Islamophobia: The right to offend, the right to be offended? After the tragic events of Christchurch where do we draw the line!!!

I want to start this blog off by remembering our children, brother and sisters who were martyred in Christchurch mosque before Jummah Salah (Friday Prayers). Those who have died in Wudhu (state of ablution) will benefit greatly in the hereafter.

The rise of Islamophobia and racial intolerance have spiked across the globe since 9/11. I don’t think it’s necessary to go in to the nuances of every incident that have occurred post 9/11. A number of issues can be identified for the rise of hate crime. Firstly, western invasion in Arab lands to tackle the war on terror and the other agenda is to disable ‘autocratic’ governments which are not compatible with Western geo-politics. A direct result of war-torn countries leads to fear of life, and a fear losing your life, results in mass migration to safer countries. The third and most important rise of hate crime has been heavily supported by the work of media propaganda and social media demagogues. The media has worked tirelessly in demonizing ethnic groups and Islam in the west which has lead to where we are today.

The endemic rise of right-wing fanaticism has spread across the globe. The support of the media and successive governments have stoked the flames of a growing fire which has spread rapidly. Right- wing political groups has gained huge popularity across Europe in recent times, the UK itself is heading towards Brexit where people have cited immigration as a common reason to leave the EU, and the successful election of Trump was the proverbial cherry on top.

A spate of attacks across Europe and America are growing concerns for the Muslim communities. It was only two years ago that a mass shooting incident occurred in a mosque in Quebec where 6 muslims were shot at by a white supremacist. In Norway, Anders Breivik (Neo-Nazi) killed 8 in an Arson attack and then went on a shooting spree killing close to 80 people in defiance of multi-culturalism and Islamification of Europe.

In the UK, we have seen several incidents of violence towards the muslim community, most notable, Darren Osborne driving his van in to a bunch of worshipers outside a mosque in Finsbury Mosque. There are many other attacks we can mention but this would require further scrutiny. Nevertheless, the Home Office latest reports on Hate Crime highlighted a 40 percent rise in religious hate-crime from 2016/2017 to 2017/2018.

This recent Christchurch massacre is the epitome of prevalent right-wing terrorism. Prevent an initiative created by the UK Government reported a 36 percent rise in right-wing fanaticism in 2017/18. So, this attack was of no surprise.

The right to Offend?

Freedom of speech is the by-product of democracy. Each and everyone of us has the right to have their freedom of speech protected. However, the question that should be asked, how far do we go before we have the right to offend? If, you are advocating the right to offend? How far does offence go when your words become a risk to the public?

Why Tommy Robinson?

After the recent events in Christchurch, it is evident that the right to offend, when it ends up in the the wrong hands, can have disastrous effects. Tommy Robinson shot to fame in 2008 after a group of Anjem Chaudary supporters (A fringe minority) started burning poppies at a returning home parade for soldiers of Luton. The likes of Tommy Robinson have used his platform to aggressively attack muslims and Islam. Tommy set up the English Defence League (EDL) in 2008, and has gained popularity amongst deprived working-class communities. Tommy in his own admission has profited heavily from Islamophobia and continues to gain popularity with his anti-islam rhetoric. Tommy understands people who have genuine concerns and directs these concerns in to hate rather than dealing with solutions.

*On the topic of the Islamophobia industry. University of Berkeley found that 208 million dollars was invested between 2008-2013 in to Islamophobia. Am sure that number has probably doubled since 2013.

Going back to Anders Breivik. Prior to his infamous terrorist attack in 2011, Anders Breivik had strong links to the EDL. He also admitted to being inspired by the EDL and also wanted to join an EDL march in Bradford prior to his own demolition job. There were also EDL Facebook forums that he actively participated in. Yet Breivik is yet to show any remorse for his actions and was evidently happy in court when he met the victims families in court.

Brenton Tharrant, the Christchurch terrorist himself was inspired by Ander’s Breivik. Brenton met with his Idol Breivik as cited in his 74-page manifesto, prior to carrying out his horrific act. All roads in this case lead to Tommy Robinson. Tommy Robinson’s words have had an impact, granted he has not acted out his word, but his words alone have had domino effect, looking at the the Norway and Christchurch attacks. So, should Tommy be held responsible?

The same can be said regarding Anjem Choudhary. Both Anjem and Tommy are two cheeks of the same ass.

The Media

The mainstream media is as responsible as the extremist. In a democracy, the freedom to press is an absolute right to any democracy, however, the media has lost its way in the framework they operate within. The concept of freedom to press was to ensure that true stories are told and the public are kept informed freely from parliamentary and government bias. Third world countries are dictated by autocratic governments, however, in this country, the mainstream media dictates are political views.

How much influence does the media have? Well in 1994, the Sun Newspaper (the most popular paper in the UK) had sensationalized that they had won the general election. Going as far as the 1970’s, any political party which has been supported by the Sun has gone on to win the general election. How easy would it be for the Sun Newspaper to push forward a negative agenda? The answer is quite simple…

Have the media flirted with the right-wing nationalism in their attack against semetic religions? Well the answer is yes. During the early 30’s, Lord Rothermere the owner of the immigrant and race bashing newspaper was an advocate of Hitler and openly supported the attacks of Jews that lived in Germany. So, it should be of little surprise when we see these papers demonising muslims or Islam.

Neil Basu, chief of counter-terrorism in the United Kingdom has openly criticized the main-stream media for its role in radicalizing right-wing terrorism. Basu was particularly critical of the Daily Mail and the Sun coverage of the Christchurch video shooting, but yet the same mainstream-media had been critical of social media sites, for their failure to monitor the uploading of Islamic terrorism videos.

Quite often, you read sound bites of right-wing fanatics being labelled ‘lonely wolf, victims of some sorts, innocent angelic kid that lead them to doing x,y and z etc.…. The mainstream media have tried to legitamise reasoning for right-wing fanaticism. However, the same reasoning is not provided to fanatics who propagate attacks in the name of ‘Islam’. Not for one minute would I expect the media to defend these terrorists. However, the hypocrisy and double standards of the mainstream media operates within its framework.

The right to be offended?

When the right to offend is so easily appropriated the right to be offended can be easily crossed. When you incite hatred and demonize communities it doesn’t take too long for people to rely on journalistic writings, to act upon bigotry and hatred.

However, how far does the right to be offended go before its actions have a tragic consequence. Does is start with conversations, the right to insult, the rick to mock, the right to protest, the right to blog, the right to incite hatred? Or the right to act like we all saw in Christchurch?

The Solution:

The premiere of New Zealand in unity with the Muslim com
munity in mourning

Well astonishingly for the first time we have seen the word ‘terrorist’ being used inclusively for the first time. For the first time, as far as I can remember, the word terrorist has been labelled to a non-muslim. The premiere of New Zealand, Jacinda Adern, a beacon of light for the global unity, stood with the muslim community and mourned with us. Not only did she mourn, she condemned the vile actions of Brendon Tarrant, and labelled him a terrorist.

Considering the huge steps taken by Jacinda, I think the media should also take a stronger position in condemning all forms of terrorism. However, if they fail to do so, a stronger position should be taken hold the media accountable. A regulatory body with the power to enforce huge fines and potential criminal prosecutions would be the most beneficial way in dealing with the media should they continue to stoke the flames of Islamophobia.

Hate preachers like Tommy Robinson and Anjem Chaudary who are guilty of radicalizing others, stricter guidelines should be put in place to monitor their social media platforms, disable their social media in the event they are pushing the boundaries, or impose prosecutions to those who choose to purposely incite bigotry, racism and islamophobia through violence.

Hopefully we can use the events of Christchurch to unite communities…

Part 3 (Aziziyah compartments)

Day 9 (15 August 2018)

Off we set to Aziziyah. We prayed and showered quickly whilst also completing our usual last-minute skirmishes in the room, in the hope that we have not forgotten anything. Thankfully, the breakfast banquet was open and was still made available to us. The window for eating our breakfast was half hour, we had to be at the basement of the hotel at 07:30 am sharp, for us catch our coach.

09:45 am in the morning and we are still at the basement. I think me and mum started getting used to this. To be fair, I was always patient during matters like this. Mum was good for the most part, however, she did grow a bit impatient, every so often. She was not to blame. I texted one of the other guys in another group who were also on the same package as us, and they had informed me that they reached the reception at 9:30am, so that did slightly bother me. But not enough to trigger any annoyance.

Bus was finally here, HOWEVER, the communications leader, informed us that our coach would not be arriving at the anticipated place of pick up, due to traffic. We were now required to go on a detour for us to board our coach. I was helping Q, so I had taken the unconventional route of using the lifts. Surprisingly we were left behind by the Travel Express Team. We were told to wait. Mum quietly had a go at me for helping Q. The guy had 25 bottles, a folded-up wheel-chair and three hand luggage’s, how could I not help!!!

I couldn’t really fault mum for her slight annoyance. So, I had taken on board what she said.

One Call to the rescue…

All in all, my observation of Travel Express so far, is that the Bashir family and the group leaders were super friendly. Travel Express stuck to their word in most matters and somethings were just not in their control, so they should be not held to ransom in those particulars However, the team had communication issues and quite often we all fell victim to this. This particular situation that I will discus (briefly) demonstrates my observation very clearly.

As we were waiting for Travel Express to collect us, I bumped in to Yasin Bhai (One Call leader), he enquired what we were doing. When I explained the situation, he confidently asked me to follow him and he assured me that he would get me on the coach, as he was staying in the same compartment as us (which was re-assuring).

Yasin Bhai was right. We were now on the coach to Azziziyah. Yasin Bhai, won a place in my heart, at that particular moment. On top of helping me, he had an embracing smile and a warming character. May Allah reward him abundantly.

We arrived at the compartment and were welcomed with roses, a red carpet and a grand entrance at the reception (for the first time in Saudi I felt like a Hajji). We had drinks as we entered, local coffee, chocolates, cakes and other celebratory finger foods. Whilst basking in the aura of celebration for a good 20 minutes. I noticed a very angry looking Yasin Bhai storming up the compartment to confront Bashir Snr. A few heated words were exchanged. The crux of the argument was that, Yasin Bhai was annoyed that his group were left in the coach, whilst we were enjoying all the luxuries of VIP guests. I totally understood where Yasin Bhai was coming from. His pilgrims should not settle for second best and they should have had the luxury to settle in to the compartment just as we did.

For the first time me and mum would be separated from our usual arrangements. I was over the moon that I was getting my own space. She didn’t massively irritate me up until this point, however, I needed to have my own breathing time. Now the only issue that I faced, is being with roomed with a boring and reserved bunch. A few faces came to mind.

Luckily, I was blessed with three other guys who didn’t fit the ‘miserable git’ criteria that I was anticipating. We went up to our rooms and were blessed to find a nice and cosey room with three pin plugs ports. The shower was decent as well (nothing like Swiss Hotel), but thumbs up all around.

Sunnah Police and my hair….

After connecting with Amin (room-mate), we covered a whole host of topics; football, his life experience and his path to religion. Amin, asked me about my hair and why I didn’t shave it, and then went on to mentioned how I disrespected the prophet (PBUH). I gave him a subtle but sharp response that I was aware with what I was doing and that people need not spend too much time worrying about my hair rather they should focus their own time on ibadah

What really triggered his response, was that Amin asked me whether I had chance to kiss the Hajj-e-Aswad (Stone from heaven). Very innocently I responded that I avoided kissing the stone as you would be required to perform a high degree of sin to kiss the stone. He had told me that he had kissed it and helped others. He was a bit embarrassed telling me considering the information that I had disclosed. But who was I to judge but his alternate response would suggest otherwise!!

At around 4pm Yasin Bhai did a quick tour guide for his group of the local area. I found this extremely beneficial. Once again, One call was winning more brownie points and Travel Express reputation was slowly dropping in my view. Yassin Bhai invited me to his Hajj seminars that he was holding leading up to Hajj.

An Ummah divided?

Three groups in one compartment with one Musallah, yet all three groups did not pray behind one Imam. Am hoping that this is an one-off incident. Considering we are all from the doctrine of the Sunnah, I was shocked how divided the three groups were over basic prayers.

Sheikh’s lecture will be taking place tomorrow at 4 after Asr.

Dinner Time:

The Buffet lunch was not considering the luxuries that were afforded to us in the grandeurs of the Swissotel. We were with Q and his family. Today was pretty chilled out. Mum was ill the whole day, so she was under strict instructions to relax until the next two days, so that she can recover for Jummah.

Very quickly, I found myself a safe-haven, in the compartment’s reception. This place was my get-a-way for a number of reasons. One, I was not stuck in the confinements of my room and most importantly, the Wi-Fi reception only worked down stair in the reception area.

Me and Q chilled late in to the evening. I stayed a bit longer to ensure that my blogging was coming along in accordance to my daily schedule and I was still scribbling away with my dua book too.

Thought of the day:

Worry about your own Ibadah- Mohammed Ali

Day 10 (16 August 2018)

Fajr was prayed in the confines of my room after suffering from the sheer exhaustion from Makkah to Aziziyah. I think the exhaustion was a concoction of mum being ill and all the moving around since we arrived in the country.

Breakfast in the morning as usual. However, Q’s wife is nowhere to be seen. I kind of realized that there was an issue. Worry and exhaustion was written all over his face. His mother always looked lost all the time, bless her.

Mum came down and she looked like she went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. I attempted to get her to eat much as possible. I realized that a visit to the pharmacy was high on my to-do list.

Very quiet day, other than a quick venture out to the pharmacy after Zuhr, to get mother on the mend. In all honestly I was slightly worried. I would rather her do my head in than be bugged down with this flue and plus I didn’t want her struggling for Hajj.

An expert of the Urdu language? or what pressure can make you speak

Whilst everyone else was feasting with KFC, Burger and McDonald’s. I was eating the local cuisines. Unfortunately, I was not spoiled for choice, so the afghan food around the corner would do just fine. Also mums illness confined me, to not wanting to go, plus my Hajj experience was to abstain from worldly stuff. So, I guess this was good prep.

I went to the Afghan shop which had a surprisingly orderly cue. A lot of the customers were from the Mother/father land. Where our compartment was based, there were a lot of pilgrimers from India/Pakistan. Both governments had worked together to buy compartments in the whole area to ensure their pilgrims had a set location in Azizyah. This is about the only time I have ever heard of Indo-Pak Unity.

As my turn came to order, I realized that English was totally foreign to this guy. So, I was left with no option, except for speaking Urdu. To be fair, it was extremely coherent and understandable to the Afghan brother, so I guess my spoken Urdu is not bad at all. To be fair, all those years of Star Plus and Indian movies, one should have mastered the language. But in all honesty linguistics have never been my plus point.

I also dropped my clothes to the launderettes in that time. Price was 8 pounds which was not too bad. However, as a western foreigner, I always knew the prices were bumped up a bit. So, negotiating with my Bengali brother came to no avail.

I had food with mother in her room. All the women she was sharing her room with were out. Mum had looked so much better after taking her anti-biotic’s. We had food and somehow, I was content and now I could focus on going to the mall this evening. Even though there was not a plan to do so.

Sheikh’s lecture:

We all made our way down to the prayer area in the compartment. Sheikh gave an extreme and thorough account of what to expect from the hajj experience and how to make this process as spiritually engaging as possible. Am someone that learns through demonstrations, Sheikh’s oral delivery was first class, considering how quiet he was.

All in all. The lecture was amazing. As each day past in Saudi, the more increasingly I looked forward to Hajj.

The Beast in Carnate?

Q was having a terrible day with his wife. She refused to meet him and stayed in the room the whole day. I proposed that we should have our late night-tea once everyone was asleep just to get his mind of things.

Tea time at 12am. As we made our way to the café (which oversaw the reception on the ground floor), we realized that brother Wahid was sitting there, he looked very depressed, so I stupidly brought it to Q’s attention. Q decided to invite him. Wahid did not refuse the invitation.

Am going to cut this story short. This guy turned out to be a pretty horrid individual. He was unhappy with the compartment and everything within its surroundings. Both, myself and Q, regretted the moment we had even prompted him about his issues. He was willing to throw the kitchen sink if he had the chance. The language which was used and the threats which were proposed, were very explicit and one’s that I wish not to disclose, for this blog. Considering, where we were, and the purpose of our visit, I really could not sympathies with him. May Allah have mercy on hi

Goodnight

Thought of the day:

‘Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else’, Charles Spurgeon.

Day 11 (17 August 2018)

After breakfast, I gave it a couple of hours before applying my facial. Brother Hussain-al Azhari, was looking in shock/ amusement whilst I was applying the dark red, strawberry flavoured mixture across my face. He jolted a few steps back when I offered him the pot. One would have assumed that I was offering him drugs. I laughed at his reaction and so did he.

*Hussain Al-Azhari, was a very knowledgeable man. After all he was a student from the famous Al-Azhar institute in Egypt. I would often spend the evenings picking his brain in terms of Islam and the current political situation in Egypt. It was most beneficial being around Sheikh Hussain.

Great news…endemic issues with the showers in our compartment. After hearing the guys mentioning the issue, I quickly decided that I would see if Q’s showers were working, so that I could make full use of washing off the face mask and ultimately being ready for Jummah. Luckily, Q had knocked on my door to inform me that I should use his shower. The shpwer stopped working after I used it. SODS LAW!!!

Taken Part 3, Saudi Arabia?

After completing my shower. I made my way to the reception, in the hope that I would be able meet some brother’s so that I could go to the local mosque for Jummah. However, the brothers at reception, notified me that the local mosque would be packed and that are only option would be, to pray outside. With the current level of heat, jummah was not an option, plus I would probably not be fit enough for hajj, in terms of sun-burn.

I met brother Q. He told me that he was going to pray Jummah with his wife. I left him to it, I don’t think his wife would have believed me even if I did tell her.

Luckily, I met a couple of the One Call boys. They made plans to pray Jummah at the Al-Rajhi mosque (second biggest Mosque in Makkah), I kindly asked if I could join them. The brothers were kind enough to take me along with them. The One Call boys were extremely kind and a heart-warming bunch. They were all Bengali and this just re-enforced everything that I have always known about the Bengali community at large.

Ranjhi Mosque was lovely. The sermon was in Arabic so it was difficult to grasp. However, I knew the Sheikhs dua was revolved around the Hajj and it was moving, this really touched me, and it really made me feel extremely lucky that I was one of the chosen ones to undertake such a beautiful journey amongst a religion of 1.8 billion followers.

As we left the mosque. Shumon and Abdul Hannan decided that we should grab a bite to eat at Makkah Mall. We made our way to Makkah Mall and ate till our hearts were content. I got to know Shumon and Abdul Hannan a bit better during the next couple of hours which was good.

*Abdul Hannan, was my sister-in-law’s, younger brothers best mate and Shumon was someone I met in Hajj. Very nice brother who had the unfortunate illness of constantly spewing verbal diarrhea. But in all honesty, from what I gathered, he was a lovely guy. A bit of a diva like-myself in terms of making sure we were looking prim and proper but you cant shoot someone down for wanting to look the part.

Shumon met my mother one breakfast. I Introduced him to my Mother and the first thing he said was, I don’t like Paki’s. Luckily my mother was not well and her hearing impacted because of it. Nevertheless, I knew he was not being malicious and I saw the humor in his reckless humor.

At 2:30pm we decided to leave the Mall. As per the usual routine, we looked for a cab and it was bizarrely unusual not to find someone at this time. *In the middle-east, people tend to avoid shopping during the day due to the heat, a so the locals tend to prefer come out in the evening. Eventually, we found a cab driver (not licensed) but everyone seemed content to jump in, after all, he was only charging 15 Riyals for the journey. Which was a total bargain on our side.

The driver was an Arab and that too, a super friendly one. Something was not sitting right with this guy. He was a chatter box, but a chatter box in all the right ways. We ended up talking about religion and politics and this brother had a very unorthodox view compared to most Arabs that lived here. He was against MBS (Mohammed Bin Salman-Crown Prince) and he was not too fond of Ibn Tayimmah’s doctrine of Islam which is being practiced in his country. Strangest thing he was not as Shia. He was clearly discontent and extremely unhappy with current situation in the country.

One thing lead to another, the driver, literally decided to give us a tour of the whole of Makkah. He covered the mountain that Ibrahim once used to sacrifice his son, Mina, Muzdalifah, Sheikh Sudais’s and Shuraim’s house, mount Hira and Thur, where Khadija (r.a) was buried and where the Ethiopians were defeated when they attempted to conquer Makkah. With things like this you can only take with a pinch of salt. What is real and what is not? Only god knows, nevertheless, it was interesting.

With that being said. I was slightly worried by this mans over hospitality and that I was going to run late for Sheikh’s Hajj seminar. The ever joking Shumon echoed the same feelings, a couple of times he grew concerned about our conversations with the taxi driver and gave me an anxious tap on my leg. To some degree I shared his concern, I wanted to complete my hajj and see my family again. On the other hand, I was laughing as worry was struck all over his face.

We all stood resolute and firm in that we wanted to go back to the compartment. He drove us back without charging us a Riyal. As we were leaving he offered to take us to a Spa. I was not sure what to make of my one and half hour car journey? Fear, humour, love, respect or awkwardness. Maybe all five feelings were right?

I return back to the compartment and am greeted with groups of people frantically telling me that my mum was looking for me and apparently she was none too impressed. Q was laughing. I think he got a kick out of my mum’s reaction and my irritation.

I looked for mum and reversed the whole situation. I demanded that people should feel sorry for me, as I went through hell and back, after my strange cab journey. My mum and others could not stop laughing. So, I successfully won.

Sheikh’s lecture went as planned. Nothing went wrong and I was more motivated about Hajj.

Hair Episode, Missing Dua book and Clothes Pandemonium:

After the lecture. I couldn’t find my book. In search of my dua book, I became a frantic. Two months of writing duas and preparing myself for the day Arafat, all for it to go missing. I felt extremely numb and lost. I spoke to my mother about my misfortune. She was no use and clearly did not find the right words to cheer me up. The feeling of being numb and sad quickly escalated to anger.

To let of some steam. Me and Q went to the laundry service to collect my clothes. Q, had never seen me angry. Five minutes later, we are at the laundrette, and they have given me only half my clothes. Considering how resistant he was to reduce his inflated price, I expected a bit more in terms of service. So, I literally hounded him in my father tongue. Luckily, I located my clothes in other people’s laundry. I felt better now since I managed to get my clothes back.

Dinner in the camps was going to be served in 10 minutes so we rushed our way to the lifts so that I could put my clothes away. As I was making my way to the lift, a brother stopped me in the reception area and sent me his greetings, which I replied with a huge smile. He was insistent in stopping me so I gathered it was of importance. Without introducing himself, he went straight for the jugular ‘Brother you hair, why is it like that?’

I turned around and gave him my nonchalant look. His lips creased and an awkward smile appeared on his face. I asked him, what Islamic institute did he study in? What degree of scholarly work is he involved in? The last question I asked was, whether he was interested in learning my name? Obviously, there was no response. A couple of people started sniggering from my response. I felt sorry for him but today was not the right day for a lecture.

I explained to him, that I was frustrated with people being more concerned about my hair then their own hajj?

I went to my room and found the book waiting on my bed for me.

The dynamics of the day changed. I was now happy Alhamdulillah. Tomorrow is another day!!!!

Day 12 (18 August 2018)

Breakfast with the usual suspects.

The mixture of happiness, excitement and tenseness. I could not really fathom the feeling. But in every which way you look at it, I considered it a good thing.

I was super calm. Myself and mum decided that we should go Makkah Mall and Souk Salam for the last bits for our Hajj trip.

We went Souk Salam to have a quick look around the markets. Both me and mum were shocked at the huge price comparison between Makkah and Souk Salam. Another a couple of visits would be required after Hajj.

We then went to Makkah Mall. We picked up small bits and pieces and went to the food hall. Mum saw the old Mauritian couple so we sat with them. I was joking about with mum on the table and uncle politely got up and left. When he was a safe distance from the table she burst in to tears. Her husband was upset when he saw the relationship between me and my Mother. Two of his three children have left Islam and he was clearly cut up as it opened wounds.

It made me wonder. How much of a great relationship me and Mother have? Granted we are always bickering like an old married couple but we have such a great relationship (Allhumdulilah). Am not sure who should take credit? My Mother nurturing us or my ability to maintain the relationship as an adult? Allah knows best. But am grateful for this blessed relationship. I think, one day when she goes, a huge part of me will go too.

The rest of the day was spent packing our necessities. I was slightly nervous but the big day was fast approaching in six hours or so.