Be fair now everyone. We all deserve at least one grandiose title for our articles in our short lives. And this is mine.

But seriously speaking, this is probably the most common discussion point that Muslims and non-Muslims put to me in all the various forums we may meet, whether online, at conferences or just whilst having a chat with the neighbour. There you go Mark, you’ve just got your plug right there.

The Issue

In Britain and much of the “West”, Muslims have been given the religious freedom to protect their own faith, practice it authentically, and promote it in a fashion that not only brings specific benefit to the existing Muslims, but also a more general benefit to the rest of society which our fellow citizens should be expecting at the very least from one of the world’s greatest religions.

But clearly things aren’t going as dandy as we’d like them to be. I’d even say that the blind one is still able to sense some of the tensions on the street as Muslims struggle to determine their exact course, their direction, indeed their vision for how they wish to live in Britain in the 21^st century.

This issue can really stir up strong emotions: if you’re not being excommunicated on the one hand by extremist al-Muhajiroon-esque Muslims for “selling out” or committing heresy with voting/inter-faith/drinking Mcdonald’s milkshakes, then you’ll be shot down by the other extreme Muslims – I guess we can call them the extreme liberals of the Quilliam Foundation-esque “progressive” camp – for being backwards and too traditional and whatever buzz-word is in vogue these days.

And all of this with a good dose of radical atheists foaming at the mouth, an extreme right-wing that is enjoying a revival on the back of the anti-Islam ticket, a plethora of other groups and views that are all vying for their opportunity to determine the discourse concerning the title to this piece, and it’s no wonder that so many people are worried and confused.

I personally think that if good, sensible and authentic orthodox Muslims don’t immediately take control of this narrative that we wish to write for ourselves here in Britain, we’ll soon be in such dire straits that it’ll make being a Muslim in France or the Park51 absurdity look like a walk in the park.

The reality is that – notwithstanding the fact that there is a well funded and organised attempt to paint us in the worst light possible – we as Muslims are not taking care of our own problems and failures to present the true face of Islam as we should be doing. We have to deal with matters which are in our control as opposed to sit and fret about those which aren’t.

Is it really that hard to understand why so many of our fellow citizens associate Islam with death and destruction when in actual fact the opposite could not be truer?

Are we surprised when our fellow citizens are worried about the future of their country when they see the development of immigrant ghettos consisting of the “other” who show not the slightest bit of interest in integrating with the rest of wider society, let alone speak the language of the people, or respect their laws?

Should we be blaming our fellow citizens for believing that Muslims are self-centred, focused on their “own” and not concerned about the rest of wider society and their social wants and needs? How did we allow such a picture to be drawn up for a religion which has proved to be the biggest movement for change in history, a movement which has taken on oppression and injustice, bringing light to areas where before there was just darkness, has demanded from its followers to become socially active and responsible and spread good wherever it may be? How did this happen!?

The Solution

The primary objective surely has to be to restore the status quo of normality. By that I mean we must be seen in the same light as every other good, honest and mutually beneficial citizen of our country. We have to utterly destroy the sense of surprise from our fellow citizens if they hear us speaking fluent English, or see us at the local School Summer fair, or see us out in the streets campaigning against funding cuts to local hospices, or see us on TV whilst fund-raising for Children In Need.

We have to obliterate that sense of surprise. How can we let people be surprised at Muslims doing things that they are obligated to do and indeed are doing already? How can such a state of affairs occur except that we are seen abnormally?

The reality is that we have indeed contributed to that state of abnormality by our ignorance and refusal to practice our Islam properly, and thus when we do something “normal” as expected from any ordinary citizen, we elicit a double turn of their heads! “Was that a Muslim I just saw helping out?”

So, the objective is to establish normality for Muslims and restore sanity in what are insane times. But how do we propose to do that?

The answer has to be multi-dimensional. It requires all British Muslims of all ages and ethnicities to come out of their physical and/or mental ghettoized bubbles and get involved in every single aspect of life and da‘wah as we know it. It requires all British Muslims to engage.

If we are to learn anything from the increasing difficulties faced by Muslims in Europe, it’s the fact that the less we get involved with society, politics, the ruling system, business, management etc, then the less we will be enfranchised and thus we’ll also follow the same path of social exclusion and 2^nd class citizen status. Soon, you can forget any notion of practicing the orthodox form of Islam that you currently hold so dear and enjoy the freedom to live day in day out here in Britain.

To develop halal sources of income and business opportunities for the masses, promoting higher level bona-fide interest-free investment opportunities for the all-important Muslim middle-class and businessmen, promoting Shari‘ah-compliant fiscal excellence: this is all vital to ensuring the long-term stability and power of the Muslim community and enabling them to represent themselves in the best way possible as other successful immigrant population stories have shown in history such as the Catholic and Jewish communities in the UK and USA etc.

Being wealthy and independent is very useful, but to hold positions of responsibility and power is perhaps even more so. To engage politically, utilising the ballot box, taking positions that will help bring benefit and affect public opinion such as across academia and the civil service – this is all essential for us to get involved with and this can only happen once we change the standard Muslim mindset that the only careers worth pursuing are the production line of doctors, lawyers and restaurant workers.

Note how those who support and promote “minor” things such as niqab bans know very well that this is just the beginning of an effort to completely denude the Muslim identity. If we are unable to stop such attempts in their early stages – by using the help and support of both political circles of power as well as populist support from wider society – then expect to have your religion washed away within the next few decades.

Likewise, Muslims also need to counter the negative images by producing literature in print and online, presenting ourselves to people physically, utilising the media when given the opportunity, all with the aim of education – the education of the wider masses on what Muslims are really about, that they are a people who cherish life and not celebrate death, that they are a community that have been commanded to bring happiness and benefit to all people, and, that given time, they’ll also all come round to supporting the England cricket team against the Pakistani cricket team. Note: I already support the English cricket team when we play against Pakistan. Unless Pakistan win of course.

Moreover, whilst the educating of the wider community is important, the educating of the Muslim community itself is just as essential. Extremist rhetoric has taken root in the heart of many Muslims due to its attractiveness and “authenticity”, and this can only be countered with high quality refutations and critiques from within the Muslim scholarly fraternity. And crucially, it must be understood by Muslims that this is not some attempt to pander to the whims and desires of our antagonists, but rather a recapturing of our tradition on the command of Divine text which demands that extremism never be allowed to fester within our religion. Basically, this is for our own benefit as well as others. We’re doing this for ourselves, as well as others. You’ll be doing yourself a favour, as well as a favour to others.

And of course, it is absolutely essential that all the above is achieved in an authentic and Islamically orthodox fashion under the constant supervision of the scholars because that is where the blessing is. There are no extra points for watering down our tradition, indeed that would be an epic fail in both this life and the next.

This is not meant to be an apologetic approach, indeed on the contrary. Involved, engaged and normalised citizens are powerful and strong citizens. In order to speak up against oppression, safeguard our collective rights and refute hysteria, the qualities of strength and normalcy in the eyes of the wider community is essential. Thus strength and normalcy is what we must pursue.

This entire vision must be achieved with pride and confidence in our specific Islamic principles whilst recognising that we certainly enjoy many shared and common values with the indigenous population in the West. To promote and celebrate this fact will be key to our long-term success as a practicing Muslim community in Britain.

1^st Ethical

Which finally brings me to why am I saying this here, and why am I saying this now?

It is always difficult to find people who share your vision exactly as you would want them to. In fact, Muslims are generally like that, always thinking that they are the only ones who know best how to do things. It’s the reason why we have so many “empty” mosques. Think about it.

With 1^st Ethical though, I remember the very day many moons ago when the name was agreed upon, a name which would express the innovative nature of the original plan i.e. to promote and educate the masses to the realities of how an interest-free economy would work and how to engage in and strengthen the Muslim community using it – both materially and spiritually – as well as a name that would reflect the more generic nature of the organisation and its aims at civic engagement with the wider society on a platform of shared and common values. Thus was the original inception of the 1^st Ethical Charitable Trust.

Today, 1^st Ethical – funded entirely by private donations from British Muslims – is going from strength to strength and I’m honoured to be helping out with such a great team. We have a vision to get involved with every single member of society, from Muslim to non-Muslim, from Sufi to Atheist, from Capitalist to Shari‘ah finance scholar, from Deobandi to Greenpeace Activist, from Salafi to the Home Secretary, from the Masjid to the Media.

And I wish to invite you all to help contribute to and share that vision.

This website hopes to become a portal that allows our narrative to be told on how to move forward as a practising Muslim in Britain and indeed the West in general.

We want you to become familiar with the hidden resources of this site, have a look at some of the weird and wonderful things we do and get involved with, benefit from some of our expertise and specialist areas, such as Islamic finance, wills, zakāh issues as well as our scholarly fatwa service in al-Qalam, all of which we have invested much time and resources into.

We want you to read what we feel are useful daily updates that will help understand and shape the dialogue so desperately needed in such troubled times, and allow you to voice your ideas and contributions likewise.

This we will achieve by our front page articles and comments section, the “Recent Updates” on the left and then “What We’re Following” section just further down on the home page.

We want to provide a voice for those people in society who are working to make a difference. We want to be a thorn in the side of those people who wish to destroy our way of life, whether they are from the extremist Muslim side or the BNP right wing.

This we will achieve by increasing our resources based upon our vision for civic engagement which you can see here.

We want to celebrate our shared values with the rest of our society by promoting our common causes, supporting the same campaigns, informing and educating people about efforts that are relevant to all of us whether that be flying the flag for Breast Cancer, leading by example and educating Muslims about Energy Saving Week or indeed bringing the community round to the importance of National Adoption Week and the issues involved that affect all of us here. We might even get time to celebrate “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” as well. Before you pass that fatwa on me, I’m kidding by the way.

This we will achieve by developing the community’s involvement with national events and campaigns such as listed here in our Events calendar, which provides relevant information and our own point of view on the issues that matter. Insha’Allah.

And we want the rest of society to know that this is what we do. We want to scream it from the rooftops. This is what normal Muslims do! Really!

We need to be out there in every single field and aspect of modern-day life, and doing what we know we can do best – bringing benefit to our society.

We want to do all this so that we can stop being treated as abnormal, so that sanity is restored as soon as possible and things can become normalised once again God willing. We want to be free from surprised reactions as mentioned above. We want to be able dress as we like without it being seen as a plot to take over the world. We want to be able to praise our government when it gets it right without having to have sold our souls to the devil. We want to be able to criticise our government as normal good citizens do without having to have an agenda behind it all. We want to stop apologising for bad things that we have nothing to do with, or that have anything remotely to do with the religion of Islam. And we want to celebrate all those things which are good within Islam that will help build on the solid base of good morals, ethics and values that already exist in our society.

We want to basically be allowed to be – normal.

And above all that, we all just wanna have fa-hun…

Actually I think I wasn’t meant to say that here. Wrong forum. Sorry.

In closing, we will need your help to achieve this vision. We need people to go out there and become active members of our society and that’s not going to be possible without those very members of society – you.

If you have the time to help volunteer, to help inspire, to make a difference then please get in touch. If you have creative beneficial content that you can share with us and would like to have promoted to the world out there such as research papers, articles, book reviews, creative pieces, whatever, then please don’t hesitate to send it to us at info@1stEthical.com

And in Allah jalla wa ‘alā we place our trust.