emel is a vibrant and dynamic Muslim lifestyle magazine with an ethical and positive outlook. emel is exceptional in its presentation, message and outlook.  Launched in September 2003, it now has subscribers in over 60 countries, and mainstream distribution in the UK, USA, Middle East and South East Asia. emel has been at the forefront of Muslim media for the past eight years, with a vision to promote the positive and confident. The magazine has had an outstanding reception, and has had extensive media interest worldwide.

embox is emel’s student magazine: an exciting new online publication that promises to be a dynamic web space for Muslim students in the UK. We are looking for versatile, creative, and social media native individuals who can think on their feet and drive a unique fast moving editorial programme. If you want an experience that will boost your CV and kick start your media career this may be the internship for you. We are looking for people to work in fashion, travel, food, tech/gadgets, culture and many more sections.

The roles are varied and require candidates who are flexible, committed, and competent and paying attention to detail. Thus, the candidates are required to have an open-minded approach and be willing to undertake whatever task requires completion.

Editorial Interns
Job Description:

• research
• interviewing
• assisting in photo-shoots
• obtaining press images and dealing with PRs
• updating online website through our content management system (cms)
• Engagement with social media: facebook, twitter etc…
• writing text:

1. short simple sentences daily
2. a few paragraphs weekly
3. a monthly article

Person Specification:

• currently studying at university or a recent graduate
• Ability to log in, update and submit work individually and independently through the internet from home and on the go.

Contact
Please email your CV, cover letter and samples of your work to embox@emel.com

Interview and Deadline
Deadline extended: 31st May 2011

The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust is holding its annual Gala Dinner 2011 this Saturday 14^th May. It is an evening that includes dynamic speakers, including activist and correspondent Lauren Booth, as well as emel’s Comment writer, Shelina Jamohamad, along with various forms of entertainment and a charity auction.

The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust is a non-profit, non-governmental and faith-based humanitarian organisation, whose mission is to empower the world’s poorest to lift them out of poverty with dignity. The charity’s primary purpose is to undertake manageable and sustainable projects that can make a real difference to individuals and communities, enabling them to improve their lives.

The evening will also include an auction and requests for pledges by international humanitarian worker Rizwan Hussain. Khayaal Theatre Company will provide the entertainment of the evening by staging a custom-produced play that will explore a thought-provoking and light-hearted theme.

Chairman of The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust, Amirali G. Karim is hopeful that the Gala Dinner will raise enough funds to exceed the target. “This year, we would like to exceed last year’s target of 150,000 and continue to help the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and East Asia.”

The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust stands for lending a hand to thousands around the world in many ways, including but not limited to: micro-finance, education support, medical assistance, post-emergency relief, orphan care and food provision.

For more information about the organisation, and more details about the event, please visit: www.ladyfatemahtrust.org

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.

Written by Tabassam Hamid

Sometimes, aspirations and idyllic dreams are burnt to an ash, blown away, and we are left to despair.

In moments of turmoil, suffering, and distress, where is there to turn to relieve us of the intensity of our suffering? It consumes our horizon, this pain. It soars over us with its crushing greyness. It mutates and confronts us with its gaping infernal face, and it seems that we are destined never to leave this soul-destroying place.

Nothing in this physical world is of assistance, nor does it offer redemption. It is full of imperfection, full of limitations and degrees of ugliness. There is a burning need for the transcendental. And it is beyond my understanding how non-believers can endure a life without it. Our transcendental need is Allah. Our experience of the transcendental is through the Qur’an.

One of the verses of the Qur’an that I have found especially gripping is Ayat-al-Qursi. Here is a translation of its meaning:

“Allah! There is no god but He – the Living, The Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede In His presence except As he permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to His creatures As) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they compass Aught of his knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens And on earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding And preserving them, For He is the Most High. The Supreme (in glory).” [Surah al-Baqarah 2: 255]

For some time now, this Ayat has challenged me, because rarely is it that I can come across a piece of literature that moves m e, but be unable to explain why or how it has that impact; in the case of Ayat-al-Qursi, truly, I could not understand why it was moving me in the manner and to the extent that it was. By no means do I pretend to have understood it, but I think I am now at least able to give somewhat meaningful expression to my feelings. I must make it clear that I do not venture a tafsir of the surah here, but offer a very personal account of what ayat-al-qursi means to me.

The Ayat opens by declaring the unparalleled majesty of God; declaring first, His name; then, His uncontested position as the one and only God; then, His self-subsistence and his eternal existence. When you are suffering, you know He is there. That alone captivated me because, the mention of His mere existence and its raw imminence. He does not need sustenance from anyone or anything, and He is eternal- unlike anything germinating from this incapacitated, crippled and weak world. So when you seek help and you seek succour, you seek it from He who needs none. He does not need anything prior to giving something, and He does not share any of our limitations. What better source of help is there? And no slumber or sleep can overtake Him. He is forever present, and so, at any moment of any day when you raise your hands in supplication He is there to listen and to answer.

And everything in the heavens and on the earth belongs to him, and none can intervene except as he wishes. What power have dictators and tyrants who declare themselves Lords of men? What power has any human being over and against the life, property and dignity of any other human being? What claim to glory or wealth has he? None, not an iota! What can any man claim to be master of? Nothing-except as Allah wishes. When you realise that even the greatest acts of barbarism that could conceivably be committed against you amount to nothing, because all possessions are Allah’s and all power derives from Him, the threats of this world dwindle and they cower.  Who will challenge the supremacy of God? All powers and possessions are His, and so, to Him we raise our hands in supplication.

And He knows what is before us, after us, or behind us. Knowing this provides us with a sense of utmost security, because He is aware of what lies before all men. Sometimes you may feel that you are leaping into the unknown, you do not know where you are heading or what dangers might confront you at any moment. But Allah knows what lies before, after, and behind the righteous and the corrupt. Who better to guide you?

And his throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and he feels no fatigue in guarding or preserving them. When you peer up at the cosmos, with its almost inconceivable immensity and intricacy you are taken aback. Our earth vanishes to a speck in an observable universe in which there are approximately 170 billion galaxies, with our own galaxy, the Milky Way, containing approximately 200 billion stars. The Allah who sustains this universe and the Allah whose throne spans the heavens and the earth is the same Allah who is ‘nearer to him [man] than his jugular vein.’  [Qaaf 50:16]. So when the vicissitudes of life leave us reeling, what greater power to heal and to lift our hearts is there than Allah? His words raise us from our decrepitude, they allow us to transcend this world of imperfections and seek help from its true source.

Below are two examples of the articles -

Iqbal Chowdhury remembers the fishing trips with his grandfather.

Bengalis are renowned for their love of fish—and I was no different. I grew up in a village on my grandfather’s farm in Bangladesh, which included a 100-acre lake that had all types of fish in it. He started taking me on his fishing escapades from an early age, and I quickly familiarised myself with his makeshift rod (a bamboo stick with a hook made from a coat-hanger end).

We often caught a fish known as hilsa—a very bony fish. He would pull the fish in and then scoop them out with his hands; I would have to keep them alive and fresh in a bucket full of water. At the end of the day, as dusk approached, we would take our catch to a straw hut that had a stove built into the mud floor and was lit using kerosene. I would watch my grandma prepare a marinade of turmeric, ginger and chilli powder. She would then fry the fish, before currying it and serving with rice.

Dinner was always an intimate family gathering, even more so because electricity in the area was in sparse supply and we often had to light candles. We would all be engaged in lively conversations during these meals, and it always amazed me how we managed to talk and avoid getting choked on fish bones at the same time! The food always tasted great, but looking back now, it is the lifestyle that went with it that I miss the most. The people in my village all seemed very content – perhaps because the demands of life were not so complicated; their main daily expectation was simply to provide sufficient food for their families. Sometimes I yearn for those simple times—and those simple meals round a candle.

__________________________________________________

Asiyah Amersi fondly recalls her family feasts in Kenya.

I grew up in Mombasa in a bustling family of twelve. In addition to my immediate family, I lived with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. All three meals were a communal event – a pleasant excuse for the family to sit together, catch up, and exchange stories.

I still remember sharing weekly family BBQs with our poorer neighbours in a culinary and cultural union. Every Saturday we’d gather for a mouth-watering meal that combined African delicacies with Indian specialities. The meal was always the same: piping hot African fried sweet bread (mandaazi) with a coconut based pigeon-pea curry (barazi), and skewer grilled marinated meat (mishkaki). The smell of succulent meat would waft into the house through tiny vents, and my cousins and I would conjur up inventive ways of swiping the sizzling meat from under the eyes of our watchful parents. The meat always tasted fresh and natural, and to this day, I have never tasted anything similar.

After we’d let our stomachs rest from the evening’s culinary extravaganza, we’d feast on juicy, homegrown mangoes and delicately prepared deserts. While the women busied themselves in the kitchen and the men relaxed in the evening breeze discussing business and politics, my cousins and I would sneak away into the dark, playing hide and seek; racing in the garden on our bikes.
When I look back on my childhood, I associate meals with family, friendship, and love.  Having moved to London, I no longer live in a house bursting with people. Where once I used to live with eleven others, now I live with my sister and a housemate.  Even so, the (less frequent) extended family meals remind me of the fantastic family BBQs of my childhood.

We’re looking for your stories. Send them in to info@emel.com to get your story published in the magazine.

Who doesn’t like an inspirational video? We spotted one yesterday that we thought we should share with you.

The story is set in a small fishing village in Thailand called Koh Panyee. The whole village has been built entirely over the water and is propped up on giant stilts by the local fishermen. A group of young boys one day decided to start their own football team, despite being completely surrounded by water and having no football field. They faced ridicule from the locals at first, but eventually…well.. we’ll let you watch the short video

Posted by Robi Chowdhury

With the world still healing after suffering from the earthquakes in Japan, the human cost of the disaster is still being counted, as well as the technological cost. When entire business infrastructures get swept away by the raw forces of nature, you realise just how fragile our existence is.

There is a room, buried deep in the heart of Switzerland, which could prove one day prove itself of preserving the stories of humanity. The former Swiss Air Force Communications Centre is a vault that is under the protection of armed guards 24 hours a day. The bulletproof and blast-proof doors alone weigh over 3.5 tonnes and are strong enough to withstand most natural disasters as well as nuclear attacks.

So what exactly is in this room? A time capsule.

We can safely assume that you’re bound to bump into SD cards, CDs and hard drives in the distant future. What is uncertain though, is that if there will be mediums for you to open up such platforms. Hieroglyphics and cave paintings were never a problem to understand as they could be read and deciphered. A USB stick on the other hand, would need a computer with a USB port. Even an iPad would be useless in this situation!

The Swiss time capsule holds an encyclopedia of data formats so that generations to come will be able to process important historical information that might need to be called upon one day.

Have you ever built a time capsule? What would you stick in one? (if you haven’t already) Feel free to stick all your back issues of emel in there

Today is pi day! No, that’s not a typo, it’s a reference to the mathematical term.

The date is 14th March, which can be written as 3/14, and is the first three digits of this amazing irrational number.

Many of us would have only come across pi during maths lessons, and probably haven’t come across it since. (Just to re-jig your memory, the circumference of a circle is two x pi x radius; and the area is pi x radius-squared – I bet your probably remembering any horrid maths teachers that you had instead of the numerical theory!)

But the number plays an important role in the field of irrational numbers, which are numbers that have a never-ending stream of digits, and without a pattern emerging amongst them.
This Pi-Search website allows you to search for any string of digits within the first 200 million digits of Pi.

See if you can find your date of birth within this massive set of numbers. You’ll definitely be in a select few if you can’t! Alternatively, if you clicked on this link because you thought it was about pie, the dessert; let us know your favourite one!

Posted by Ali Khimji

1. Go to www.emel.com
2. On the top right hand corner of the homepage is a little box where you give us your email address (as shown below)… and that’s about it

By Sarah Joseph

David Cameron has been vigorously laying out his stall for Big Society. Sarah Joseph suggests Muslims will hear the call, but Cameron will have to sort out his Munich rhetoric first.

The Big Society is Mr Cameron’s “mission to politics.” He believes we “need a social recovery to mend our broken society.”

Putting aside for one minute all the criticism that has been thrown at Big Society (and there is plenty of it), it is worth examining Cameron’s Big Idea for Britain.

Big Ideas are all very well, but if they are to be the solution to our ‘broken society’ we need more than ideas, we need Big Ideals – the “L” being a vital component to shift perspectives. But what Ls do we need? I would suggest we need at least four: love, labour, longevity and leadership.

It is on this last L of leadership that I feel Mr Cameron, especially with regards to the Muslim community, needs some direction.

Faith groups are an obvious place for Cameron to sell his ideas of Big Society as, by and large, faith groups already have a commitment to community work, volunteering, and social good. Muslim groups have for years worked in the grassroots providing services that the state does not. This faith inspired social action is grounded within a tradition that does not delineate between the sacred and the profane, but rather sees religious obligations to society as part and parcel of faith. Which is why Cameron’s Munich Security Conference speech was such a letdown for Muslims who have been working for what Cameron would call his Big Society, and what Muslims would just call a religious obligation towards others. At Munich, Cameron wanted to distance religion from politics, and indeed conflated a political understanding of Islam with terrorism. But Big Society requires people to be inspired by an idealism, and to fully engage in things which were once the remit of the government.

At Munich, Cameron showed he did not understand the interplay between faith and politics, but he is not alone in this. A man was trying to convince me of the benefits of a peace march he was organising. “It’s completely non-political, like a Gandhi march.” I felt compelled to clarify for him that Gandhi was actually very political. Leading his followers to non-violent passive resistance was not a Sunday picnic; rather he led them to a certain beating at the hands of British troops. I then referenced Jesus’ upturning of the money lenders’ tables in the Temple, and the fact that the leaders of the time desired to have Jesus killed because he was causing ripples in their power base; a theme repeated across almost all the prophetic stories.

Gandhi himself said, “those who think religion has nothing to do with politics understand neither religion nor politics,” and yet today, over six decades since his assassination, we are proud to hold him up as an apolitical saint-like figure, neutered (like Christ) from anything to do with the world, highlighting only the word “passive” from his non-violent passive resistance movement.

The terms ‘political Islam’ and ‘Islamism’ are bandied about by politicians and policy wonks with images of sinister terrorists lurking around to blow us all up. We need to be more careful with words. We are assured that this has nothing to do with ‘the religion of Islam’, which is ‘a peaceful religion’ with lots of adherents. Nor is it to do with people of Muslim backgrounds engaged in politics, which is alright apparently, and we can become MPs. Rather, the problem lies when you are inspired by your scripture to bring about political change. This apparently is dangerous stuff, and such people are scary revolutionary types ready to tear down the very fabric of our systems. If you want to spearhead any change, you first have to declare that this has nothing to do with your faith, that you have no links to anyone who is inspired by their faith, and that really you only want a few tweaks here and there, but nothing to upset ‘the system’.

Even as a Christian, I was inspired by the ability of faith to bring about fundamental change. Campaigning for nuclear disarmament is political, so why should it matter if you are motivated by the Bible which says, “Thou shalt not kill”, and I could not see how it was Christian to build weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction. Calling for an end to Apartheid and for sanctions against South Africa is political, but should it matter if your inspiration is the Bible which says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” and I could not see how it was Christian to oppress people. Indeed, the anti-Apartheid movement was very much about change in their lifetime, and whilst the religion of the Boers was part of the oppression, to another group religion was part of the liberation. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “The well-to-do and powerful complain that we are mixing religion with politics. I have never heard the poor complain that ‘Tutu, you are being too political’.”

I can see no reason why people cannot call upon the scriptures which inspire them in order to inspire change in the world. The prophets spoke for the weak, the oppressed, and the marginalised. They fought for justice, which necessitated speaking truth to the powerful. All of this is very political stuff.

Religious followers have been responsible for wars, death, destruction, and acts of great tyranny and hatred, but to quote Tutu again, “Religion is like a knife, because though a knife can be used to stab a man in the stomach, a knife can also be used to cut bread and feed the hungry.”

We need leadership today that speaks to people’s hearts, mind, and spirit. We need leadership that unites, and not foment division. We need leadership that does not prey on people’s fears, but gives confidence to their aspirations, for as the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4.18). It would be useful if our political leadership could remember that, especially leaders that need all the help they can to get their Big Society up and running.