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While I laughed last week at the amusing enquiries into my ethnicity, I have been reminded of the more serious side of the assumptions people make. A dear Puerto Rican friend who has lived in the UK for the past twenty years with her English husband has recently decided to move back to the States [...]

It is sometimes supposed that converts to Islam get special treatment in the mosque, but I’m not so sure. Moving in the circles I do, it has become quite apparent over the past few months that the notion of the convert is still alien to many people’s minds. A Palestinian friend I often walk back [...]

ONE OF the biggest disservices to Islam has been to put it into the ‘Ethnic religion’ category in the thoughts of many, along with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, but probably not Judaism. Many people consider Islam the religion of Pakistanis (which is odd, as it has its roots in Arabia). In fact, in an age of [...]

Silence settled; I held hushed fear. Fear of sins returning to haunt. You changed, rearranged, but like heaven and hell, your mark remains in that gruesome book. No forgiveness or recognition, because they never saw your deconstruction and the reconstruction that followed. I saw the reflection of myself in characters passing by; exploitative, consumptive bodies, [...]