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Who speaks for the Muslims? That’s the question being asked throughout the Media and all over the internet. Well certainly not the Media. But MCB? MAB? Our imams? I don’t know. Who speaks for me? Nobody speaks for me. This is the question on the tongues of the chattering classes, but I don’t think any of us ordinary folk – the “represented” – have the foggiest idea. I just find it strange that having lambasted Muslims for our alleged non-integration, we are now expected to have our own devolved polity, which must represent us to the government and police extremism. This is crazy. And it’s making me schizophrenic… this journey of the soul thrust aside by the modern athropologists’ desire to reduce our faith to a mere social ideology. We have those eleven consecutive oaths in the Qur’an concerning the heart (91:1-10):

By the sun and his brightness, and the moon when she follows him, and the day when it reveals him, and the night when it enshrouds him, and the heaven and Him Who build it, And the earth and Him Who spread it out, and a soul and Him Who perfected it and inspired it with awareness of what is wrong for it and what is right for it, he is indeed successful who purifies it, and he is indeed a failure who neglects it.

The foundation of everything I have learnt over eight years treading this path, and yet the perpetual public examination rips this away, replacing it with irrelevant debates. Irrelevant to me. For at the end of the day it does not really matter who represents me in the world. All Muslims know that what is important is how we represent ourselves before our Lord. On that awesome Day, neither our forefathers nor our children will be able to help us. Each of us are personally accountable for our own actions.

Take us to your leader… yes, I appreciate the sentiment, but it seems to ignore the nature of the community in this country, indeed of society as a whole. British society is entirely fragmentary and the Muslim community in this country no less so. Who speaks for the Muslims? It looks like we’ve been turned into the miners or car manufacturers, and the search is on for a Union to spa with. Forget any spiritual dimension to our lives. Have your membership card at the ready. Welcome to the National Union of Muslim Believers (NUMB).