It became one of the most shared and commented stories of the past week in a United Kingdom continuing to battle with its sense of self.
The Daily Mail tabloid published a piece last Friday, entitled "British towns that are no-go areas for white people", listing places such as Blackburn, Bradford, Dewsbury and Didsbury, where a proliferation of mosques, "dominated by [an] ultra-orthodox sect", had changed the character of these areas for good.
Amid the widespread consternation was barely concealed amusement, too. When I am not in the UAE, I live in Didsbury in South Manchester, and to suggest that its busy cheese shops, cosmopolitan cafes, ice-cream parlours and delis are “no-go areas” is remarkably, hilariously wide of the mark.
I have two teenage daughters. I want to see a country for them, that honours them in public and in private
Still, the reason this piece was published at all was because the Daily Mail had an advance copy of Ed Husain's new book, Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain.
It's a fascinating, sometimes confrontational and necessary look at Britain's relationship with Islam and how Muslim Britain operates in 2021. Husain – a writer, thinker, government adviser and academic – visited mosques across the country to try to understand what integration looks like as intolerance, ignorance and hostility rise in all sections of the community.
Some of the things he found – madrasas focused on literalist Sharia, women banned from mosques and treated appallingly, and a deeply politicised Islam – are both troubling and all too easily seized upon by those who seek to seed division.
In that sense, Husain must have expected the kind of piece the Daily Mail ran. "They printed all of the negative, provocative parts that would be the most sensationalist," he tells The National. "I don't want to shy away from the truth; those problems are there. But there are explanations for them and ways to address them, which I try to provide in the book. So all of that context is ripped out.
"It wasn't helpful," he says. "And yes, it's put lots of people's backs up."
But then, Among the Mosques was never going to be a meek survey of Muslim life in 21st-century Britain, not least because Husain himself has become increasingly concerned by the rise, as he sees it, of a more confrontational, assertive and separatist Muslim identity in the UK.
“I just don’t see that when I travel to the Middle East or when I go to the UAE,” he explains. “They seem to be much more at ease with their religion, whereas here, we seem to front-load it, make it much more weaponised.
“So, combined with what seemed to be going on with Brexit, issues of identity and the conversations about who we are as a people, it felt like there was something disturbing in the UK – I wanted to go round, kick some tyres and see if I’ve read the situation right,” says the author.
His first journey in the book is to the Yorkshire mill town of Dewsbury, home to the Markazi Mosque, the European central office of the largest Muslim organisation in the world, the Tablighi Jamaat. Founded in India, the organisation is the evangelical arm of India's Deobandi Movement.
While they “build bonds of brotherhood and sharing” in the Dewsbury madrasa, when Husain asks a cleric why women can freely walk into a mosque in India, yet cannot do so in Dewsbury, he gets short shrift.
There's an ugly truth that in parts of the country people don't want to get to know their neighbours, have a conversation
“My brother. You are an intelligent man, but there can be no discussion of there being women in the mosque,” he is told.
“And that happened quite often on my travels,” says Husain. “There was a kind of commitment to conversation, but only to a point. But I think people do want to know what is going on in these mosques and the much more hard-line madrasas.”
Husain moves on to Manchester, home to the Didsbury Mosque that women can easily access and is lauded for its vibrant involvement in local life, helping marginalised and needy communities. Husain also points out that it's home to an unregulated "Sharia department" and the place where the suicide bomber of Manchester Arena in 2017 worshipped. The extremist attack killed 22 people and injured hundreds of others after an Ariana Grande concert.
It's a complicated picture, made all the more urgent by a conversation he has with two white men in Blackburn, who are behind the Daily Mail's "no-go area" headline. They effectively repeat every preconceived notion of Britain's immigration policies; their fear of getting jumped by "Asian gangs", not being allowed Union Jack flags; and the belief they will be in the minority before long.
“But they were honest about what they thought and I admired them for that,” says Husain. “They shook my hand and thanked me that someone bothered to talk to them about these issues they just hadn’t been able to discuss. And I think this is part of the problem; we don’t have platforms where we bring different parts of the country together and say: ‘What’s on your chest?’
“There’s an ugly truth that in parts of the country, people don’t want to get to know their neighbours, have a conversation.”
Thankfully, too, Husain doesn't just chase the problems in Among the Mosques. It is largely a worrying book, but his experiences in Belfast – where women run a cheerful, open mosque that welcomes 42 nationalities – or Edinburgh, where the mosque and its kitchen is full of "all sorts of people", represent a seamless British Islam that he feels is needed in England, too.
“What we should be aiming for is a reformed, peaceful, modernised Islam – and I’m driven to dream about this because I have two teenage daughters. I want to see a country for them that honours them in public and in private, I want them to be British women with equal respect and the dignity that law affords everyone here.”
Yet, in many of the mosques, as he writes in this eye-opening book, they would have to wait for him outside. "But Muslim women can go around the Kaaba in Makkah, side by side with men. [This segregation] is just fundamentally wrong – which is why I needed to write this book."
Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain is out on Thursday, June 10, published by Bloomsbury
Pathaan
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INDIA SQUADS
India squad for third Test against Sri Lanka
Virat Kohli (capt), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Vijay Shankar
India squad for ODI series against Sri Lanka
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company%20Profile
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Teams
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shanwari, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Seth Rance, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
WHAT ARE NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that represent ownership of unique items. They allow the tokenisation of things such as art, collectibles and even real estate.
An NFT can have only one official owner at one time. And since they're minted and secured on the Ethereum blockchain, no one can modify the record of ownership, not even copy-paste it into a new one.
This means NFTs are not interchangeable and cannot be exchanged with other items. In contrast, fungible items, such as fiat currencies, can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties.
Brief scores:
Toss: Northern Warriors, elected to field first
Bengal Tigers 130-1 (10 ov)
Roy 60 not out, Rutherford 47 not out
Northern Warriors 94-7 (10 ov)
Simmons 44; Yamin 4-4
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
88 Video's most popular rentals
Avengers 3: Infinity War: an American superhero film released in 2018 and based on the Marvel Comics story.
Sholay: a 1975 Indian action-adventure film. It follows the adventures of two criminals hired by police to catch a vagabond. The film was panned on release but is now considered a classic.
Lucifer: is a 2019 Malayalam-language action film. It dives into the gritty world of Kerala’s politics and has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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Results
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The Year Earth Changed
Directed by:Tom Beard
Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
Stars: 4
