The Internet Muslim Community has been buzzing with reports of Dr Zakir Naik being denied entry into the UK. Dr Zakir Naik was scheduled to host his Famous Peace Conference in the UK this year but was denied a visa on the accusation of him being a supporter of terrorism.
The controversy continued when several other Islamic orators were denied entry as well. Areeb Islam, a convert and preacher from South Africa, was also denied a Visa, while Dr Bilal Philips who was scheduled to speak at a conference on Sunday was denied entry at the airport and sent back to Qatar. Dr Bilal posted the following on Facebook on Monday:
Well, the inevitable finally happened. At least the British Home Secretary called Dr Naik in Mumbai prior to his trip and told him not to come. I arrived to London this Saturday morning, 19 June, at 8am only to denied entry and put back on a plane at 11am back to Doha!!! So, I was unable to attend the Qur’aan conference on the 20th as planned!!!
When asked to comment on the situation, Dr Bilal told me the following:
They are only shooting themselves in their own feet as it is we who are enlightening Muslims to the true teachings of Islam to warn them away from extremism and terrorism in the name of Islam. When they ban us, they leave a vacuum which the extremists will fill using what has happened to us as proof of their evil intent. It’s all good in the end for Allah will complete His guidance despite their hatred of it.
I attended the first ever Peace Conference in Mumbai 2007 and I can tell firsthand that the entire conference was a promotion of peace, tolerance and truth. Neither Dr Zakir nor Dr Bilal nor any other speaker at the conference preached anything hateful and violent. Rather there were many lectures aimed at denouncing terrorism and religious violence. You can read more about my experience at the conference here...
Read the complete article and share your thoughts on Muslim Matters.
In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِاللهِالرَّحْمنِالرَّحِيمِ | Peace be with you السلامعليكم
As'salamualaykum! Read this week's update on Yousuf Walton, our virtual Imam, who made it to Indonesia in one piece and is currently teaching and making friends, wohoo!
Yousuf says goodbyes to family and the local masjid community... Can I get an 'aww'?
(click all the images for a zoom in & slightly better resolution)
On flight to Tokyo, day 1...
Drinking Japanese Coke and flying over snow-covered lands...
On flight to Tokyo, Yousuf finds plenty of time to take photos, watch TV and make friends...
Peekaboo...
More photos will be shared with you soon insha'Allah. Yousuf is currently teaching English and trying to find internet connections for more updates. Apparently Indonesia is very hot, humid and friendly, alhamdulillah.
Yousuf's Facebook Message:
"I am in indonesia alhumduillah, do not have my own internet yet, except only while at work, inshallah will get internet soon =) keep me in your dua"
In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِاللهِالرَّحْمنِالرَّحِيمِ | Peace be with you السلامعليكم
Asalaam alaikum wa rahmatulla.
So I am back in New Zealand!
Yesterday after nearly 40 hours of travel (includingback-to-back 22 hours of flight time) I finally reached Dunedin, New Zealand [map].
I was so excited to finally see my husband and I know he felt the same. On the last 2 hour plane ride I found myself with butterflies in my tummy, I couldn't wait to finally be able to stay on solid ground.
InshaAllah there'll be no airplanes till August 2010 and that time it will be for taking my hubby to meet my family in person. An event I have to look forward to...
So the trip wasn't completely awful; Air New Zealand won me over again with their amazing service, good food and heaps of in flight movies and personal entertainment. For those of you who haven't flown over seas at such a long distance, everyone has their own display screen with head phones, a blanket, pillow, and at least for Air NZ they feed you dinner, breakfast and provide juice coffee and tea along with snacks upon request any other time during the flight at no cost to you (I sound like their spokes person), 'thank you, come again!'
Air NZ come on top probably because for the millionth time I am not impressed with Air Canada: I got suckered out of my isle seat - some guy my father's age explained he would be "getting up a lot for the washroom, blah blah blah", so I caved and was stuck in between two huge men who dominated the armrests... it was a long 6 hours of flight. Then to top it off on the meal that YOU have to purchase on Air Canada I got the only option I could consume which was a veggie sandwich which was simply bread with heaps of shredded carrot in the middle, no sauce, yuckh, was dreadfully awful.
My 9 hour lay-by in Los Angeles [map] was alright, I spent most the time using WiFi and talking with my lovely friend Naomi, she was a life saver.
So all in all my trip was good... Except when I got to Immigration... go figure. I have a Visa to be in New Zealand, it permits me to work and stay for a year. I went through the immigration office with all my legal documents.
I make a small du'a in line.
I hand the immigration officer my documents.
Immigration Officer: *looks at my visa* Do you intend to work in New Zealand?
Me:Maybe, I got the Visa in case I needed too.
Immigration officer:Are you traveling alone, and do you know anyone in New Zealand?
Me:Yes I'm alone, and I have quite a few family members and friends here including my husband and my brother.
Immigration Officer:Everything looks good, welcome back to New Zealand enjoy your stay.
Me:Thanks, good to be back. Have a wonderful day.
The immigration officer stamps my passport and I enter to go get my bags and take them through the area for declaring items and to get my bags scanned.
So I had a pack of sealed almonds I bought in LA. Not a huge pack, more medium sized and I was wondering if I should chuck it or declare it to take with... I mean, why throw away good food so I decided to 'declare it'. I also thought they were harmless almonds, it didn't cross my mind that almonds could be suspicious or interrogated...
I grabbed my bags and showed up, handed the next officers my stamped passport and landing papers and declaration form. I 'declared' the almonds.
All of a sudden I am being sent to a line no one else is in... 'What the...?' This is not the line to have your bags x-rayed, 'erm hello, there's been a mistake...'
Then I'm thrown in front of an Officer who asks about a million questions like:
What's your name? - Really? I mean it's on my passport, but anyways... More questions:
What's your date of birth?
Where are you from?
What's your husband's name?
How did you meet him?
Why did you marry a Fijian not a Canadian?
Spell out his full name
What's his date of birth?
Where will you be living?
How many family members do you have in New Zealand?
How many Family members in Canada?
Where did you live in Canada?
What are your intentions in New Zealand?
...and the list went on.
After answering all his questions he sent me to a waiting area, where I made another serious du'a and prayed they didn't send me back to Canada, and that I also don't miss my last flight from Auckland to Dunedin. Why would they send me back? I have a valid visa, they gave me the visa. They wouldn't send me back insha'Allah.
A million thoughts rushed through my mind. What if I don't get to see my husband? I'll miss my brother's wedding. Man, this air ticket cost a lot of money. Even though I was nervous I knew it would be ok, but that's not to say things wouldn't get worse before they got better.
Then a young lady approached me and had me go to an area with chairs surrounding a long metal table in a conference room. She asks me another million questions, a lot of them very personal.
Why did you leave New Zealand in the first place, why didn't you just stay here with your husband the whole time?
My grandmother has cancer, I answered, so I wanted to spend some time with her, and renew my visa.
What type of cancer? She asked.
Anyways, all in all she was nice, probably just doing her job and I admit she apologized a few times saying something about drug trafficking and this just being a "random check", and constantly saying, sorry, it's part of the job.
She tried to reassure me that it was nothing to do with me personally, even though in three international flights, I was the only one there that went in this "special line" and in terms of appearance I was indeed the only Muslim.
I signed a paper saying I had nothing else to declare besides the stupid almonds which I had been cursing for the last 20 mins. It also said I didn't intend to bring anything illegal or do anything illegal within my stay. They took everything out of my bag - which of course in the end I had to re-pack and have x-rayed before running to catch my last flight.
But I am now finally home, safe and sound alhumduillah.
We have a very small flat through my husband's work that's partially paid for, and alhumduillah it's great, but of course I could have lived in a cardboard box before I would live with his family... but that's a whole other story.
Anyways I will keep you all posted. Asalaam alaikum.
When I traveled from Canada to New Zealand, I felt out of my comfort zone, excited but nervous at what was about to be before me.
I never would have known returning to Canada would be similar. I would have never known I was going to return...
Due to some unfortunate circumstances i.e. my husband's sister hating me due to her possessive nature over her brother, me and my husband found ourselves without a home in a foreign country. In the middle of the night I was stuck with an emotional split second decision of what to do, thus I called my dad sobbing at being homeless with nothing but the clothes on my back. I was chased out, for no good reason, both me and my husband as horrible words were thrown at us, on the lesser end I can mention the word extremist, strange, useless, thick headed, stupid ... these were the least hurtful of the lot.
We did everything for these people, everything and anything, even let it roll of our backs when their children use to spit on us, and disrespect us.
Things were going well, despite my husband's sister often telling me when we were alone that I ruined my husbands life, or that I wasn't welcome in their home, they were stuck with me, or being told not to hug my husband or go to close to him as I was smothering him, but the two of us had otherwise found jobs and in a few weeks time would be on our feet, independent at last.
I think his sister foresaw that exact image, and did anything and everything to try and harm our relationship without any luck. Kicking us out before we were able to afford living anywhere was the only way she could hurt us, the way she could make life more difficult for us, so she did it.
She finally showed her true colours in front of her brother, telling me all sorts of horrible things as filthy words flowed so smoothly out of her mouth as I helplessly looked at my feet wondering why I was in this position; I am no victim but what can you do what you have nowhere else to go and you know any minute your going to be faced with that realization.
I sit here looking at my broken laptop, the one my husband's sister smashed, my wedding photos gone, wondering how someone could be so horrible, asking Allah swt to give me the patience I need, now on the other end of the world furthest from the one I love.
I returned to Canada alone, I felt out of place after being gone almost a year.
I didn't like how I felt.
Being here alone was the worse part now faced with. The task of sponsoring my husband.
Being here to face the world alone when my best friend is so far from me. I have only left New Zealand 5 days ago - 3 of which were spent traveling... yup 50 hours of flying and lay by time.
I am finely adjusting to the new time zone after some serious jet lag, but not adjusting to being so far from my husband. Even being in another country everything reminds me of him and makes me overly emotional. I constantly worry and stress, is he eating? He can't cook, what's he eating? Does he sleep? I know I have a hard time sleeping without him next to me, we both suffer this illness. I often pretend to still be jet lagged, closing my eyes hoping to fade away into a dream land where I can smile and see my husband. This isn't easy.
All our plans are on hold at the moment both of us with he heavy burden of being apart.
InshaAllah we can spend our one year wedding anniversary together, we will, I don't break my promises, even if we both have to go to his impoverished, unstable home country of Fiji, I could care less, I will give up all the luxuries of this world even the simple ones kind of like I did when living with his family, just to be with him so that we can have a family.
Right now I don't know what to do, or where to go, my family is living in Montreal, I don't speak French so I won't be able to get a job - I also have family living in a small town, I can go there but say goodbye to halal food and masjids, which means eating 100% veggie. Oh well... It also means returning to the stares, the rude comments, the lack of understanding. I can handle it, the only thing I won't be able to handle is being away from the one I love for long - for those who think it's cheezie, you're lost and don't know what you're missing in life.
InshaAllah it wont take long.
I pray Allah swt speeds up this difficult time in our lives and gives us the strength to get through this, allow things to move quickly without any major issues. I'm going to miss my husband's birthday - we have decided he can stay a few months longer. He's not allowed to be 27 until we are together, maybe we can celebrate our birthdays together on my birthday/our wedding anniversary in March... InshaAllah.
Keep you posted. I hope everyone enjoyed their Eid, I spent mine alone in a airport. But that's ok its Allahs will. Take care, walaikum asalaam wa rahmatulla.
In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ | Peace be with you السلام عليكم
Ex-Guantanamo bay guard Terry Holdbrooks - now callled Mustafa Abdullah, was due to arrive 5th September, Saturday evening in the US on a return flight from a trip to the UK. Upon arrival the FBI interrogated and detained brother Mustafa again at a US airport. This is not surprising to us but very unnecessary. What threat or need is there to 'capture' and detain the man? No news as to why he has been detained but brother Mustafa is forced to spend the night there and passed on this message to us via a sister in faith:
Message from brother Mustafa:
"So upon arrival I was detained again in the states, and interviewed by the FBI, sleeping in the terminal again tonight so I am not going to be anywhere near anyone! My laptop and all electronics have been seized by the FBI, I am evidently tied with jihad in America! Please let everyone who should know this know, as in tell everyone, my facebook page, etc! Thank you, have a great slumber!"
Please keep brother Terry Mustafa Holdbrooks in your dua', support him and ensure he has a grand welcome when the authorities eventually let him go insha'Allah.
At suhoor: I ate Crunchy Nut cornflakes. That's right, the nuttiest cereal known to England. Still, nice with cold milk though. I also had peach juice, ate a plum (they don't seem to finish) and a cuppa'tea. PG Tips. Oh yeah, I'm living the life.
At Fajr: I fell sleepy which was literally AFTER suhoor so I think the Ramadan blues are getting to me. I tried refilling at the Ramadan Imaan Gas Station (RIGS) but they didn't accept my coupons so I'm still 50/50 on alertness.
I made dhikr in my head on the bed.. then slid off onto the floor and made more dhikr to stay awake and in a state of wudhu*... 'la illaha ill'Allah...' I banged my head on the table I use for storage (since I was splayed on the floor) and nearly swore... 'la illaha ill'Allah...' then rolled over to grab a scarf from the wardrobe and found it was tightly wrapped in a tie-band and spent ages opening it and pinning it in the semi-dark... Still making tasbih to control my Hulk-anger... 'la illaha ill'Allah ta'la...' Then stood up creaking and squeaking every old bone in my body and finally made prayer! Yayy! Take that sloth!
And ladies, you don't want to be spending eons hanging or folding your headscarves, nope. What you do is chuck out all your university files which look important to create a large empty pull out drawer OR use those nifty stackable boxes with lids from Ikea or Argos. Throw out all your scarves onto the floor and roll up each one into a tiny handkerchief sized sausage and tie a band around it. Put them into the boxes (I colour co-ordinate mine, I know, I live a sheltered life) or your drawer and Ta-Da! You now have a more spacious wardrobe or closet for other hand-me-downs and an easy-on-the-eye organised headscarf department. I invented that concept I did. I should do Muslim Life coaching. How awesome is that?
I keep hearing people saying after something bad or upsetting has happened "tut, that's a shaytaan act, that was a devillish work". I'm like HELLO?! There are NO shaytan or evil jinn around, at all! It's Ramadan, the month of freedom and Allah swt has swiped every malignant jinn and thrown them into a cave! Probably in the Vegas desert. There are some evil people around though, I wish they were locked up or thrown into the depths of the cold dark sea.
Every disappointing or struggling event is straight from Allah to test our patience with ourselves, and from other sources, including us. Stuff happens, you know? Bad, painful, heartbreaking, annoying, hypocritical and damaging stuff. But it IS a test and only in hindsight do I remember that if I had held on a wee bit longer to that taqwah - piety/alertness, I might have pulled through with a smile. During that test though I forget and I begin to blame things. I blame my computer a lot of the time. Technology is evil, I just know it. Hunger attacked me today really strongly. I wanted to lick every picture of 'halva' and 'baklava' I saw, and I'm not a fan of either! Sabr I told myself, feed your soul with Allah's remembrance... It's all a learning experience.
After dhuhr salah: I took a stroll outside to water the cucumber and tomato plants in and near the greenhouse. They've properly mutated now, huge bunches of tomatoes, 15+ to a plant, al'hamdulillah. I also hung out with a bird and befriended a spider. We talked about flying in the changing weather and how difficult it was building a home out of microscopic threads. Some daft bat always comes along and tears it apart. You should read what Allah says about the female spider's web. In Surah al-Ankaboot, The Spider, chapter 29, verse 41:
"The analogy of those who take protectors other than Allah is like that of the female spider, who builds its house all by herself; but surely the flimsiest of houses is the spider's house;- if only they knew what that meant." (29:41)
Lesson: Build your homes, your faith, families and fasting on foundations that are strong, truthful, solid and linked to complete faith in One Illah (Lord/God). Anything else and it will break and crumble - just like believing in more than One Illah. I like that verse. I've memorised it.
After 'Asr: I pulled out a couple of duffs (traditional Eastern drums) from under my headscarf (one can hide so many useful things underneath one's libaas - sellotape, computers, duffs...) and I went about singing ♫ Ramadan nasheeds. It was awesome. We made a racket. We're an up and coming rock band I will have you know. I started one in college and received rave reviews... Glass Smashers we were called. Anyway, not only did we sing every Ramadan song we know - girls and boys, we know EVERY single Ramadan song out there, we made up our own too! It was like Ramadan-Karaoke. I will get the wicked lyrics for the next post insha'Allah.
I became very distressed just before Isha salah. I came online to check emails and received a message from Cage Prisoners (Google them) informing me brother Terry Mustafa Holdbrooks, the former Guantanamo prison guard, had been detained at a US airport for 24hrs. He hadn't even put a foot on the plane. Why? I wondered, I wasn't surprised. We were joking about how security hadn't stopped him earlier or that he would be held and questioned about his beard, his colouring, his intentions and contents of computer etc. But this was really a heart jab.
They let him go, Mustafa got on the plane, arrived here in London 24hrs later than expected and was detained again, this time by the Border Control Agency. My heart sank further into my intestines because this was disappointing. The statement released said something about Mustafa having an unstable financial situation so he could intend to stay indefinitely in the UK and commit something naughty. "That" was the only reason they kept him?! I rang the number provided by Cage Prisoners to give the officer there a piece of truth and my mind but I couldn't get through. Good thing I guess, I probably would have been taken into custody too. Again. So now brother Mustafa's being told he's being shipped back to the US on flimsy grounds like unwanted goods and we probably won't get to see him or support him!
The Kensington and Chelsea Council did that with Imam Anwar Awlaki - saying they didn't want to upset people with his presence and blah blah blah. These are ICONIC MUSLIMS who have proven their worth enough times; what are they really going to do? Damage us English with their kufi's and words? Puh-lease. They let the BNP exist didn't they? We 'grand' United Kingdom: Tolerance exists on the tips of their tongues. Al'hamdulillah for those organisations trying to reach out in solidarity, work with Muslims and vice versa, fasting with us too. This just takes the biscuit and reduces our faith in authorities.
That's still rumbling in my head so while it was a fairly productive and good fast al'hamdulillah, I'm making dua Brother Mustafa has a safe journey and less stressful time ahead. He's going to cuss so much about it after...
---Intermission---
I found a box of mehndi (henna) tubes in that Gift From Abroad package. They're really good, give a dark stain and come with "emergency henna instructions". -chuckle-
PANIC! It's my wedding day and I MUST have mehndi! If only some super-henna-hero could save me from this predicament! -out jumps a flashing mehndi cone in a cape- FEAR NOT! For I am here to save and colour in your hands! Behold! The bride is naked no more! Aha ha... I'm going to experiment with this. I used to be really good at Celtic and Indian designs. I want to henna tattoo on my forehead "misunderstood".
I have the video up for my shmexy (see? halal sexy = shmexy) foreign 80's car:
Anyway, while I'm indebted to your utter adoration to my insatiable glammy lifestyle, I've got to go. This week has gone incredibly fast, fast 9 already! I have a stack of books I want to read, some more 99 names of Allah subhanahu'wa ta'la to memorise and a list of eccentric things to do for tomorrow insha'Allah.
Zaufishan ★ sat on a windowsill counting the stars and making dua' to Allah for better security on and off land
Dr Zakir Naik was scheduled to host his Famous Peace Conference in the UK this year but was denied a visa on the accusation of him being a supporter of terrorism.
