The latest issue of the Oprah magazine had a very interesting article by a mother about her daughters rejection of Western attire in favour of Muslim dress. In a day and age when Governments and rights groups are doing their best to criminalize the way a Muslim woman covers herself, it is nice to see that the negative advertising still hasn't deterred a determined few. Click on the link below to read the whole story:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/personal/06/09/o.daughter.muslim.scarf/index.html

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Ayub Bin Suleiman Diallo grew up in a rich family of scholars in the Senegal-Gambia region of West Africa. Unfortunately, a rival tribe attacked his family and he was captured and sold into slavery. He ended up in England but after a failed escape attempt, the English were very impressed with his knowledge.

Ayub was able to write out the entire Quran from memory and always displayed the best of Muslim manners - even to his captors. He was a true gentleman and even the stuffy Georgian Englishmen elected this slave to a Gentlemans Club. He helped Sir Hans Sloane write one of the earliest translations of the Quran.

Eventually, the public raised enough money to buy his freedom and return him to his home. But before he went, they managed to convince him to sit for a portrait so they could remember him. Now more than a century later the English public are trying to raise £500,000 to keep the picture in the UK as they feel it is a valuable part of their history.

Compare this to Muslims who are busy neglecting every facet of our own history and our own heroes.The only people who pay attention to them are those who believe that they are bida'a and therefore must be destroyed.  Little wonder that the Muslim youth these days have no connection to their glorious past and no hope of emulating it.

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Yes, after our series on the Niqab Wars the issue is in the news again because of the preoccupation of the "enlightened West" with the right of a Muslim woman to wear Burka if she wants to. You would think with the most serious financial crisis in nearly a century threatening to collapse their economies, at least two quagmire type wars half way across the world and the current state of the Environment that these so-called "enlightened" souls would have far more pressing issues to deal with.

The truth is that the Burka and what it represents - an Islam that is not under their full and total control, an Islam that thinks for itself and makes it own choices, an Islam that is comfortable in the modern world - is probably the single greatest threat to them. A functioning and revitalised Islamic people hold the answer and the key to financial stability, world peace and harmony with our Environment. Banning the Burka speaks volumes about those who advocate it - one small step for France, one giant Leap for Islamophobia.

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The latest July issue of ISocNews is out now. Click on the image to start enjoying it...

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Yes, what we knew would happen even before a ball was kicked in South Africa has come to pass. The woeful England team has finally ended their misery and gone back to their overpaid day jobs in the Premier League whilst serious teams are left to fight for glory. England fans will be used to this by now. They know the crushing sense of depression that comes with a humiliating performance - made all the worse because on paper they are better than that. They know what it means to continually under-perform and let their entire nation down. They know that despite all the bragging and the machismo at the start of the World Cup, it was always going to end in tears.

I'm struck by the parallels to be drawn by the situation of the Muslims in this day and age. We too claim ourselves to be the inheritors of a glorious civilization let alone the Final Revelation to mankind just like English fans pompously talk about "football coming home". We too keep going on about Khalid ibn Walid and Ibn Sina just like England fans keep going on about Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst. We too keep reliving past glories like Badr and Qadisiyyah just like English fans can't stop talking about 1966. We too are full of extremely rich individuals and selfish journeymen and just like the English players excelling for their clubs and flopping for their country, Muslims seem to be only interested in doing well for their nations rather than the Muslim ummah as a whole.

In both cases, the end result is the same. You get humiliated, knocked out and others will continue on to fight for respect, honour and glory.

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The latest scholar to be bounced out of the UK is Abu Ameenah Bilal Phillips. As anyone who attends his talks will know, he's hardly someone you can call "extreme" in any sense of the word. As befits his academic background, this former school teacher is more intellectual than radical. Yet, here he was at the airport being put on the next flight back to Doha.

With this trend likely to continue and possibly accelerate and the Universities and councils clamping down on who delivers Islamic lectures on their premises, an interesting situation is arising. Can the Muslims living in Britain fill the vacuum created and if so, with what?

It is tragically true that (bar a few notable exceptions) many of the speakers from the UK are uninspiring and lack the charisma and depth in knowledge needed to lead a community. Ask around at any ISoc or conference and the focus is always on trying to get the largest number of international speakers down.

The next generation of Islamic speakers needs to come from the Muslim youth and this will only happen if they are switched on and serious about Islam and the Muslim community, not if they are far away from the faith or if they are selfishly only interested in going to Jannah themselves

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A hate filled bigot who condemns an entire population as backward and is beyond borderline racist comes to the UK and gets to give a speech in the House of Lords. A Medical Doctor turned preacher who spends the absolute majority of his time promoting interfaith dialogue and runs an entire TV channel called "Peace TV" is meanwhile banned from even making a speech. Geert Wilders is feted, Dr. Zakir Naik is banned - I wonder if you can spot the difference between them?

Ok, it is easy to pick up on the Hypocrisy of the banning order that brings the former into the heart of Parliament whilst the latter is not even let into the country. But what about the double standards of the Muslims themselves? No, I am not talking about the Muslims who worked so hard to get into politics to help the Muslim community out only to go silent on issues such as this. I am talking about Muslims who follow scholars that are never in danger of being affected by such bans.

It is clear that a line is being drawn in the sand to indicate those Muslims who are acceptable and those who are not. For years, certain scholars have been coming to the UK on behalf of Government funded Organizations. These scholars continue to come to the UK to deliver their lectures on various topics yet they (and their upper middle class Muslim followers) seem oblivious to the fact that they are deemed the "acceptable" scholars and others are not. They never mention this dichotomy and tend to ignore it.

If we are truly one ummah then surely the Hamza Yusuf fan should be as  indignant about Dr Zakir Naik being banned as the Zakir Naik fan. The fact that this does not seem to be the case speaks volumes about our state of mind and the state of our union.

Note: The views of this post do not necessarily reflect those of ULU ISoc.

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A few days ago was the 70th anniversary of an important event in French history. The French had just been defeated by the Germans in World War II and Nazi tanks rolled into Paris up the famous Champs Elysees. The French Government led by Marshal Petain officially accepted the control of Hitler. The proud nation of France, with a long and distinguished history was now gone from the pages of history. Or was it?

One man refused to accept that a country with a culture and history such as that of France could simply sail off into the sunset. He was a brigadier in the defeated French army and his name was Charles De Gaulle. He gave a rousing speech telling his compatriots to never give up, that France lived on inside them and that "whatever happens, the flame of France must not and will not be extinguished."

His countrymen rallied to his impassioned statements and with his words ringing in their ears the French resisted the Nazis until a few years later they were able to push them out of their country. Indeed, Allah does not change the situation of a people until they change themselves and this is exactly what the French did. However, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect that the Muslim nation was in the same position as France was in 1940. We too were divided, dismembered and destroyed. We too had our so called leaders selling their nation to the highest bidder. We too come from a nation with a proud history, a great cultural tradition and a beautiful civilization.

Unless we change our mentality and our vision, then we will never have our own De Gaulle to stand up and rouse us from our slumber and to tell us that whatever happens, the flame of the Muslim nation must not and will not be extinguished.

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If you are studying hard for exams then may Allah give you barakah in your time and the ability to retain knowledge swiftly and easily. Almost all Muslim students will be working hard around this time trying to pass this final hurdle of the academic year.

So what has Unity got to do with the blood, sweat and tears of revision time? Nowadays, studying is almost always considered an individual pursuit where students isolate themselves with a book, a lecture or their notes and try and memorise as much as they can. However, if we look into Islamic antiquity we can see that studying was almost always a group activity with students learning by discussing, debating, teaching their juniors and questioning their seniors. This was only possible in a group of people who were united towards a common goal - to use their knowledge for the sake of Islam and the Muslim community.

When was the last time the Muslim students in your University sat down and tried to help each other in exams? Did the Muslims in the year above you ever sit you down and go through difficult concepts and subjects with you? Have you ever made a note of questions that came up in your exams to pass on to the Muslims in the year below you? Have you gone beyond the circle of friends you have and ever made an effort to get those excellent notes you stumbled across photocopied for all the Muslims in your year?

I can guarantee that for the majority of Muslims the answer to almost all the questions above is a big fat 'No.' When we were united then we were able to build the worlds greatest and best universities and produce advancements in every field of study known to man. Now that we are divided and selfish we can only think about ourselves.

(Image: Students studying together in the Bait Al Hikma, Baghdad.)

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The TV is ready, the remote is located, the Pepsi chilled, the Doritos dipped and the phone off the hook. Whether you are a shepherd in Mongolia or a business in Madrid - you cannot fail to be excited (or annoyed) by the World Cup starting in South Africa.

This year Algeria is the lone Muslim nation taking part in the World Cup. In years gone past countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and even Iran have taken part. Here at the Unity Blog we never condone nationalism - not even when it comes to the beautiful game. However, imagine if we were united into one Muslim nation as we should be.

There are a wealth of Muslim players spread across the world playing for various countries, but together they could put together a team that could actually challenge for and win the World Cup. Of course, the unity of the Muslim Ummah is necessary for many much more pressing reasons but we just wanted to make the point that it is not all about preventing the tragedies that we currently face. Unity could also help us achieve great heights in science, architecture, medicine and even sports.

Just imgaine, if we were united as a Muslim nation we could one day win the World Cup... so what's stopping us?

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