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