I like my mosque, and I always will, but the committee members? Hmm, let’s just say I’d rather get beaten by a Bata sandal than mingle with them.  But why, I hear you ask (or at least I hope you are asking), why do I not like the committee members?  Well let me tell you a little story…

It was last summer, and I was strolling to the mosque to pray Maghrib (the dusk prayer), but I was feeling uneasy.

For the last couple of days I had noticed that a lot of the committee members had been staring at me, now I thought “Awe yeah! Maybe it’s because my prayers are being accepted and I have noor (light) on my face”, but let me tell you something – the mirror does not lie, and neither do little sisters who kindly explained to me that she had seen black holes radiating more light than my face, the truth hurts. 

So I started thinking, what could it be? And then it came to me, it was probably my socks, most of the men had stinky socks anyway, but maybe mine smelt worse.  So after the Maghrib prayer I rushed home and got some air freshener and started spraying it all over my feet, yes it would’ve been wise to take off the socks first, but I hadn’t thought my plan through.  My mum was concerned at why I was spraying air freshener on my feet, at first she thought maybe it was a new fad with kids, but I explained to her the situation, she offered to wash my socks, if only I had thought of that idea as well …

Then came time for Isha.

I felt confident that there was no way now that I could receive dirty looks from the committee members, but again I was wrong.  Again I thought maybe it was my socks, so everyday for the next 5 days I kept changing my socks after every prayer – yet the committee members were still staring – the socks must have been cursed, so off I went to my house and burnt all my socks in my garden.  My neighbours thought I was an idiot, seeing as bonfire night was very far away, but I did what I thought had to be done.  The next day at university I learnt about global warming – my sock burning antics did not help the situation.

So the next day I went again to the mosque, but this time my friend was there with me as well, and this time the committee members were smiling! Success I thought, so up to them I went to shake their hands, my friend went with me as well, but I noticed – whenever my friend shook their hands they were smiling, yet when it came to me they scowled.  On that note we prayed our salah (prayers), with the previous moment still playing in my mind.  After the prayer I asked the committee members why they did what they did, but because they couldn’t speak English they just replied by saying “Yes sir, no sir, maybe maybe, I don’t know” , obviously my question was unanswered, so I asked my friend, and his answer, to this day, still plagues me and changed me.  He said “Because you’re not form the same background and culture as them, they won’t accept you”.

Now I thought maybe it was just the committee members at my mosque, but then I read on the MPACUK website about a similar thing which occurred in a mosque in Ilford, where the Gujarati committee members were being racist (there’s no other term for it – they were being racist), so I was plagued – why? And what can be done to change this?

That’s when I read about MPACUK calling for mosque reform.  Our mosques should be at the forefront of defending this beautiful religion, they should be at the forefront of activating the community to enjoin the good and forbid the bad, and they should be at the forefront for holding the leaders of UK to account for the muted response to Israel’s horrific murdering of Palestinian children.

I wanted our mosques to be like that, I wanted what MPACUK wanted, so I emailed MPACUK, I wanted to learn more, so they invited me to come and learn more about them at an open day that was taking place and to join them.

I was a bit apprehensive at first; I used to think MPACUK was basically a group of young thugs who got tanked up on lassis and then went around “helping” the Ummah (the Muslim nation), but thank Allah I was wrong!  There were sincere people there who wanted the Muslims to be more proactive – to become models for society to follow.

So I joined, and to this day I do not regret it.  I have a chance to help Muslims with an organisation that has achieved practical results.
So I ask you, if you don’t want to be spraying air freshener all over your socks, if you don’t want to increase the effects of global warming, and if you want to help Muslims and take part in the duty which Allah has commanded us to, then come along to the latest MPACUK Open Day taking place at the Ilford Islamic Centre on Sunday 18th February 2007 from 2pm to 5pm, and join MPACUK on their mission to please Allah and no one else.

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