The Fear That Makes Us Act

It is frightening to see how there has suddenly been an increase in Islamophobia in the UK. Each month you feel as if you are living in a different time than the previous month as there is a tangible shift in the air and as a Muslim living in the UK you can feel that grow sharper and sharper with each passing day.

Last year, I was concerned about Islamophobia and there was every reason to be. What with the BNP being elected, the EDL’s marches and attacks on students at City University and God knows how many more that have not been reported. This year, I feel deeply worried at the situation of Muslims living in the UK.

A chill went through me when I heard that the details of the UCL ISOC had been given to the counter terrorism police. The fact that one’s personal details could be passed to the authorities within a blink of the eye for no good reason is a frightening thought. The fact that one’s personal information could be invaded so easily, throwing data protection laws out the window is chilling. But what is even more chilling is that no one seems to be too concerned about this state of affairs; that it seems to be acceptable to erode the liberties of Muslims. For seven years, innocent students' details are going to be held as ‘suspects’ on a database that could potentially lead to disastrous ‘mistakes’.

The fact that young people are not even safe on campus from Islamophobia is a horrible thought. Things have been happening one after the other that are eroding the safety of not just Muslims but young Muslims that makes the danger of ‘radicalisation’ on campus pale in comparison to the danger of Islamophobia that Muslim students are now facing.

I cannot help but think of my brother who fits the ‘perfect’ profile of a terrorist – young lad, at university, has a beard, wears trousers above his ankles and is a member of the ISOC – what if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time (God forbid) like these two ex-prisoners? I feel afraid for him every time he goes out, not because I think he may be radicalised – he knows his Deen far too well for that – but because I am afraid that the Government is going to make another stupid ‘mistake’ against another innocent Muslim.

Sometimes I can’t sleep at night, tossing and turning, thinking I need to do more to counter this negativity about Muslims, fear lodged in my heart, a fear not for myself but for my family, every time a Muslim brother is arrested on ‘secret evidence’ or mere suspicion. Fear for your own family is a different kind of fear: it is far more crippling. After all, you can imagine the worst happening to yourself, bare its pain and get over it as long as it affects you but when you see someone you love going through that, it brings you to your knees. Everyone who has had a loved one hurt will understand what I am talking about. What else has the power to tear families apart?

Time and time again I hear of families being destroyed because of the devastation that Islamophobia has bought upon their loved ones and that is my worst fear that I want to avoid. And that fear is good because it makes me act; it makes me more committed to countering Islamophobia, to getting politically active and media savvy.

That's a natural reaction in a human being, isn’t it? Something happens that makes you afraid. You want to get rid of your fear because you can’t bare it so you act. Emotions are there for a reason. They make us act. If you are tense about an exam you will revise to alleviate your tension. But I can’t help wondering about the human instincts of our Muslim leaders and the Muslim masses in general who are doing nothing to counter Islamophobia. I want to ask them, ‘Don't you think every time a Muslim brother is arrested or a Muslim sister is attacked, that that could have been your family and feel their pain or do you think it won’t happen to you? Don't you feel the same fear for your families? If you don’t feel this fear then you are inhumane and if you do then why don’t you act? Or would you rather live in fear for the rest of your lives?’