I Don’t Want to Make You Eat Halal Meat or Wear a Hijab

In the wake of anti-Muslim violence and racist unrest in Britain, a personal plea to stop swallowing propaganda and start seeing each other as human beings

I do not want to convert you to Islam.

I do not want to conquer you. I do not want to enforce Shariah law in Britain. I do not want to make all women wear burqas, force halal meat down your throat, groom your daughters, change your language, erase your culture, turn your churches into mosques, or ban pork and alcohol.

And, for the avoidance of any doubt, terrorism, murder, violence, maiming innocent people and killing children are abhorrent, evil and utterly indefensible.

Yet I am a practising Muslim.

I pray. I fast in Ramadan. I go to the mosque on Fridays. I celebrate Eid. I use words and phrases like Assalamu alaikum, Inshallah, Alhamdulillah and, yes, Allahu Akbar.

I believe in an all-powerful God, in heaven, hell and the afterlife. I believe Muhammad is the last prophet and messenger of God, just as I believe Moses and Jesus were prophets and messengers of God.

So is the above all a bit self-contradictory?

No. Not to me. Not to my family. Not to the vast, overwhelming majority of ordinary Muslims who simply want to live, work, be pious, raise their children, pay their bills, laugh with their friends, look after their kin, and get through life with a little dignity and peace.

There are no grand conspiracies being plotted in mosques. There is no secret plan to convert the West into a new Caliphate. There is no weekly sermon reminding us to hate the “infidels”. Most of the time, the main topic of conversation at Friday prayers is parking, children, health, work, food, oh, and of course the weather, because it’s Britain.

There may, of course, be a tiny number of people who call themselves Muslims while harbouring hateful, violent or oppressive ideas. Such people exist in every race, religion, nation, creed and culture. Some are shaped by bitterness, grievance and manipulation. Some are radicalised. Some are simply criminal. Some are inherently evil.

But I say “call themselves Muslims” deliberately.

Because to me, the moment you believe you have the right to harm, terrorise, subvert or break the law, or oppress innocent people, you have betrayed the very faith you claim to represent. Islam teaches piety and peace; it reminds us that there is no compulsion in religion. It teaches that taking one innocent life is like taking the life of all humanity. It teaches accountability before God.

That is the Islam I know.

Unfortunately, we are living through a dangerous deluge of propaganda. It saturates social media feeds, lurks in comment sections, travels through WhatsApp groups and becomes normal pub talk.

It tells otherwise decent people that a global religion of around two billion human beings is really a sinister cult.

But here is the simple logic. If two billion Muslims, more than a quarter of the world’s population, genuinely wanted to destroy your way of life, World War III would already have happened. You would not need an angry bloke with a ring light and a podcast microphone to warn you about it.

In light of Islamophobic attacks and violence happening right now, right here in the UK, and indeed in light of any racism, bigotry or hatred aimed at any race, religion, colour or creed, I urge everyone to stop and think.

Ask yourself why you are being encouraged to hate “the other”. Ask yourself who benefits from that hatred. And ask yourself what they are trying to distract you from.

After that, perhaps most importantly, stop reading the propaganda for a moment and speak to real, living, breathing people. Don’t argue; discuss, listen, learn, empathise, share your concerns and fears.

Speak to your Muslim neighbour. Speak to the Sikh shopkeeper. Speak to the Jewish colleague. Speak to the Christian carer. Speak to the Hindu mechanic. Speak to the atheist delivery driver. Speak to the person you have been told to fear.

You might find they are worrying about the same bills, the same family problems, the same future, the same country. You might find we have far more in common than anything that divides us.

And you might find that unity in diversity is a far stronger, wiser and more decent foundation for a peaceful society than fear, suspicion and hate.

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