ummah

By Sajid Iqbal

What can be said about a man who has been called many things? He is known as a role model to Muslims. A religious fanatic. A father for black power. A menace to society. An inspirational leader and a legend.

Malcolm X was born in America in 1925, during a time when race relationships were strained. His mother was a housewife and his father was a Baptist Minister who was killed in a fire at a young age - which the family claimed was caused by a white supremacist organisation. After this, his mother had an emotional breakdown and was admitted to a mental institution and the children were split up and sent to various foster homes and orphanages. According to Malcolm, three of his father's brothers also died violently at the hands of white men, and one of his uncles had been lynched.

By Hafsah bint Sayeed al Awlaqi

I would never have thought a piece of cloth could cause so much fuss. But Jack Straw decides to pull a publicity stunt, Holland does away with the Human Right’s Act, and the next thing you know, pictures of veiled women are plastered across the front pages of almost every newspaper in England. According to Mr. Straw, those of us who choose to wear the niqaab make “better, positive relations” between communities “more difficult”.1

By Naheem Zaffar

“...and then one day when the air is still and the night has fallen, they come for you. It’s only then you realise while you are talking about organising and committees, the extermination has already begun. Make no mistake my brothers, they will draw first blood. They will force their cure upon us. The only question is will you join my brotherhood and fight? Or wait for the inevitable genocide? Who will you stand with...?”

First of all: What is an Imam and who should be an Imam?

• An Imām is someone who leads the 5 daily prayers (Salaah) at the mosque.
• Ideally he should be a fully-qualified Islamic scholar and a role model for his congregation.
• He should have a fixed contract with clear aims and objective which can be reviewed regularly.
• He should be on a good salary in order to be dedicated to his job as community leader.
• The Imam is accountable to the public.

By Sajid Iqbal

My Ummah, those who follow me, the future of their faith makes me worry till I cry. My brothers and sisters in Islam, will they be strong and carry on after I die?

These are the moving lyrics from a nasheed (Islamic song) by Dawud Wharnsby Ali expressing how the Prophet (peace be upon him) was worried about the likes of ME and YOU - his Ummah.

The Ummah is the Muslim world, about 1.6 million of us in the UK from all colours, races, nations, tribe, backgrounds, languages and cultures.