the receiving end of a helping hand?
Indeed, the Messenger of God has said: “Give to a beggar even if he comes on a horse.” (Malik)
Posted in: Comment, Feature.