In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu,

I begin by praising Allah (swt) and by sending peace and blessings upon His Prophet Muhammad (saw), the companions and all the righteous believers until the Day of Judgment.

Much has happened since the time of writing the last blog that it is difficult to know where to begin...so let's start with some good news!

Alhamdulillah we were given the great opportunity of witnessing the month of Ramadan and following this blessed month, Allah (swt) provided us with the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Fitr, one of the two annual celebrations for a Muslim. It is on this note that I wish everyone Eid Mubarak once again and I pray that we all enjoyed ourselves, spent time with our families and remembered those less fortunate than us in our duas.

And the good news doesn't stop there! It was very pleasing to note that the bribery probe against lawyer Mudassar Arani have been dropped. It was clear from the beginning that these were bogus accusations and as a colleague of Ms Arani stated, these allegations should have been thrown out in 15 minutes rather than 15 months. Ms Arani, infamous for her work in defending suspected terror suspects has made her a target by the tabloid media and as a result she has been the victim of threatening abuse and there have been clear attempts to discredit her work and her reputation. What is particularly distressing is that it highlights the climate of fear that is constantly being perpetuated by major media organisations, whereby terror suspects are presumed guilty before innocence and even those representing them are viciously attacked. It is unsurprising to note therefore that this piece of news received very little attention, but as always, justice will eventually prevail. FOSIS issued a press release following this news which can be found here.

The main news of the month however has to be the overwhelming defeat of the Government's proposed anti-terror bill which would have increased the time terror suspects could be held without charge from 28 to 42 days. The House of Lords voted against the bill by a majority of 191 and it really summed up the reality of this proposed legislation. It really isn't about combating extremism rather it is simply an erosion of our civil liberties and has been criticised not only by the various individuals and personalities (http://www.42writers.com/) but also by experts in the field including Baroness Eliza-Manningham Buller, former Director General of the MI5, who came out and expressed her concerns over the plans. Nevertheless, it is welcoming to witness a moment of sanity in an otherwise hysterical atmosphere and I hope even the 28-day issue is revisited and challenged. FOSIS's official press release can be found here.

Finally, there was some news which did raise an eyebrow and that was the news regarding school children as young as five were at risk of being radicalised and therefore the Schools' Secretary Ed Balls mentioned that guidelines would be issued to combat this threat. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for positive methods of eradicating the threat of extremism, but seriously, a five year old at risk of being an extremist? There are a number of issues with this, not least that teachers are not trained to be able to deal with this, and I honestly believe there are issues affecting a child's well-being at school such as intolerance, bullying and intimidation which are far more prevalent and widespread as opposed to radicalisation. I fear we are heading down a very dangerous path if we continue to focus all our attention on the extremism issue, particularly in relation to school children, as opposed to dealing with alot of the real issues which are faced by the millions of people up and down the country! FOSIS's official stance can be found here in relation to the proposed guidelines.

Those were some of the key issues that happened over the last month, there was alot more but I fear that this would turn into a novel as opposed to a blog and have therefore missed some things out. If you have any opinion on any of the issues raised or would like to get involved in the media committee in anyway, please do not hesitate to contact me head.media@fosis.org.uk. So that's it from me, I'll be back again next month inshAllah, in the mean time please continue to make dua for the Muslims suffering oppression and injustice and for justice to prevail over falsehood!

Jazakamullahu khayran. And I conclude by praising Allah, Lord of all that is in the Heavens and the Earth.

Wassalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu

Qasim Rafiq

Head of Media