Am I a sceptic for believing not everyone would have the honour of a letter informing them of being under police surveillance? See here.

It’s a funny joke amongst Muslims on the phone, when discussing politics or religion, to send fond regards to the MI5 we like to believe are listening in, often followed by a giggle and an ALLAHU AKBAR! ‘If they weren’t listening before, they are now.’ Not that we lack understanding as to why there’s a need for such surveillance- Muslims are just as concerned over terrorism as our non-Muslim neighbours. Our fear however is twofold: being the subject of a terrorist attack (do you think a terrorist would stop because we were there? He’d want to take us to heaven too), and being the subject of an attack that we are a terrorist. Now that’s real fear.

Continue reading "Hello world, I’m mentally stable and lovely. Promise."...

A socialist, a revolutionary, and a civil rights activist… A hero... these are just a few words to describe what el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz aka Malcolm X meant to people. Today, it's been 45 years since Malcolm X was shot to death in New York.

Malcolm X was born and raised in Nebraska at a time when there were deep division between whites and blacks (and in fact this is putting it mildly), black people at this time were violently persecuted for one reason alone ... namely the colour of their skin. Not only were black people at this time persecuted physically they were also ‘mentally’ persecuted; black children such as Malcolm X himself were made to think and believe that no aspirations or goals they had in life were realistic and that they would never ‘make it’ in terms of education and careers.

Continue reading "Malcolm X- The legacy lives after 45 years..."...

So here's a random thought.

I think a lot of Muslim marriages are slapped together on a metaphorical production line. As they whizz down the line, the different parts are primed and trimmed, they get their coat of spray paint and eventually they're stuck together. They mostly work, but maybe for a long time people are not sure if the end product will stand the test of time. Sometimes they only work because they have to. After a while the cheap coat of shiny spray paint peels off revealing the true colours of the constituent parts; they're not always the prettiest underneath.

Continue reading "Manufacturing a Match Made in Heaven"...

It was extremely shocking and saddening to see the victims of racial abuse namely the Romanian population in Belfast flee from their homes. The weekend saw a total of 110 Romanians forced to leave their homes after they were targeted and attacked by a race hate gang which claimed to be a neo- Nazi organisation.

The racial tensions had been simmering for some time, but finally erupted due to a possible consequence of the recent recession, namely unemployment, and the result frightened families, who huddled under blankets escaping the attacks... Continue reading "Combating racism"...

Written By: Susan Lucci. Susan Lucci is a guest-writer on Muslimsinengland.com from Chicago

“This isn’t my home, I’ll be leaving soon,” Mary declares as I escort her to the first floor to join the rest of the residents at “Casino Night” the afternoon of October 27th. “I’m just here to recover from the shock treatments they gave me for depression,” she explains matter-of-factly. It didn’t matter to me whether her story was fact or fiction, my goal was simply to entice her to join the afternoon’s socializing in the lobby. “They are serving orange punch and cookies,” I attempt a bribe. “Oh, why not, just for a few minutes, it would be a good break for my eyes,” Mary agrees, “I’m feeling foggy and not quite myself today.” I sympathize with this petite octogenerian. Continue reading "Acting with intentions"...

Anyone who lives in the west, is familiar with the common household. Each member of the family contributes in his/her way to the household, and we are seeing more and more daughters taking on the role of the main breadwinner in the family.  There is nothing wrong with that, until this is considered an obligation...

Continue reading "The border of obligations"...

As I was reading a very interesting book, I came across a point which I would love to share with you guys. The book is called: ':59 Seconds. Think a little Change a lot' written by Professor Richard Wiseman. Richard Wiseman is also the author of the book Quirkology.

Basically, techniques described in this book demonstrate that effective change does not have to be time-consuming. In fact, it can take less than a minute and is often simply a question of knowing exactly where to tap.

The following paragraph is the point I wanted to share with you guys. It's a very interesting point and it makes you think how many actions in life are related to the story behind this paragraph and how you somehow instead of arguing or doing time-consuming actions, you can just have another way of sorting out your stuff. Continue reading "Effective change does not have to be time-consuming!"...

I looked at her once, and twice, and yet again. I did not smile at her as I did to everybody else, oh no, I wasn’t about to make her the recipient of my affection. Instead, she smiled at me, the cheek of it all, but I merely looked away, ha! A smirk passed over my face and my eyes became cold, devoid of emotion. I crossed my arms and held my chin high. My heart suddenly clenched, what was unseen though was the little green arrow that pierced it. I didn’t realise, but the arrow rapidly spread a vile poison throughout my body and my mind gulped it all, producing all sorts of loathsome thoughts about that girl. Just because she has the beauty, wealth, and authority, just because she has it all, she thinks she’s better than me. I became certain that if I had all that, I would be so much higher in status than her… I became envious. Continue reading "The Green Arrow "...

Wedding: A commitment between two people.
But how do we get married nowadays and how does it all seems to look like? One thing is sure. It’s not like we say it will be. How often do we say to ourselves that we will do it by the rules of Islam but we don’t? The wedding of the 21st century is filled with culture and traditions. It has to be big and each family tries to outdo the other. Not to mention how we love to spend all that money……. What do we reach with that? Sharing your joy is beautiful but is it really necessary to spend so much money?

Continue reading "Are we still at a wedding?"...

Each and every day we face a multitude of challenges; the difficulty of studying for our degree, passing our exams, balancing our social and family lives or completing a project that we may have undertaken. My experience both as a final-year medical student and as an individual involved in a variety of local, national and international charity and faith-based work is that much of the past four years of my life can be described as, at the very least, challenging...

Continue reading "The Real Challenge"...