Gaza vigil speech

My speech at Sunday’s Gaza vigil:

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There is an ‘eye for an eye’ going on and it is making the whole world blind

Today’s vigil for Gaza in Glasgow’s George Square was unbelievably well attended. Hundreds came at just 24 hours notice in a remarkable mobilisation.

The strength of feeling amongst people about this is as strong as anything I’ve seen since the Jenin massacre in 2002 – even more so than with Lebanon a couple of years ago.

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Situation in Gaza

Gordon Brown has without doubt brought shame on this country after his pitiably feeble response to the bombardment of the Gaza strip.

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Islamic New Year

Everyone knows that very soon the year 2008 will finish and the year 2009 will start but how many of us know that in a few days (around the 28th dec) the new Islamic year will enter – the year 1430?

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Islamophobia shown the Red Card

I attended the unveiling of Show Racism the Red Card’s Islamophobia DVD in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

The film itself is excellent. It really is a good watch. It features Thierry Henry striking up some typically chic gallic poses with genuinely insightful comments on the issue. Other footballers include Samuel Etoo, Rio Ferdinand, Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure. Alongside them are interviews with a variety of young Muslims who have been on the receiving end of Islamophobia.

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Roundtable on terrorism

SIF took part in a roundtable hosted by Sikhs in Scotland yesterday in the wake of the Mumbai attacks and the vigil held on Sunday.

Unfortunately I missed most of it due to media commitments following the Glasgow Airport verdict. Taking part though were a variety of faith communities, and here’s the statement that the participants arrived at:

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Distributing Qurbanis

I took part in dishing out Qurbani packs to the refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow two days after Eid al-Adha. Us sisters worked hard all morning packing the rice, ginger and garlic into containers before having to rush over to the West End of town where the brothers were struggling to bag the amount of Qurbani which had been very generously donated by many of our brothers and sisters all over Scotland.

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‘Surah Fatiha remixed’

You may well have received a text message from a friend recently urging you to complain about Galaxy FM’s alleged remixing of Surah Fatiha (the opening of the Quran, recited in every cycle of prayer) with music.

You’ll have been urged to “defend Islam and the Quran” from this outrage.

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Post-conference thoughts

It’s been an extremely taxing couple of weeks at SIF HQ.

As well as the Scottish Muslim Futures conference, we took our friends from CAIR around the country in the days leading up to it – to Fife, Aberdeen and Dundee for some special events.

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