“Do your own time.” This was the advice a prisoner told me on my first day in prison in August 2004.
Chris was serving a 12 year sentence for armed robbery. Along with these words he gave me several other words of advice that would prove to be crucial during the next 11 years that I would spend in prison.
I have described my first day in prison and my conversation with Chris in the book that I am currently writing about my experience.
The meaning of this advice was: do not get involved in other people’s disputes and don’t allow yourself to be manipulated to take sides otherwise your prison time will be harder.
Two years later Chris’s words echoed through my mind when I was transferred to the segregation units of prisons around the country because I allowed myself to be dragged into a dispute that I had nothing to do with.
“I should have listened to Chris,” I thought.
The 1990s was a strange decade for the British Muslim community. On the one hand, there were no anti-terrorism raids, no Prevent and no being harassed at airports.
Those were the days when the word “Jihad” was not synonymous with terrorism.
Yet at the same time the Muslim community in and around Europe was being attacked in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kosovo.
One would have thought that the Muslim community in Britain would have used this time to unite, progress and grow.
Instead, we allowed ourselves to love and hate each other based on the political agendas of foreign governments.
Muslim groups were at each other’s throats.From heckling at each other’s events to creating books and leaflets (this was before social media existed) attacking each other. Heated debates and arguments that frequently spilled over into violence.
It would be unfair to single out one particular group: most groups were guilty of this.
And what were they fighting about? Intricacies of belief and rituals that Muslim scholars had been debating each other about for centuries.
The political stances of countries which most of the disputers could probably not even locate on a map.
Whether to support or reject a scholar in a foreign country whose name most of the disputers could probably not even pronounce properly.
What is common to all these reasons was that the vast majority of these reasons held absolutely no relevance to the personal or collective affairs of Muslims in Britain.
But what is odd is that the disputers thought that these were the most important things concerning them, as this story demonstrates…
In 1995 a young Kenyan Muslim man’s nose was broken by the Afro-Caribbean Muslim convert “bouncer” outside a south London mosque because the former was distributing leaflets criticising the ruler of a Middle Eastern country thousands of miles away.
The sad thing is that there were no winners in that incident. Only victims.
The Kenyan man was a victim of an intolerant physical attack.
And the bouncer who broke his nose in defence of the goverment of a foreign country which he had probably never even visited, later left Islam and returned to a life on the streets.
At the time the neighbourhood’s Muslim community was plagued with drug abuse, mental health problems and domestic violence in which bones of both women and children were broken.
The bouncer had converted to Islam to better himself. He used to attend lectures at his local mosque that were delivered by visiting Muslim clerics sponsored by foreign governments to further the political agenda of those governments.
Instead of the clerics teaching the congregation how to better themselves and their community, their focus was on ritual technicalities, which group was deviant and which foreign government needs to be supported.
In other words, the mandate given to the visiting clerics by their paymasters was to busy Britain’s Muslim community with petty disputes so that they did not have any time to focus on the big picture.
It wasn’t a secret, hidden conspiracy. It was happening in public, out in the open.
The bouncer no doubt thought that he was protecting Islam by breaking the Kenyan’s nose. But was he protecting Islam or the agenda of a foreign government?
Unsurprisingly, the bouncer left Islam a few years after this incident. Perhaps because he never got from his local community what he was looking for?
My final year in prison, 2014-2015, was spent in an American federal prison at the top of a mountain in Pennsylvania.
There were hundreds of Muslim prisoners there, predominantly from the local big city of Philadelphia.
When I arrived there, I found most of the “devout” Muslims in that prison involved in gambling, renting out pornographic magazines and drug peddling.
Yet the subject of almost all the sermons, classes and lectures being delivered by the Muslim prisoner representatives was about grave worship, the wearing of amulets and the academic nuances of credal technicalities.
The Muslim prisoner representatives were good people, prisoners who had realised their error in coming to prison and were trying to turn their lives around. In time they became some of the best friends I made at that prison.
One day I asked one of them how many American Muslims in Philadelphia engage in grave worship. He replied, “None.”
Then I asked him how many American Muslims in Philadelphia were engaged in the use or trade of drugs. “A large number,” he replied.
I was trying to convince him that there were more pressing issues that he needed to address than issues that had no relevance to improving his community. To his credit, he listened and began to change the subject matter of his sermons and lectures.
One of the signs of a sincere person is that he is never too proud to admit where he is wrong, or to change his ways if he finds out that he was in the wrong.
“Do your own time.”
This advice is more important today than ever.
Today it is not just noses that are being broken, but young Muslim men are losing their lives on streets, battlefields or prison without actually understanding why, or for whom, they are doing this.
We need to protect our community and the future of our children from being used as political pawns by any government, local or foreign, who do not have our best interests at heart. They only have their agendas at heart.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
We have to ask ourselves what is the world that we want our children to live in. And then we have to work to create that world.
How do you feel that the Muslim community today is different to the Muslim community in the 1990s, whether in Britain or in your own country? Share your thoughts below.
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Important message for the Muslim community in Britain! We should take note and work towards a better future.
In some ways, I think the Muslim community has grown from the 1990s vs today and started to address issues that are plaguing us (drugs, consumerism, lack of youth development, extremism, anti-terrorism raids, family breakdown, divorce, etc.). In other ways, I still see the same issues you highlighted in your blog and the emphasis is all wrong. I don’t know what is the best way to address all of these but we need to start the conversation and get active. I think we lack a strong leadership in some communities possibly because of a lack of vision and disunity and lack of activism in constructive needy projects.
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I agree that we have grown since the 1990s but one of the things that is hindering our progress, in my humble opinion, is deferring to foreign raised clerics on all matters of strategy and direction for the Muslim community in Britain.
Of course, foreign raised clerics have much we can benefit from in terms of knowledge, experiences, wisdom and manners etc. but I believe it is unwise to defer to them regarding matters they can never understand because they were not raised here.
There are more than enough qualified scholars, students of knowledge and leaders born and raised in Britain. We have to promote them and give them the confidence to lead.
We are already doing the first step, which is recognising that the problem exists.
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As a whole the community has advanced much since the 90s however in referring to your title of how someones nose was broken for criticising a middle east leader in that regards we have failed miserably no longer is it noses that have been broken . Today brothers are doing life sentences and some are dead for something very similar.Unfortunately many in the muslim community in the UK have allowed themselves to become so divided in the name of “reviving their faith” where some groups of muslims feel they are better than others.Within families certain traditions whether right or wrong are frowned upon even the way funerals conducted etc.
I will be as brief as can br but we need to understand the muslim community in the uk is the most strongest (not largest) within the westetn world and have been afforded rights which have allowed more freedom than any other muslim communities in the western world.
Yet instead of having utilised this and made a positive collective powerful voice within the establishment for too many years they kept themselves isolated and the subjects of crime drugs womans rights forced marriages etc were swept under the carpet .In that respect slowly in last 10 years it seems progress has been made.However in the religious arena we have failed miserably.
Now some may feel upset but this can all be traced to the events of the iranian revolution led by Imam Khomeini .
As he was the only modern leader who openly called for the administration of the two holy cities to be given to all the muslims of the world irrespective of nationality or sect.He believed the saudis had colonised all the muslim nations to hinder self sufficency of the muslim nations.
This created panic in the tyrannic house of al yazid al saud who since 1979 have spent billions to “enlighten and cleanse ” the muslims and in the western world the UK was the battle ground.Reality was they wanted to sow as much discord that no one ever challenged their legitimacy collectively as an ummah.
So today we have a scenario that certain groups who say they despise the saudis yet follow their philosophy (As their exported imams always cleverly distinguish between the royals and the religious authority)
In simplicity their mantra is all our troubles are due to our not following the deen correctly and anyone who doesnt follow our exact ways is a kuffar.
The problem is that with the immense resources to read facts and history our peope in this country are so dumb as to follow certain diktats without researching the realities .
Do they even have a grasp of the reality of the power of any muslim states today or so called golden eras they are trying to emulate or recreate.They are instead allowing themselves to be the pawns in a much bigger scheme which in a nutshell is the prolonging of certain muslim tyrants.
We are so quick to say the US or India are the enemy the reality in high geopolitics is that certain muslim nations have done more HARM to the PROGRESS of the muslims than the US could do in a thousand years.Like Donald Trump said the US have had a bad deal from the Saudis! Certain decisions by even our country or the US which have affected muslims can be attributed to the saudis it is a simlple “quid pro quo”.
So i feel the radicalisation of our communities has increased immensely since the 90s and this has had a very bad effect for all the muslims especially those hard working law abiding brothers and sisters.
Finally to finish off we should also appreciate the patience and resiliance of our fellow british citizens muslim or non mislim in light of events in the last 15 years.
For example had an event like 7/7 happened in pakistan by some local pakistani christians there would have been vigilante mobs (and these are supposed to be pious muslims)
Yet in Britain we as a country stuck together similarly today we have certain muslims and preachers who openly insult non muslims in the UK , and the populace once again is patient because like it or not there is not a single muslim country which affords us this protection and rights.
It seems as ALI SHARIATI said 40 years ago about the uk he said “there is much islam in britain but very few muslims” in respect to the welfare system , mannerism humanism is characterisitic of muslims yet very few muslims.One can today say there are quite a few Muslims in britain yet not all have the qualities and sincerities and a large minority are an insult to islam yet the non muslim population is very compassionate and civilised even in the face of open rebellion by some so called muslims.
I apologise if some feel insulted but please even if you dont agree with me consider what i have written it is not meant to be as an insult to anyone ,i feel if we cannot discuss or identify the problem then a remedy cannot be prescribed.
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Khan (S) you went on and on and made no points or rather you simply didn’t capture your audience (me) quite well. So Is will equal it out by doing the same but making great points which cannot be contested as they facts. You used the word “al- yazid al-sa’ud” so it is apparent you don’t know the arabic language. Please do your best to learn the basics if you are going to use it. There is no “al” for yazid. You are probably used to hearing “al-hasan” and “al-husayn” which symbolizes quite a bit.
In addition to that, you mention Khomeini as a source of inspiration? He was a devil. There were many awliyat ash-shaytaan in this century and he probably tops them. I say probably because I am not aware of all. I can name a few handfuls and he still tops them. He did nothing but revive kufr shi’a practices. He was an evil human being and if his face doesn’t reveal that to your blind eye, then just read his books.
The whole of “bayt as-sa’ud” cannot be blamed for what some of they ruling family does. I dislike the tawagheet dictatorship as much as any but at least they do protect the sanctity of al-haramayn to the extent they do. Many feel they should go a bit further and ban all those subscribing to islam but have no attributes. Such as the cutters, chain whippers and dogs of Ruqayah.
You mention “yazid” “country” “west” “Britain” “UK” “Imam khomeini” ..
You call that an Imam? Better to call him by his haram name….Ayat Al-Lat Khomeini. Because he definitely is a sign of Lat just as is his Iraqi successor Sitstaani.
Regarding the article….
Brother Babar. As-salamu alaikm.
It is better for the brothers to be involved in drugs and crime and zina magazines than to be doing shirk. Why? Because at least they are still muslims and have a chance to turn around before death overcomes them.
Anyone can say they’re muslim. Over the years the “isms” “ists” “ians” and like suffixes seem to have taken up the stage. Do we foget that the only reason muslims are called “sunni” is because the khawarij wan’ted to call themselves shi’a and muslim. They have tainted our deen. The sunnah is islam. Is there any other islam that muhammad s.a.w.s. practiced? No. Did a “shi’a” of Ali a.s. ever exist during the first 2 leaders? No. They just started during the ruling of Uthmaan r.a.
So anyone can say they are muslim. They have to follow through with shahadatayn (testimony of tawheed of Allah awj and recognize mhmd saws) and they first pillar of the testimony is tawheed…followed by others but that is the very minimum. You negate that and you negate your deen.
As someone once said, “The price for jannah is tawheed.”
There is a war between the muslims and shi’a and it has gained flame since the shi’a convince bush to go to war in iraq and overthrow the dictator saddam. Unfortunately, Iran had to send in the Shi’a death squads in 2004 which gave way to rival opposition.
Regarding sins and mannersims…
As you may know during the time of Umar r.a. there was a governor of his who was a drunk. He sent him a letter with the first 3 ayaat of a surah and the man cried and made taubah. I don’t remember all the details but I believe he died in great standing with allah azwj.
One time Umar r.a. was eating with a bunch of men and witnessed one man eating with his left hand and he commanded him to eat with his right had. The man was shy and scared to answer back. On the 3rd time he replied saying that he has no right hand that he lost it in a battle. Umar r.a. apologized and replied ‘subhanallah. brother how do you make your wudu?”
Manerism is important. Conduct is important. Patience is important. Persistance is important
And today Iran is threatening the U.S. if there are more sanctions. I think the U.S. should shroud the persians in relentless sanctions and no U.S. company should be convinced to do business with them! There is nothing to benefit the American people. Backstabbing, lying and cheating has always been their gameplan. But Iran’s people and slaves are the new boots on the ground. Their blood is cheap for the U.S. and Israel. And Iran has no problem commiting more men/boys to the bloodbath as long as they’re getting paid and hoping to grab land so they can spread their “Fatimiyyah” state (fatamid state) as they had for the few hundred years in the past. They’re very upset that the desert dog arabs came and conquered their lands with simple weapons and a small amount of men. But those men had faith and Nasr. It was a prophecy that Kisra would be crushed. The muslims lost many men and went through many commanders but they pressed on and it paid off with the entire empire falling. Two of the worlds greatest empires fell to one leader. As the prophet saws stated they would when he had the dream of the two golden bracelets on his wrists that turned to dust.!
So it’s a start by disassociating from those who are calling themselves muslim but break the fundamental rules rather than disassociating from those who are following the rules and simply living sinfully because with sin we still have a chance. But allah azwj is very explicit on what will never be forgiven…..shirk and lack of prayer.
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To clarify something iam not fluent in arabic , secondly i am sunni yet hold no animosity towards any human , your religious attributes seem well researched and like i tell my own friends that religiously everyone knows there is only one correct way as it is for all to read and see , however the anger which is attributed (which i myself once shared) is not warranted.
However your politic statements / history seem more a mixture of conspiracies.
And in no way am i trying to berate anyone or get on to any bickering thats the one thing i learn if we as muslims cannot even dialogue with each othet then what hope for us.
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The Ummah needs to be united, I agree we are too busy discussing petty issues. Like Mawlid right now?!
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