I used to live few metres away from a mosque. Many years ago the pressures of home, studies and evening classes at the mosque made me fall ill and spent a week in hospital. I was forced to go to the mosque by my parents. When I came out of the hospital I rebelled and never set a foot in that mosque again for years. One day the mosque chairman came to my door step and invited me to a speech. I was very reluctant to accept his invitation. He said there would a special guest and young people talking about real issues that affect us unlike any of the usual talks. I felt it is my duty to attend and at least hear what they have to say as I keep complaining about no one ever discussing the real issues that affect us.

On the day of the speech I sat looking at the clock. As the time neared I could feel the anxiety and sweat on my forehead. My family saw my condition and advised me not to go but as I made a promise I felt I must force myself to go and listen. At the mosque I made it past the staring eyes to the first floor and sat at the back. There in front of us was this tall young speaker dressed in traditional clothes speaking away. I sat there listening to him for an hour about things that I already knew! At the end of the speech he took names of peoples willing to visit other mosques to spread the message. I was totally disappointed as there was just this one guy who spoke and no discussion at all. I thought I heard enough and tried to sneak out but on the ground floor I was stopped by the guy who invited me there. He was going on about how honoured he is to see me there and asked me what I thought of it. I told him the speaker backed up his talk with quotations from the Qur'an and Hadith but it’s very important to implement what we say in the mosque in our life outside the mosque. He quickly replied “oh no, that's politics, we don't do politics here”. I was angered by his reply but quietly left as I wasn't up for an argument. I thought to myself if the society we live in and the way it runs involves politics then where is our religion? Islam is a complete way of life. He invited me back for Magrib prayer and said I could talk to the special speaker. I went back and spoke for an hour but got nowhere with him. I felt that because his life revolves around home and mosques, his life isn't really affected by the society but mine is because I want the best for me, my family and all the people I live amongst. Many of us we try to integrate and work amongst people of other race, colour, ethnic origin and religion. Well I have never been back to that mosque again even though “special missionaries” were sent to my house to invite me to go on their dawah missions (invitation to Islam).

There is an old saying in the village “people see the ants go past but not the elephants”. That is so true; people squabble over little things but forget the big issues. Isn't this how we create religion within religion, cast, sect, groups etc? There are three mosques in my area but many people of one mosque will never go to another even if they were to miss the prayer! I see so many people going to that mosque and pretend everything is fine. Whereas in reality their children are going in the wrong direction. When you raise an important issue you are sidelined and classed as being an extremist or a troublemaker. It is they who live in extreme denial and ignorance. I can remember when I confronted the father of a troublemaker who was giving us grief outside the mosque. There must have been twenty brothers with long caps, long beards and long dresses but not one came forward to help resolve the issue but stared at me as if I have committed a crime for seeking their help. I guess I forgot that their religion has stopped at the mosque door. They must have expected me to write to my MP as they though it was a political issue.

What I'm trying to say is that a mosque should be a centre of activities for Muslims from learning about Islam, praying, dispute resolutions, organising charity for people who really needs it, trying to get involved in the policy making of government, integrating people etc. I feel the door is shut to the very few young people who want to change things for better. How can a community improve themselves when so much resource and power is in the hands of inactive people who just pray and fast and think their religious duty is complete?

I have lived and worked in a BNP heartland for 14 months and when I was leaving some of my colleagues were saying they doubt if they will ever see another coloured face at their workplace. Some were shocked that I was not hurt after all this time. Walking around in this small ex-mining town, people would stare at me as if I'm from another planet. Most of the people have never left their little town and never saw a person of different skin colour with their own eyes. Channel 4 made a documentary on that place to show how racist it was. The Pakistani woman who ran the undercover corner shop for about a month said unless you live in racist area you don't know racism. I would love to see few of our mosque-going brothers go and try to live in that sort of area for at least a week. I remember going to get the halal meat from an area where it's like “spot the white man”! I used to get mugged by the the mosque-going brothers asking me to join their cause. I used to ask them to leave their “little country” and try my cause for few days! When I tell people of my experience of that place, they would say why did you even go there. I would reply saying why shouldn't I go there, I have a degree and a British passport so I must try to achieve the best I can and go wherever work takes me. If I didn't do that then I would be discriminating myself.

I always try to speak to people about the issues facing us as Muslims but mostly it falls on deaf ears. How much can individuals achieve on their own? It needs collective actions of many to bring about a change for better. I have always watched MPAC representatives on TV with interest and believe they represent the Muslims the best compared with other groups. To me their best action was when due to their campaign, the Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimmons lost the election in Rochdale. The Channel 4 documentary on it was watched by four million people. I though that it was a revolutionary act! This sent the message that Muslims can make a difference in politics in Britain. MPAC opened the eyes of people from blindly voting for the Labour party just because they have always voted Labour or because they have come from a working class village in the Indian subcontinent so they feel the need to vote the dominant socialist party. I remember the insults Asghar Bukhari got during the campaign from the Asian lady in the street who told him to leave the country and the brother who swore at him on leaving the mosque after his prayer. It is their children and their grandchildren who will thank Asghar and his team's action in the future. Just recently I decided to email MPAC via their website to find out what they are up to! I was invited to a branch meeting. I was shocked by the small number of volunteers. You would think there are hundreds and hundreds of MPAC volunteers from the impact they have on the media! Well the MPAC volunteers are just a bunch of normal highly enthusiastic people from all walks of life who feel the need to act in a lawful and democratic way when something is going wrong.

If we sit at home and blame the previous generation and point fingers at others for our situation then we will be making the same mistake as our parents did. Our future can only be what we make it. As time passes by there is always a loss to mankind unless we believe and do good deed, unite the Muslim as one brotherhood, call each other to the truth and call each other to patience. Time is precious, we must not waste it. It is our duty to act now to improve our condition and also the condition of everyone in our community and the whole country. We must also extend our hands out to our brothers and sisters who are suffering around the world. When our life is comfortable we smile and believe the whole world is smiling with us! If we turn a blind eye to the problems that surround us and to the suffering of our brothers and sister, then we make the biggest mistake of all. Because it’s our brothers and sister, sons and daughter that have to live the society we choose to ignore. It is they and us in our old age who will suffer the ills of the society and world we choose to ignore. We are fortunate to have such an opportunity and a high living standard in Britain. We must use it as a springboard to leap forward to achieve great heights. If we have to go and knock on every door of every Muslim house then we must do that. Because if we don't improve our situation who will? It will not be the politicians in the parliament house introducing half thought out laws targeting a section of a community. Currently they are trying to extend the detention without trial from 28 days to even more days (and we have the longest period of detention in Europe anyway!). I can't even imagine being locked up for a day. Now imagine your home raided and you or your brother or sister being locked up for 56 days on suspicion of something. We have the power to stop it happening by telling our MPs to vote against it, but sadly manly Muslims don't know this.

History has a tendency to repeat itself because we don't learn lesson from it and act to stop it. If things go wrong in the future and we could have acted today to stop but we choose to ignore then it will be on our conscience. I want to be the one who can say I did something about it.

Allah knows best. If what I have said offends anyone then it’s unintentional and I ask for forgiveness.

For more information on how to get involved with MPACUK please contact us on 0870 760 5594 or email us at: info@mpacuk.org

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