Pause for Thought on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show (Thursday 16th September 2010) – My transcript from the show

The Pope is coming to town, and some people are not happy about it. There are protests lined up, some by former victims of child-abuse from members of the Catholic Church; others simply because they want to promote a secular society.

However people I come into contact with: friends, family, colleagues all seem happy with the visit. For me, a former Catholic turned Muslim, I’m glad the Pope is visiting, but accept the rights of people to protest, and even to satirise. Both are part of British culture as well as a liberal democracy.

I am uncomfortable however with the likes of ice-cream manufacturers deciding to take out adverts with pregnant nuns. Those ads – designed to be controversial – have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority as potentially offensive to Britain’s Catholics. I’m NOT a British Catholic but even I find them offensive! Yet, the company is declaring that it will take out a series of billboards along the planned route of the Pope’s cavalcade around Westminster Cathedral with other adverts in a similar vein.

It is this type of gratuitous offense that I have a problem with. When dealing with people I am guided by the Qur’anic verse, Do not argue with people of previous revelation, unless they are set on doing evil.

And I always contemplate Yeats poem, “I have spread my dreams beneath your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” Making your faith public, making it a living faith, can be like laying out your dreams. I try to tread softly.

We should not be silent where there is injustice; but we should not be gratuitous in our offense. For whilst I support the right to offend, I think we should remember it is a right; not a duty!

Yet, wedding extravagance is not the exclusive right of celebrities and former President’s daughters. All too often I see young Muslims couples feeling obliged to provide lavish ceremonies. Parents compete with parents. “So and so’s  wedding was amazing – how can we top it?” I see £40-£50,000 being spent on weddings without anyone taking a pause to ask the questions, “Is this really necessary?” “Is this really right?”

Everyone wants a happy occasion, something which can be enjoyed by the whole community and remembered by the family and couple. And whilst miserliness is not an Islamic attribute, neither is extravagance. As with all things, a balance must be found, and people must only do that which is easily within their means. Remortgaging the parental home to pay for a one day event is a folly which must be spoken against.

The extravagance of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding reminds me of my own wedding – by virtue of the fact that they were so different. When my husband and I tied the knot, I was a student and he was a pupil barrister. Our whole wedding was done on a shoe string. My mother baked the cake, my uncle iced it. My mother embroidered my dress, my sister sewed it together. We got the flowers from Covent Garden Flower Market – staying up all night to plant the centre baskets. My mother still has a plant thriving from the day. We did buy in the Asian food, but my mother and I cooked the English food. It was stressful – made more difficult by the fact my father died the week before the wedding, I went into shock and was hospitalised with a temperature which brought on a kidney infection. Yet, it was a family affair and everyone chipped in to help.

I’m not saying it has to be done this way, but I’m wary of the social pressures to put on a ‘big show’. My wedding day was a very special day – and we did not need lots of money to make it happen. What we needed was love and commitment – which are the bedrock of a marriage anyway.

August 6^th – 65 years ago today a bomb codenamed “Little Boy” was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which had been spared conventional aerial bombardment so that it would be a “pristine target”. With a radius of one mile from Ground Zero, the first effect of the explosion was blinding light, accompanied by radiant heat from the fireball. Near Ground Zero, everything flammable burst into flames, glass products and sand melted into molten glass, and humans were either vaporised or turned to carbon in an instant. Famously, the shadow of one victim was etched into stone steps. An estimated 65,000 to 200,000 people lost their lives in the impact of that one single bomb, with later fatalities from cancer and leukemia coming over the next 30 years.

When I was 15 I travelled to Hiroshima with my brother and cousin. I was a passionate advocate for nuclear disarmament and could not understand how the two super-powers of the 1980s – USA and Russia – were engaged in an expensive arms race to create even more powerful versions of the bombs that had wreaked so much destruction on Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki. Once in Hiroshima we approached an elderly Japanese man – old enough to have been a survivor – to ask where Peace Memorial Park was. He could speak no English, and we could speak no Japanese. He took us by the hand, on and off buses, until we reached the park. He bowed and left us.

The park stands as testament to the world of the horrors of that day. It is a destruction that the world should never forget, yet I find very few young people are even aware of it. And nowadays we find other nations building nuclear weapons. The USA, Russia, China, France and Britain were the five nuclear nations whose nuclear status meant they became permanent members of the UN Security Council. Now we must add to this list India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel (although the latter never publicly acknowledges the fact). Iran may or may not be trying to create its own weapons.

For me the fact that Pakistan has them, and Iran may want them, evokes the greatest sadness within me. That Muslim nations should attempt to attain something which is so far from Islamic principles shows how lost even Muslims have become – rejecting The Divine Creator.

The nuclear arms race is based upon the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, whereby two opposing sides both have the ability to destroy each other, thereby protecting both. Yet this notion of “deterrence” does not take into account the fact that historically there has never been an arms race which did not end in a war. And for me, the acronym sums it up.

As Muslims it is our duty to think outside the box, not blindly follow the mandate of others. If having nuclear weapons is the ticket to becoming a permanent member of the UN, we need to change the ticket, not continue to spend billions of pounds of scarce resources of a “deterrence” that supposedly we’ll never use. The nuclear mindset comes from the 1950s. A lot has changed since then. We need bold new thinking to get us out of this quagmire, and Muslims should be leading the way based upon the principles of self-surrender onto God rather than blindly following like sheep (potentially to slaughter).

Some Muslims have cited to me the Qur’anic verse 8:60 which talks about preparedness for war. But the nuclear bomb is not the same as the sword and war horses. Nuclear weapons make no distinction between the combatant and the non-combatant, between the soldier and the old, the infirm, the women, the children. Nuclear weapons poison the land and the genetic code of future generations. The midwives in Japan saw the results of nuclear weapons  – the genetic destructions of generations. It is the equivalent of poisoning the wells ten times over and is fundamentally un-Islamic.

To continue aping the modern war mindset of societies that have killed The Divine Creator in their thinking is to head towards a parapet of destruction with our eyes closed. And thus may this anniversary of Hiroshima stand as testament to us now and to future generations that nuclear weaponry is fundamentally at odds with self-surrender onto Him, and no Muslim should desire them for their nation.

ten tips to help you share your love of the Prophet and make the change.

So I went and viewed the Facebook, “Everybody Draw Muhammad” page, and I admit that I cried. Then I sat stunned for the next 15 minutes at my computer. You would have thought I would have known the types of images that people would have posted, but it was the vulgarity and debasement which so utterly shocked me. Why would anyone want to be so offensive and ugly about anything or anyone, let alone someone who is revered and loved by so many.

I posted to my Facebook status the Qur’anic verse “The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk in the earth modestly and who, when the ignorant address them, say, ‘Peace’.” (25:63)

I am not sure this made me feel better or worse.  Was I just capitulating to a wrong? Or was I making a statement of faithfulness to God in the face of provocation. I needed a plan of action, and I thought I would share it with you.

Here are our ten tips to help you share your love of the Prophet and make the change.

• Read a biography of Muhammad

If we become more acquainted with the life of Muhammad, his ways and his words, then we will feel closer to him, and will be better able to defend his character. In the English language, Martin Ling’s biography of Muhammad is one of the most eloquent.

• Tell a child

Having read the biography we need to share that information. Our children are the first place we should start. If we ourselves do not have children, then tell your nieces or nephews anecdotes and beautiful stories from his life.

• Facebook – hadith of the day/ week

If you are on Facebook or other social networks, share a beautiful hadith with your friends. Use social networks as a dawah tool. We have designed a profile picture that you can download and use for your profile if you wish.

Click to open, and save

• Ask your library to buy in a good biography

Libraries are amenable to buying in books that are requested. Sometimes they need more than one person to request it, so get your friends to make the same request. Make sure they buy in books for the adult and children sections. If they refuse to buy books because of budgets restraints then offer to buy it for the library.

• Buy a School’s Resource Pack

The Muslim Council of Britain have a good school’s resource pack (click here). Buy it for your local primary school. If it is too expensive (£250) then get together with some friends to buy it.

• School Assembly

Make yourself available to your local schools to do an assembly on the life of Muhammad. If you feel you just cannot stand in front of an audience, then organise the event and get someone else to come in and do the talk. Organisations like ISB and Christian Muslim Forum can help you find someone to come and do the talk for you.

• Hold an exhibition

This may seem like a giant impossible step, but actually schools, local libraries and town halls are very open and amenable places. Explain how we need to build bridges of understanding and that you would like to hold an exhibition. Islam Awareness Week in November is a recognised fixture in the calendar and many councils and schools will be open to having an event then – but start planning it now.
You can find professional produced exhibitions to buy and rent here.

• Hold a cultural evening

Book a local hall and hold an evening of poetry, and songs that focus on the prophet and his life and deeds. Make it a free and open event. Local businesses may be open to sponsoring the event, your local Muslim restaurant may give free or discounted food, or make it a “bring-a-dish” do and get the community to work together to organise the food.

• Mosque Open Day

Encourage your mosque to hold an open day. Mosques are often perceived as closed and scary places. Explain to the mosque committee that we need to open up to show people about the true character of Muhammad.

• Interfaith

Visit your local Church, Synagogue or Temple and talk to them about building a society of mutual respect and understanding. Explain how the vilification of Muhammad (or any religious figure) undermines faith and thus people of faith and conscience should work together for the betterment of the whole of society.

Above all, make your life a living testament to the character of Muhammad. Being angry and abusive only reinforces people’s negative perceptions of the Prophet. Whilst being a living, walking testament to the fact that he was sent as a Mercy to Mankind will make people think again about their views of the Prophet.

Issue 1 to 61

 It is six years and 60 issues ago that we launched the first issue of emel. The creation of that first issue is imprinted onto my whole being and I can remember it like yesterday.

Just because it is not making headlines, does not make it right. I wrote a comment piece, “Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is an affront to Islam” for the UAE’s The National, www.thenational.ae

To read the article click here

taking small steps

This is my transcript from today’s Wake up to Wogan show. What is your small deed that could help change your life? Leave a comment below the post.

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I am – I confess – terribly unfit. It affects my life because I have – with three children, a full time job, a fair amount of speaking engagements and some volunteer work – a pretty packed life. If I was fitter it would be easier to do all these things; but because I do all these things it is difficult to carve out time to get fitter. It’s a bit of a conundrum really…

And with this conundrum in my life – I have – for some time – imagined a new me. A me that goes regularly to the gym; a me fit from aerobics; a me with muscles built from Pilates. I imagine a me – not quite Olympian – but certainly not the totally exhausted, unfit me that I currently am. But I cannot imagine me with all that jumping up and down in aerobics, or a me down at the gym lifting weights. And I really cannot imagine me at a Pilates session, even if David Beckham recommends it.

But I am unfit, so I need something that goes beyond imagining and actually gets me exercising… But what?! Something I do naturally every day would be useful.

Breathing of course springs to mind, but that’s not exactly exercise. I type a lot. I talk a lot. I drink a lot of tea – but none of these things would help in my quest to get fit.

Then I found it – walking. If I could find a way to increase my walking to such a point that the walking became exercise – now that would be a way for me to get fit.

So I thought about it for a long while – one can’t just rush these things… Then I got myself two things: a decent pair of walking shoes and a pedometer.

The shoes just make the whole thing more comfortable, but it’s the pedometer which really helps. It measures how much I walk. It’s there – every day – clipped to my trousers –  telling me how well I’m doing. My target is 10,000 steps a day and I am doing pretty well. Yesterday I managed 13,465 steps. I am patting myself on my back as I speak because that’s a big improvement from the 3000 steps I started with.

Without the pedometer measuring me I would not have anything to strive for each day. I realised it’s vital to have something tangible to aim for – a target –  however small really helps.

My lack of fitness was becoming an issue in my life, a problem that seemed too big to sort out, but too big to ignore. In the end, I think the answer has come in something very mundane and everyday.

There is a Muslim saying, “God loves the small deeds done regularly.”

And for sure: small deeds, even small everyday, mundane deeds, when added together can form something big. In my case, I hope it’s a collection of small steps that will allow me to walk to fitness. But for each of us, I believe there is a small deed, which can make a big change in our lives.

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To listen to the slot on the Wake up to Wogan Show, click here (available online until 9:32am Wednesday 5th August)

(My bit is around 1 hour 45 minutes)