President - July-September 2010

Assalamualaykum warahmatullah

We begin the year by thanking and praising Allah. For me this is the most important starting point. We have so much to be grateful to Allah for – for being able to breathe, to be able to read this, to go to University – are we truly thankful? The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) used to stand in voluntary prayer at night for so long it is said that his feet would bleed – and he was asked why he did this since his behaviour was impeccable and his past and future sins had already been forgiven – to which he replied, “Should I not be a grateful servant?”. And I ask all of us, should we not be grateful servants? And truly and praise and thanks are to Him!

When it comes to change, for me FOSIS is the most important Muslim organisation in Britain today. Important, I feel, because today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders and FOSIS can help provide that leadership – inspired and guided by our faith. At a time when our society needs leadership to provide reform. And for those blessed to be involved in an Islamic Society, in FOSIS, or simply to be a Muslim student – know that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has placed us here – in this time, in this place, at University for a reason and we have a purpose. It is up to us to reflect upon what that purpose may be, thank and praise Him, and bring benefit and prevent harm for humanity.

Alhamdulilah, here are some of the things I have been up-to since being elected as President,

• Leading on forming the FOSIS strategy for the year ahead, which went on to shape the work and projects of FOSIS for the year ahead. All following an excellent weekend in Nottingham.
• Leading on achieving two full-time officers to work for FOSIS - with a view to Marketing and Fundraising. A feat we have desired for many years! With thanks to the NEC, especially Sister Nada and Brother Obada.
• Visiting Islamic Societies for Freshers Dinners around the country at Surrey, Hull, Manchester Metropolitan, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds (albeit shortly!).
• Involving in our Freshers Packs project to enable project completion, building internal communication in the organisation, Student Affairs issues like higher education funding, Media (see our press releases page), meetings with the MCB, NUS, Islamic Relief and others
• Connecting with FOSIS Alumni – in particular a meeting was set-up with Dato’ Mohamed Iqbal, one of the founding members of FOSIS in 1963, paving the way to the beginning of our alumni project headed by Ameen Umarjee and Salman Waqar. Report to follow!
• Much of my time..spent learning from people like you, dealing with issues that arise, and ensuring that this organisation in the way it is run can empower and not prevent, enrich and not kill dreams.

As we progress into the months ahead,

• Higher Education Funding. Rarely do issues like this come along so important. People like me that got to go to University yesterday may be priced out of going to University tomorrow – due to the proposed changes in the way that higher education is funded at Universities following the Lord Browne Review. Sister Alaa’, our Vice-President for Student Affairs, is leading on this campaign – do get involved with the campaign with FOSIS and with bodies like the NUS – we believe in access to education for the able and willing, not for those that can simply afford it.
• ISOC101s and Student Affairs workshops – the former necessary to equip your ISocs with best practise and learning from FOSIS taught by experienced teachers, and the latter to take Muslim students to the next level in making a real difference on your campus. Contact your regional chair for more details.
• Charity Week. Need I say more? Just a couple of weeks away. Time to shine. Contact Abdulrahman on head.campaigns@fosis.org.uk for more info.
• Building FOSIS integrity – who do we consult for our decisions? Do we do that enough? Advisors, scholars? How do we make decisions? These are the sort of internal questions I’m asking right now to ensure that our approach and decisions we make tomorrow are stronger than today.
• And everything else – in all this organisations committees – see the rest of the blogs!

Alhamdulilah, we really have an excellent National Executive Committee this year with some truly amazingly capable individuals who have done amazing things at a local level with Islamic Societies and much more; we’re also as diverse as ever, determined as I’ve seen us before.

But we need you – the ISoc, the Muslim student – with us along the way. Tell us what you need, teach us how to improve. And we’re there for you.

Hope we get the chance to meet soon. And hope for an amazing year ahead insha’Allah.

Best

Nabil

President Blog- March & April

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

As-salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu,

Brothers and Sisters, I start by praising Allah (SWT) and then sending peace and blessings upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW), the Companions and all the righteous believers until the Day of Judgement.

As the academic year begins to draw to a close Muslim students across the country begin to prepare for end of year exams and coursework deadlines, we ask Allah to make it easy for everyone! Ameen. Events are beginning to draw to a close within the organisation too mashaAllah - already some regional committees have begun the process of reporting back to their local Islamic Societies and elections have taken place for next year's regional committees.

In the last month the organisation has continued to be incredibly active. The media committee held a wonderful event in London, well attended by Muslim students in London. We had the benefit of a range of speakers discussing the benefits of getting involved in the media and the importance of active engagement. One of our very special guests was Muhammad Ali, CEO of Islam Channel, who offered a unique insight into the world of media.

Meanwhile Muslim students at the NUS Annual Conference 2010 continue to make their mark. Of note was the election of Usman Ali, former president of Salford Islamic Society and former president of Salford Student Union, to the position of VP Higher Education, the first Muslim student to ever hold that position. Fatima Junaid, executive member of the Student Union at Cambridge, was also elected onto the NUS block of fifteen. Positive policy was also passed at the conference on the issue relating to student safety, in particular tackling the rise in anti-Muslim hatred. The NUS also affirmed its commitment to academic freedom with a motion passed at the conference. This was reassuring considering recent attempts by certain right wing groups to ban Muslim speakers coming on campus.

Unfortunately events at NUS were a little overshadowed somewhat by the juvenile and immature behaviour of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). For the first time in a number of years, considering the political climate, we took the proactive step of reaching out to the UJS by partaking in a joint fringe event. We hoped that this heralded a start in positive relations between our two organisations and would act as an impetus for both our organisations to tackle common issues that affect both Muslim and Jewish students. Little did we know that this event was being used as nothing more than a political stunt by the UJS and as a means of point scoring. We won't be making the same mistake again in the future! You can read more about events on our website at:

www.fosis.org.uk

You can also read an article published in the Guardian, by FOSIS, on the issue of academic freedom here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/22/student-islamic-societies-radical

Although things are beginning to draw to a close there are still things going on mashaAllah and work within the organisation will continue at a fairly frantic pace to make sure all is in order for the following academic year inshaAllah. Please remember FOSIS ANNUAL CONFERENCE will be taking place before the year is up, right now things are provisionally scheduled for the last weekend of June, so please keep that date free in your diaries and keep your eyes peeled for the confirmation of dates and venues inshaAllah !

I want to draw your attention to two key events inshaAllah before the year ends.

1 - Dr Aafia Siddique
http://www.justiceforaafia.org/index.php/articles/press-releases/514-seven-days-for-seven-years-week-long-vigil-us-embassy-london
Many of you by now I'm sure would have heard of the plight of Dr Aafia Siddique. In light of all the abuse that our sister has suffered the justiceforaafia coalition has organised a vigil outside the US embassy entitled: Seven Days for Seven Years. Please check out the link above and try and do what you can for the sister. Perhaps a group of you could go down, chill out protesting outside the US embassy and revise together! J Be creative but please do your bit.

2 - World House Party Day!
A series of massive parties taking place on one day in May. Want to know more check out the link:
http://www.justgoparty.com/

Do not miss this! Again be creative and perhaps use this as a break from revision! 

Finally - don't forget elections!!!!!! Check out this link for all you need to know:
http://youelect.org.uk/
Make sure you play your part.

May Allah (SWT) reward you all for all your hard work!

Wa- salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu

Your brother,

Faisal Hanjra
president@fosis.org.uk

President Blog- January & February 2010

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

As-salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu,

Brothers and Sisters, I start by praising Allah (SWT) and then sending peace and blessings upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW), the Companions and all the righteous believers until the Day of Judgement.

It has been a while since we as an executive have collectively blogged; my sincerest apologies. It has been an incredibly busy time for us as an organisation - we will ensure work to get back to the old ways of monthly blogs inshaAllah.

I want to start this blog by going back to December and the events of the morning of December 25^th. As I am sure most of you will now know the former president of UCL Islamic Society allegedly tried to destroy a plane bound for Detroit. Speaking to brothers who knew Umar Farouk everybody was devastated by the events that have transpired and there are many questions that need answering. Crucially due legal process must be allowed to take its course and a full investigation needs to be conducted before we jump to conclusions. What I found most disturbing following the 25^th December was just how irresponsible some media were in the reporting of the situation. With a distinct lack of information a number of claims were made by both journalists and some commentators, individuals like Anthony Glees and Douglas Murray, resurrecting discredited allegations around university campuses and extremism. There has been a significant clouding of the debate surrounding the process of radicalisation, whichever sector of the Muslim community one refers to. The recent Dispatches programme on Channel 4 regarding the Islamic Forum of Europe is a case in point; legitimate engagement is painted in a sinister fashion with the umbrella of terrorism hanging over every activity. At the core of it all other than dividing communities, undermining cohesion and empowering the far right this clouding of the debate undermines everybody's effort in fighting terrorism, be it the Muslim community, the police or the security services.

Moving on, a lot has been going mashaAllah during the last few months. There has been a dramatic increase in activity as we move into the second half of the year.  Already a number of international speaker tours have taken place with positive feedback from both the speakers and Islamic societies alike, if you have further comments or questions following these tours please do get in touch inshaAllah.

The Palestine Conference in Manchester was another very successful event mashaAllah. Over four hundred people attended from across the country. Feedback was very positive demonstrating just how central Palestine remains on the students' agenda. In the run up to the conference there were a number of politically motivated attacks against some of the speakers but despite all of this the event went ahead alhamdullilah and all the speakers were absolutely fantastic. We look forward to inviting them to speak again inshaAllah at some of our events in the near future.

An absolutely ground breaking event in Ireland mashaAllah took place just last week. We were honoured to have the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, attend the Ireland grand dinner, a dinner marking the events that took place across Ireland during their Islam Awareness Week. Her speech supporting the work that Islamic Societies were doing was well received and her words highlighting the importance of the different cultures that permeate the Irish society was particularly pertinent given the current discussion in the UK. The full text of her speech can be found here

Unfortunately her prediction that Ireland would beat England in the rugby was spot on!

Over the coming months the country will be gearing up for an election. The similarities between the different political parties, the loss of faith in our politicians over the expenses row and the general apathy amongst young people when it comes to voting all mean that the various organisations working with the student world need to do their bit to help get the vote out and get the student agenda back on the politicians' agenda. FOSIS inshaAllah will be doing its bit to get students thinking about the various MPs that will be standing at the forthcoming election, keep your eyes peeled!

I was recently sent a link highlighting ten great benefits of reading the Qur'an. For example:

The Qur'ân will intercede for us on the Day of Judgement

The proof: Abû Umâmah relates that the Prophet (sallallâhu 'alayhe wa sallam) said:

You will be from the best of the people

'Uthmân (may Allâh be pleased with him), the third khalîfah said that the Prophet (sallallâhu 'alayhe wa sallam) said:

To read the rest check out this link:

http://islaam.net/main/display.php?id=826&category=2

In the final part of the year we hope to continue to deliver events across the country and continue in our efforts to support and promote the amazing work that Islamic Societies continue to do across the country. Please get in touch with any concerns, complaints or suggestions!

May Allah (SWT) reward you all for all your hard work!

Wa- salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu

Your brother,

Faisal Hanjra
president@fosis.org.uk

President Blog- October 2009

As-salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu,

Brothers and Sisters, I start by praising Allah (SWT) and then sending peace and blessings upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW), the Companions and all the righteous believers until the Day of Judgement.

It has been yet another busy month with activities of such a diverse and varying nature taking place across the organisation. Everything from raising money for charity, to training Islamic Societies in more efficient management techniques, from dealing with a horrific Islamophobic incident to addressing various national conferences, all of this taking place under the umbrella of one organisation - FOSIS! And all of this by the will of Allah, the Most High.

Many of you would have heard by now of the horrific attack just outside City University, London, by a gang of youths aimed at the Muslim student population, which culminated in three Muslim students being stabbed and a number of others viciously assaulted, all requiring hospital admission. On being notified of the attack we worked very closely with London ISOC and the local university Islamic Society, City ISOC, to discuss what steps we needed to take as a matter of urgency. Following those discussions, in conjunction with City ISOC, we contacted the university, the local Student Union and the police to ensure that the safety and welfare of students were a priority. As a result of the lobbying police patrols, both uniformed and non-uniformed, were stepped up in the area, along with a commitment from the University to increase security patrols in the area. The Student Union from the outset has been very supportive and has worked closely with the Islamic Society to ensure immediate concerns were addressed, such as finding an alternative safer venue for prayer, until the perpetrators of the attacks had been brought to justice. As word spread of the attacks we felt it necessary to issue a factual statement of accounts to reassure Muslim students that we were taking the issue seriously and to highlight the work that was being done, as a result of that statement a number of media outlets, recognising the significance of the attacks, covered the story ensuring the case stayed very much at the top of everyone's agenda. Moving forward we are in the process of shaping a long term strategy to ensure that these sorts of events remain isolated occurrences and that when they do occur there is a swift and uncompromising response from all those involved. If you have any questions or any concerns of whatever nature regarding the events of the last few weeks please do get in touch with us directly, president@fosis.org.uk

To more positive news Islamic Societies across the country have been very busy raising money for orphans around the world during the annual Charity Week 09. With events concluded all that remains is for the money to be counted and the totals announced! So make sure you check out the FOSIS website over the next few weeks as the final total is announced!

Finally ISOC 101 is continuing, FOSIS trainers are travelling across the country and Ireland (!) running training seminars and skills management courses ensuring that Islamic Societies are equipped for the year ahead.

With the first ten days of Dhul'-Hijjah almost upon us I remind myself and then you of the following: Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allaah than these ten days." They said: "Not even jihad for the sake of Allaah?" He said: "Not even jihad for the sake of Allaah, unless a man goes out himself for jihad taking his wealth with him and does not come back with anything." Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2/457

Among the things we are encouraged to do during this blessed month is to increase in good deeds generally and in particular we know that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to fast during the first nine days! So let's tighten our belts and get ready....!

May Allah (SWT) reward you all for all your hard work.

Wa- salâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatuAllâhi wa barakâtuhu

Your brother,

Faisal Hanjra
president@fosis.org.uk