On the topic of the post, it seems a little presumptious of me to comment but I simply can’t understand why any of them should be affected if you were simply to tell them about your religion. This isn’t the 1970s and it’s high time people realised that Muslims don’t have two heads and tentacles. Of course that’s easier for me to say than it is for someone to carry out, I can appreciate.

All the best anyway!

If that is what you mean, does that also mean that you will “come out” in your new company? Maybe you have already done so.

Or do you mean that it was a mistake for you to have been outed in your previous company?

I like your way of keeping your faith and I share that way in my life. I travel for business a lot so it is easier for me to perform my prayers in planes, hotel rooms, cars etc. than it is for you in the disused room at work.
You say it is very English to keep ones faith to themselves, and whilst there is something quite “western” about it, I am not sure it is English. For example, I have recently moved near to a community of mixed race Muslims and some of the English Muslims go on all the time about how to do things “properly” – that it is making me quite sick – and particularly of having moved into that community. In fact whilst a larger number of the the non-Asian English Muslims are quite dogmatic and patronizing, I havent received these kind of “lessons” from the asians. Now thats a big surprise, because in the previous Asian Muslim communities I have been associated with, its all been about how to “roll up your trousers” and other technicalities rather than whats in your heart and in your intent.

I always thought that I was missing being part of a community and I was happy to be part of a community so that I could be a part of something and profess openly to my belief.

On reflection, I read your post as I am beginning to think that it is actually quite good to keep oneself to oneself and profess privately, especially in the wider, non-Muslim world.

In my last job, I also told a number of my colleagues with whom I worked closely that I was a Muslim. Some took it very well whilst others thought that the very fact I believed in God was meek-minded. It is quite noteworthy in relation to your experience because up to the point I was a Muslim for them, I was the number one performer in the company and then I was still number one but slightly strange or weird….But they still accepted me as a Muslim. I have to say that it was not an English company but a European one.

Anyway, thanks for a really nice read and something that I recognize in my life. I think that the way I read your post will change the way I will be a Muslim in the future.

Secret Believer.