Why so defensive?

Two things recently have really annoyed me. I hope you’re sitting back with a mug of tea and have nothing to do for the next ten minutes or so.

So where to begin?

Hanging up in London’s underground tube stations are posters bearing the faces of Muslim men and women who claim that they are ‘inspired by Muhammad.’
Inspired By Muhammad

The organisers of the campaign say: ‘The Inspired by Muhammad campaign is designed to improve the public understanding of Islam and Muslims. It showcases Britons demonstrating how Muhammad inspires them to contribute to society, with a focus on women’s rights, social justice and the environment.’ The campaign came about after the results of a national poll, the YouGov poll showed that

58% of people associate Islam with extremism
50% associate Islam with terrorism
69% believe that Islam encourages the repression of women
Only 6% of people associate Islam with justice
And a mere 6% believe that Islam promotes active measures to protect the environment.

Oh dear.

But I must say that with the negative media coverage Islam has been given, these results don’t particularly surprise me. If anything; they only advocate the already prevalent need for Muslims to do something to change these widespread misconceptions, which is why this campaign was initiated in the first place. However, just hours after the ‘Inspired by Muhammad’ posters went up, criticism flooded through newspapers, blogs and TV shows. BBCs ‘The Big Questions’ dedicated a whole debate on the topic ‘does Islam need better PR?’ where the response from some members of the audience was so cynical it was almost comical. One memeber of the audience, Peter Whittle, said to Kristine Backer, one of the initiators of the campaign, ‘You’re living in fairy land if you think Muhammad was an environmentalist and believer in women’s rights,’ Then he argued his point, as is always done by men of his calibre, by ‘pointing out’ that the Prophet (pbuh) was married to Aisha (RA) when she was very young and therefore cannot be an advocator of women’s rights.

click on the link below if you want to watch the debate:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwAMsQk7veI


Criticising along the same ignorant lines is Douglas Murray from the Telegraph. He began his blog post by saying:
‘This week sees the launch of a hilarious new campaign called “Inspired by Muhammad” (as we are now all expected to spell Mohammed). It claims to want to “improve the public understanding of Islam and Muslims”. It is being strongly pedalled by taxpayer-funded Muslim organisations. Which makes it another nice example of the British people being preached to and proselytised in an Islamic way, presumably at our own expense.’

Then, in the same arrogant tone he goes on to say:
‘The campaign posters show British Muslims saying things like: “I believe in protecting the environment. So did Mohammed.” Funniest of all is a woman barrister in a headscarf who fronts the poster: “I believe in women’s rights. So did Mohammed.” ‘

Clearly for Douglas Murray, the whole campaign is one big joke. Yet it’s because of men like himself that such campaigns exist!

The debate about the burqa is the second thing that’s been bothering me, it links back to issue of women’s rights brought up by the posters. Journalists who argued against the messages of the poster campaign are often the same journalists who are the keenest to argue that Muslim women are not liberated because they are ‘forced’ to cover from head to toe. The recent news coverage has been fuelling the debate on Muslim women’s dress in light of the ban in France and due to calls by a Conservative MP Philip Hollobone for a ban in the UK.

On Newsnight for example:


On the other hand, online newspapers and blog sites have been surprisingly unsupportive of the suggested UK Burqa ban, but not necessarily for the same reasons that a muslim woman wearing the burqa would have. Take the title of this article by the Guardian for example:

If Britain decides to ban the burqa I might just start wearing one.

Writer David Mitchell of this article seems to have grasped the point of the absurdity of such a ban-if women in the UK are free to wear practically nothing, then they should be free to cover up from head to toe if they choose:
“Governments and legislatures shouldn't tell people what they can and can't wear. By doing so, they would, in every sense, be taking a massive liberty. As long as people aren't wearing crotchless jeans outside primary schools or deely boppers with attached sparklers on petrol station forecourts, we've all got the right to wear exactly what the hell we like and I can barely believe that we're having this debate.”

Yet, like many of the anti- poster campaign journalists, he fails to grasp the point of the burqa, he sees it nothing short of oppressive:
“None of this means I think there's anything good about wearing a burqa. I think it's daft. I think any belief system that concludes that half the population should go around constantly covered from head to toe in black cloth, whether out of modesty, humility, tradition or stealth, has a massive flaw in it.”

Mitchell therefore argues solely on the grounds of freedom of choice in the UK, but pays no heed to the religious aspect of the burqa-or the niqab, as it should be called. This is an unsurprising fact, and considering that there are so many Muslims who fail to support sisters who choose to wear the niqab it would be totally revolutionary to find a non-Muslim journalist who does. To save this post from being any longer than it already is I’m going to skip writing about the Muslim perspective on the burqa, maybe I'll save that for another day.

CAKE FETISH

As much as I hate to be cliché I have to admit I’m the type of person to bake a cake and take a snap—or two. Over the years I’ve accumulated a fair number of pictures of cakes.

This was my brother's graduation cake, with truffles and chocolate stripes. It was my most successful and most difficult bake-the chocolates took longer than the cake itself!

A bit of a bog standard I made for my flatmate's birthday. There was no electric whisk at uni so I whipped the cream by hand, by which time I hardly had any energy for decorating. That should explain the chocolate buttons.

This one I did with the cousins. The end result of watching Nigella on TV, scanning the internet for ages in search of  the recipe and breaking my mum's food processor was some chocolate biscuits that resembled crumbly cakes.

A Birthday cake, and  possibly the prettiest I've ever had. Courtesy of my lovely friend Sara!

The Lurpak ad reassures me that 'it's ok to bake imperfect looking cakes.' Ok, these cakes looked imperfect , but they were the tastiest things I'd baked in ages, which is really an achievement when you consider that half of them were burnt.  

Driveway Cake Sale
Today I witnessed one of the most successful cakes sales ever- a driveway cake sale at my cousin’s.  I've learnt some tricks of the trade, namely that perfect weather and perfectly decorated fairy cakes equals a sell out in less than an hour. I’m tempted to try this myself.

Are You Easily Distracted too?

I’m talking about salaat. When you’re praying, do you suddenly get a million thoughts crossing your mind, stuff that you weren’t even thinking about just before? The answer is probably yes—everybody gets distracted by their thoughts during salaat. Sometimes, you remember important things, things that you need to do, people you need to call, sometimes you even remember where you’d put that certain thing that you’d been looking for all morning. Someone I knew remembered that she had left her USB with all her coursework on it in the common room at Uni, and rushed off straight after she’d prayed Asr to retrieve it. She said she was so grateful that Allah had reminded her about it whilst she was praying, or else she would have been in trouble, but then my friend told us this story after:

There was a young man whose family had been saving money in a pot for generations. Finally, his mother handed it to him and told him to use it for his own needs. However, when put in possession of such a great amount of money, the man felt nervous because he knew that it could easily be stolen. He decided to bury it somewhere deep in the desert until he actually needed it, in a spot that he could remember. So, he picked a landmark of particular prominence and buried it there. However, many years went by before the man needed the money, but when he went back he realised that he couldn’t remember where he had buried it. He searched and searched and tried desperately to remember, but had no luck. Every night he we get up and pray to Allah in a hope that by offering salaat, Allah would accept his du’a and help him find it. After many nights of praying, during his salaat, the man suddenly remembered where he’d buried it. He was so excited that he rushed the rest of his prayer and hurried out to retrieve his treasure.

Later on, the man related this story to a pious and learned man. ‘Because I prayed every night, Allah helped me remember where I’d buried the money,’ he told him. The pious man shook his head and informed him that it was actually Satan who had caused him to remember. Satan was so frustrated that the man was getting up every night to offer prayer that eventually he caused him to remember where he’d buried the money in a hope that it would distract him from his salaat, which it did!

A USB is certainly not as valuable as a pot of gold, but the message is still the same. Shaytan hates it when you pray and will distract you in any way, even by reminding you of something important. So be on your guard next time you’re about to pray and refuse your mind access to distractions!