Political activist Tommy Robinson will miss his own planned march for thousands of people after being remanded into custody by police.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court following the airing of a film at a protest in central London.

He attended Folkestone Police station on Friday where he was separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone pin to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said.

Robinson is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for a two-day hearing concerning allegations he breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

Supporters of Robinson are due to hold a demonstration on Saturday, which is expected to be met with a counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism.

The Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police are due to be supported by officers from other forces across the country as the Met said there will be a “significant police presence” to ensure the two groups are kept apart.

READ MORE: Why did Tommy Robinson move from the EDL to Pegida?

Muslims in eastern Pakistan went on a rampage over allegations that a Christian man had desecrated the Koran, demolishing the man’s house, burning churches and damaging several other homes, police and local Christians have said.

The scale of the violence prompted the government to deploy additional police forces and send in the army to help restore order.

The attacks in Jaranwala, in the district of Faisalabad in Punjab province, erupted after some Muslims living in the area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend tearing out pages from a Koran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages.

Police chief Rizwan Khan said this had angered the local Muslims.

A mob gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes, burning furniture and other household items.

Some members of the Christian community fled their homes to escape the mob.

Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and wielding batons before dispersing the attackers with the help of Muslim clerics and elders.

Authorities also said they have started launching raids in an effort to find all the perpetrators.

Dozens of rioters were arrested.

Police chief Bilal Mehmood told reporters they were also looking for Mr Amir, who went into hiding to escape the mob, and would detain him to determine whether he had desecrated the Koran.

Videos and photos posted on social media show an angry mob descending upon a church, throwing pieces of bricks and burning it.

In another video, two other churches are attacked, their windows broken as attackers throw furniture out and set it on fire.

Several policemen are seen in the videos watching the situation without intervening to stop the vandalism.

In yet another video, a man is seen climbing to the roof of the church and removing the steel cross after repeatedly hitting it with a hammer as the crowd down on the road cheered him on.

Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, said most of the Christians living in the area had fled to safer places.

“Even my house was burned,” he added.

Mr Mukhtar said there are 17 churches in Jaranwala and he believes most of them were attacked.

The authorities did not immediately confirm that figure.

Mr Khan said additional police forces were later deployed in Jaranwala and an investigation was under way.

He said all involved in the attack would be prosecuted.

“Our first priority was to save the lives of all of the Christians,” he said.

Later in the evening, troops started arriving in Jaranwala to help the police.

Angry Muslims were urged to go back to their homes, allegedly with promises that the man who allegedly desecrated the Koran would soon be arrested.

A delegation of Muslim clerics also arrived in Jaranwala from the city of Lahore to express solidarity with the Christians.

Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan.

Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death.

While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just the accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.

In one of the worst attacks on Christians, a mob in 2009 burned an estimated 60 homes and killed six Christians in the district of Gojra in Punjab, after accusing them of insulting Islam.

Wednesday’s attack drew nationwide condemnation from top leaders and major political parties.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said he was “gutted” by the images coming out of Faisalabad.

“Stern action would be taken against those who violate law and target minorities. All law enforcement has been asked to apprehend culprits & bring them to justice,” he tweeted.

A senior Christian leader, Bishop Azad Marshall, appealed for help on social media and said he was “deeply pained and distressed”.

“We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom,” he tweeted.

Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the rampage, saying: “There is no place for violence in any religion.”

In the southern port city of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, dozens of Christians rallied to denounce the attacks in Jaranwala.

Domestic and international human rights groups say blasphemy allegations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities in Pakistan and settle personal scores.

In December 2021, a Muslim mob descended on a sports equipment factory in Pakistan’s Sialkot district, killing a Sri Lankan man and burning his body publicly over allegations of blasphemy.

Read more: Man accused of blasphemy stoned to death by mob in Pakistan

Muslim pilgrims in Mecca have circled the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, and then converged on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert, officially opening the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

The event is returning to its full capacity for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

So far, more than 1.8 million pilgrims from all over the world have amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj, and the number was growing as more pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia joined, said a spokesman for the Saudi Hajj Ministry, Ayedh al-Ghweinim.

Authorities have said they expect this year to approach pre-Covid levels of more than two million.

Egyptian businessman Yehya Al-Ghanam said he was at a loss for words to describe his feelings on arriving at Mina, one of the biggest tent camps in the world, outside Mecca, where pilgrims will stay for much of the Hajj.

“Tears will fall from my eyes out of joy and happiness,” he said. “I do not sleep. I have not slept for 15 days, only an hour a day.”

The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to.

For pilgrims, it is a moving spiritual experience that absolves sins, brings them closer to God and unites the world’s more than 1.8 billion Muslims. Some spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey.

The rituals during the Hajj largely commemorate the Koran’s accounts of Ibrahim, his son Ismail and Ismail’s mother Hajar.

Pilgrims have been doing the ritual circuit around the Kaaba since arriving in Mecca over recent days. As the last ones performed it on Monday, the pilgrims made their way by foot or bus to Mina.

In Mina, soldiers sprayed pilgrims with water to cool them down in the heat in the desert plain, where there is little respite from the blazing sun.

The faithful set up in their tents, resting in the rows of cubicles and praying together to prepare for the coming rituals.

On Tuesday, pilgrims will move to Mount Arafat, a desert hill where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his final sermon. Afterwards, they collect pebbles from a site known as Muzdalifa to be used in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil back in Mina.

The final three days of the Hajj coincide with the Eid al-Adha holiday, when Muslims around the world slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.

In 2019, more than 2.4 million pilgrims participated in the Hajj. In 2020, amid worldwide coronavirus lockdowns, Saudi Arabia limited the pilgrimage to a few thousand citizens and local residents.

Last year, just under 900,000 attended as Saudi Arabia allowed limited numbers of pilgrims from abroad.

Read relevant links: Saudi Arabia bans foreign pilgrims amid Covid-19 fears.

An activist, who was the first Muslim woman to lead a Pride parade in Britain, says her mission in life is “to promote the inclusivity of sexuality and gender”.

The PA news agency is interviewing a series of people celebrating Pride Month in June, including Saima Razzaq, 38, from Birmingham.

Ms Razzaq is the director of change and communications at Birmingham Pride, and she uses her platform as part of the LGBT+, South Asian, and Muslim communities to carve out a space within the intersection.

Ms Razzaq, who is a lesbian but also uses the queer umbrella to describe her sexuality, became the first Muslim woman to lead a Pride parade in Britain at Birmingham Pride in 2021.

“Leading Pride was a monumental moment and obviously now I work at Pride as a result of that,” Ms Razzaq told PA.

After taking part in the Birmingham Pride Parade on May 27 this year, Ms Razzaq said she will be talking to and working with the community in the city for the remainder of Pride Month.

“Now, the thing is about getting into conversations within my own community,” she said.

“It’s about organising and working with the everyday communities of Birmingham, and taking them on this journey and working towards, ‘what can we do next?’”

– When did you ‘come out’ and how did your family respond?

Ms Razzaq said her mother approached her about her sexuality when she was 29 while they were driving to pick up a takeaway.

“She made me drive and she waited until we were on a dual carriageway and said, ‘do you like women?’

“I was like, ‘oh my god, why now?’,” Ms Razzaq recalled.

“Since that moment, I’ve seen a massive change in my mum. Now, she’s changing her language.”

Ms Razzaq added she looks up to members of her family, and she regards them as her “superheroes”.

“People look up to influences and all these famous people, I don’t, I look up to my aunties and uncle – they’re my superheroes,” she said.

“Even though my aunties and my uncle might not understand my queerness, they’re there.”

She added: “Faith is really important for me, and just because I’m queer, doesn’t mean I’m not Muslim, and they’ve not othered me for that either.

“Again, I think it’s really important for me to have this supportive family to allow me the space to do this.”

– What is your relationship with your faith?

Ms Razzaq said her faith helps her to “do better” and to “fulfil her mission in life”.

“I am a Muslim, I have a relationship with God, I feel very connected with God, like right now, I feel the most connected I’ve ever been.”

She added: “The Koran tells me to focus on where I am and the people I’m surrounded with and to do better and to fulfil my mission in life.

“I feel my mission in life is to promote the inclusivity of sexuality and gender.

“There is a really positive thing happening in Birmingham, and in time, Insha’Allah, the wider world will see it.”

– Have you experienced any hate or abuse since coming out?

Ms Razzaq said that while everyone is “happy” for her in regards to her sexuality, she receives “far more Islamophobia and racism” for being a woman of colour in a leadership position.

“Everyone is really happy for me to be queer, but when I suddenly say, ‘yes I’m also Pakistani’, ‘I’m also Muslim’, and ‘I’m proud of those intersections’, it’s a narrative that people aren’t that familiar with,” she said.

“People aren’t used to that side of the story. I get far more Islamophobia and racism for being a woman of colour in leadership.”

Ms Razzaq said she has been the victim of several hate crimes, including someone urinating on her bed on the narrow boat where she lives.

“I’ve had my car stolen, for example, in a really horrific way, I’ve had people urinate in my bed on my boat, I’ve had horrible calls.”

She added that she “doesn’t need anybody to judge my Muslimness”, and she finds that it’s those who are not of the faith that tend to judge her more.

“And actually, it’s non-Muslims who will judge my Muslimness more than Muslims,” she said.

“Our communities will work through things, but we need everyone else to allow us the space to work through things as well.”

– What are the challenges within the intersections of faith and queerness?

Ms Razzaq said “it isn’t easy” for those in faith communities to bring up the subject of queerness, but she said she has noticed more people in South Asian communities coming out.

“Everyone will have difficulty bringing in the subject of queerness because it has been so polarised.

“It isn’t easy for most people in faith settings, and I think it’s really important that we reclaim this narrative.

“What I’ve noticed since I’ve come out is, and that’s just within the circle I’m part of, I’ve seen other South Asians come out, and their parents support them in that journey.”

On what advice she would give to someone in a faith setting who wished to come out, she said: “The most important thing to remember is that you’re valid, you’re absolutely valid.

“Your queerness or your gender identity is absolutely valid, be your authentic self.

“There are people like you, and for me, finding other queer South Asians, other queer Muslims, has been the best part of my journey.”

Shamima Begum was a London schoolgirl until Scotland Yard raised concerns she and two of her fellow pupils had travelled to Syria in February 2015.

The now 23-year-old was just 15 when she travelled to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) with her close friends at Bethnal Green Academy – Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15.

Despite her family’s warnings that Syria was a “dangerous place”, the then teenager, described as a “straight A student”, crossed the border just days later with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed, according to reports.

In the Shamima Begum Story BBC podcast series, she said she was told to “pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband”.

Just 10 days after arriving in the city of Raqqa, Ms Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, was married to a Dutchman named Yago Riedijk, who had converted to Islam.

They had three children together, who all later died from malnourishment or disease. They were a one-year-old girl, a three-month-old boy and newborn son.

Ms Begum left Raqqa with her husband in January 2017, but they were eventually split up, as she claimed he was arrested for spying and tortured.

She was eventually found nine months pregnant in a refugee camp in al-Roj in February 2019 by a Times journalist.

Ms Begum told the reporter it “didn’t faze me at all” when she saw her first “severed head”, but would “do anything required just to be able to come home”.

But the runaway schoolgirl said she did not regret travelling to IS-controlled Syria, saying she had a “good time”.

The then-Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said Ms Begum could expect to be “spoken to” if she returned to the UK.

In the same month, she was stripped of her British citizenship after announcing her desire to return to the UK with her then unborn third child.

The move was deemed only permissible under international law if it did not leave her stateless.

Since then, the former IS bride has been embroiled in a battle with the British legal system – she lost her latest legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship on Wednesday.

Ms Begum described the initial move to revoke her citizenship as “unjust on me and my son”.

The then-home secretary Sajid Javid said although he would never leave an individual stateless, his priority was the “safety and security” of the UK.

Mr Javid was criticised by Labour after Ms Begum’s son later died – with the then-shadow home secretary Diane Abbott describing the situation as “callous and inhumane”.

She lost her first appeal to return to the UK but successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal.

But the Government submitted a fresh appeal, meaning her return was put on hold pending a Supreme Court battle.

She was dealt a fresh blow when the Supreme Court ruled she could not come back to the UK – leading to her begging the British public for forgiveness.

When she appeared on TV screens in September 2021, she had drastically changed her appearance – wearing a Nike baseball cap, a grey vest, Casio watch and with her fingernails painted pink.

Ms Begum said there was “no evidence” she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts and was prepared to prove her innocence in court.

She denied her Western physical appearance on Good Morning Britain – in stark contrast to the traditional Islamic dress she previously adorned – was a publicity stunt.

In the BBC podcast series released last month, she said she understood public anger towards her, but insisted she is not a “bad person”.

She told the podcast she accepted she is viewed “as a danger, as a risk”, but blamed her portrayal in the media.

A father whose two sons died fighting in Syria has been found guilty of encouraging violent jihad in a speech at his local mosque.

Abubaker Deghayes, 53, promoted “jihad by sword” when he addressed worshippers at the Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre.

The defendant, who originally comes from Libya, had denied intending to encourage terrorism in his speech to around 50 people, including children and young adults.

On Wednesday, a jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of the charge.

It can now be reported that two of Deghayes’ sons were killed fighting for Islamists in Syria and he lost a third in a stabbing in the East Sussex city.

Abdul – who had become embroiled with drugs and was murdered by a dealer in 2019 aged 22 – was the twin brother of Abdullah, who was killed fighting in Syria in 2016 aged 18.

Their brother Jaffar, 17, was killed in 2014 while trying to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad’s government.

Amer, another son and former finance student, who also travelled to Syria, is understood to be continuing to fight for the cause.

During his Old Bailey trial, jurors were played a video of Deghayes’ speech at the mosque on Sunday November 1 2020.

In it, he was seen to make a stabbing gesture when talking about jihad.

He told worshippers: “Whose power is more powerful than us? Allah is more powerful than you. You, idiots. You kuffar (non-believers)… The non-believer is an idiot. He’s stupid.”

He went on: “Jihad, jihad, jihad. Jihad is compulsory. Jihad is fighting by sword. That means this jihad is compulsory upon you, not jihad is the word of mouth but jihad will remain compulsory until the Day of Resurrection…”

Prosecutor Ben Lloyd told jurors that the speech was not given “innocently or naively”.

He said: “The prosecution case is clear. By the defendant’s words and gestures he was encouraging people to undertake violent jihad.

“The defendant’s speech demonstrates him to be an Islamic extremist. He is someone who believes in the use of violence in the cause of Islam.

“Or, at the very least, he was reckless in giving his speech as to whether people would be encouraged.”

The defendant, of Saltdean in East Sussex, denied wrongdoing, saying he was explaining the meaning of Jihad by the sword as self-defence.

The gesture he made was a “dance of the blade”, he claimed.

He also referred to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as wearing a face covering now after describing Muslim women as “letter boxes”.

The jury was told nothing about the Deghayes family background.

In 2017, a serious case review identified missed opportunities to prevent Deghayes’ sons from being radicalised before they were killed in Syria.

There was also little understanding of the part religion played in the lives of Abdullah and Jaffar, who were believed to have been with the al Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front when they died, the review added.

The report also contained allegations that their father would wake his children up at 4.30am to study the Koran and would whip them with electrical wire or hand out other punishments if he felt they were not doing this properly.

After the review, their uncle Omar Deghayes – who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and spent five years in Guantanamo Bay – hit out at police, claiming they took “no action whatsoever” while his radicalised young nephews were being racially abused.

Following Deghayes’ conviction, he was granted continued bail ahead of sentencing at the Old Bailey on February 25.

Pakistan’s police said they were seeking arrest of two Christian men in the eastern city of Lahore on charges they allegedly used insulting remarks against Islam’s holy book and its Prophet Mohammed.

The case against the two men was registered last Saturday on the complaint of a Muslim local resident Haroon Ahmed, said Muratab Ali, a police investigator, who said the accused persons had yet to be arrested.

He provided no further details and only said they were still investigating to determine whether the two minority Christians made derogatory remarks about the Koran and Islam’s Prophet during a discussion on religion.

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone accused of insulting Islam or other religious figures can be sentenced to death if found guilty.

While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, just the accusation of blasphemy can cause riots in Pakistan.

According to domestic and international human rights groups, blasphemy allegations in Pakistan have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle personal scores.

A Punjab governor was killed by his own guard in 2011 after he defended a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy.

She was acquitted after spending eight years on death row and left Pakistan for Canada to join her family after receiving threats.

French legislators are set to debate a bill to tackle radical Islamic ideology.

Some authorities maintain that such radical beliefs are creeping into public services, schools and online platforms, with the goal of undermining national values.

The bill is broad and controversial, with 1,700 proposed amendments, and guarantees heated debate for the next two weeks in the lower house of the French parliament.

It reflects a priority for France’s president Emmanuel Macron, who in an October speech painted a dark picture of a perverse version of Islam, France’s second most-popular religion, quietly making inroads and creating a “counter-society”.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin, a right-leaning member of Mr Macron’s centrist party, wrote a short book on the subject, due to be released in a matter of days. His Manifesto For Secularism outlines fundamental values of France that the bill he sponsors is meant to protect.

“Islamism is a Trojan horse hiding the fragmentation bomb of our society,” Mr Darmanin wrote, according to excerpts from the daily Le Figaro.

“In the face of such a dangerous and insidious enemy, which we know is far from the religion of the prophet (of Islam), it is normal that public officials take unprecedented measures.”

Multiple terrorist attacks in France by Islamist extremists provide a backdrop for the bill.

The text applies to all religions, but some Muslims say the legislation once again points the finger at Islam.

Other critics say the bill covers ground already addressed in current laws.

Meanwhile, far-right leader Marine Le Pen says the bill does not go far enough or even name the enemy: radical Islam.

In ways small and large, the bill seeks oversee the functioning of associations and mosques, including foreign financing, aiming plug up entry points for Islamist ideology into the lives of Muslims.

Among the 51 articles, the bill aims to ensure that public service employees respect neutrality and secularism, while protecting them against threats or violence.

In a bid to protect children from indoctrination and to do away with underground schools, the text requires all children from the age of three to attend a regular school.

Some 50,000 children were home-schooled in 2020, according to French media. But the number of “clandestine schools” where children are reportedly indoctrinated in radical ideology is unknown.

Among other key points, the bill aims to keep a close watch on associations, including those that often run mosques, with measures including one aimed at ensuring that outsiders cannot take control of an association.

Another measure requires associations receiving state funds to sign a “contract of Republican commitment” ensuring they honour French values.

Funding must be reimbursed if the contract is broken. While foreign funding for mosques is not banned, amounts over 10,000 euros (£8,800) must be declared.

If some Muslims feel they have been stigmatised, France’s other religions say they are suffering collateral damage.

Le Monde newspaper reported religious leaders were unanimous in their criticism of the treatment of associations, telling a parliamentary commission that it adds unnecessary layers of work and oversight and arouses suspicion over all faiths.

The proposed law also seeks to halt doctors issuing virginity certificates, as well as the practice of polygamy and forced marriage.

Doctors would be fined and risk jail for providing virginity certificates.

The law includes an article that justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called the “Paty law” after the beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty, who showed students in a civics class caricatures of the prophet.

It creates a new crime for hate speech online in which someone’s personal details are posted.

A Chechen refugee beheaded Mr Paty after information about the teacher was spread online.

The 18-year-old suspected killer of a French teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class paid students to help him identify the victim, France’s terrorism prosecutor has said.

Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old are among seven people who appeared before an investigating magistrate on accusations of complicity in murder in relation with a terrorist undertaking, and criminal conspiracy.

The suspect in Friday’s killing of teacher Samuel Paty, who was attacked and beheaded near Paris, offered students at the school 300 to 350 euros (£267 to £311) to help him pick out, Mr Ricard said during a news conference on Wednesday.

“The investigation has established that the perpetrator knew the name of the teacher, the name of the school and its address, yet he did not have the means to identify him,” the prosecutor said.

“That identification has only been possible with the help of students from the same school.

“That’s why the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has decided to prosecute two under-18 minors whose implication in the identification of the victim for the killer has appeared to be conclusive.”

A terror investigation is under way into Mr Paty’s killing.

Authorities have identified the killer as Abdoullakh Anzorov., an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee who was later shot dead by police.

The surviving suspects also include a student’s father who posted videos on social media that called for mobilisation against the teacher and an Islamist activist who helped the man disseminate the virulent messages, which named Mr Paty and gave the school’s address, Mr Ricard said.

Two more men are accused of having helped the attacker by accompanying him when he bought weapons including a knife and an airsoft gun that were found near the 18-year-old’s body, according to the prosecutor.

Another suspect had close contacts with the attacker and endorsed radical Islamism, Mr Ricard said.

The French government issued an order on Wednesday morning to dissolve domestic militant Islamic group the Collective Cheikh Yassine.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said it was “implicated, linked to Friday’s attack” and was used to promote anti-republican hate speech.

Other groups will be dissolved “in the coming weeks” for similar reasons, Mr Attal said.

Named after an assassinated leader of the Palestinian Hamas, Collective Cheikh Yassine was founded in the early 2000s by an Islamist activist who is among the seven people accused of being accomplices to the attacker.

Mr Attal also confirmed the government ordered a mosque in the north-east Paris suburb of Pantin to close for six months.

It is being punished for relaying the angry father’s message on social media.

Authorities say it has long had an imam following the Salafist path, a rigorous interpretation of the Muslim holy book.

A national memorial event is scheduled to be held Wednesday evening in the courtyard of the Sorbonne university.

Read More here: French militant group and mosque to close after killing

Suspect in French beheading was Chechen in origin

Demonstrations across France to mark the killing of Samuel Paty

As the COVID-19 lockdown has progressed, Mosques and other religious venues have been eerily empty. Ramadan has started and the COVID-19 induced disruption of the rituals that Ramadan usually consists of, has given Muslims a unique opportunity to examine the religious status quo.

Religion is like marmite; there are those who love it, those who hate it and those who feel everything in between. It is extremely personal. One thing I can say for certain is that in most cases religion creates a glass ceiling that inhibits true human unity because there is the inevitable othering of the non-believer. When this othering becomes absolute, it is often the first step for many of those who I have worked with on the other side of a terrorist conviction.

I learned the term “preacher hustle” from Ismael when he questioned me after one of the informal talks I gave at Cafe Sara off Edgware road. Cafe Sara was a fashionable sheesha venue that was a second home for middle eastern professional criminals. I later found out Ismael was a former PKK assassin who was now selling his trade on the street. His question was whether what I was doing, speaking to them about connecting to a higher consciousness beyond imagination and appetite, was a “Preacher Hustle”; he was puzzled by my continued talks and regular support for this community without the presence of a charity bucket.

The evangelical vigour of the 90’s Dawaah movement was a powerful force pre-9/11 and the Islam that it propagated had less of the political top down ambition and more of a relational understanding that emphasised brotherhood and community. Something attractive to those coming from a underclass background like myself. Perhaps it was the fact that my early experience was idealistic and I was surrounded by  converts whose  experiences echoed Malcolm X’s words;

“I have eaten from the same plate, drank from the same glass, slept on the same bed or rug, while praying to the same God— with fellow‐Muslims whose skin was the whitest of white, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, and whose hair was the blondest of blond—yet it was the first time in my life that I didn’t see them as ‘white’ men. I could look into their faces and see that these didn’t regard themselves as ‘white’”.

However, this entry level romantic humanism was soon hijacked by the religious paradigm. Religion as a concept in the west relates to a set of beliefs that is held by a group of people reflected in a world view and often expressed with some form of ritual. The divine laws dictated within these belief systems are based on texts. This creates a transactional system where the religious observer abstains from sin to be awarded with a divinely authorised version of the same thing in the next life.  This reward system fits perfectly into a consumer system that also relies upon imagination but never liberates the individual from his lower consciousness or reptilian mind. So in other words, anticipate and dream over buying that expensive leather coat, restrict yourself by not spending on anything else then you will be rewarded with the leather coat. And see yourselves as part of the cooler group and look down upon those without.

This text based simplistic understanding and its validation through proselytising was something that I saw a lot of when I first discovered Islam with the Malcolm X craze in the nineties. I had grown up  in a single parent family on a white underclass estate in Farnborough just outside of the army town of Aldershot. The area was also one of the drugs hubs for the south of England.  We had moved there when I was 8 from East London and my father left shortly afterwards leaving my mother to care for three children through being made homeless and living in a hostel to the daily racism and violence of a xenophobic community where we were the only asians.

Ben, who was one of the elders in our gang initially started looking into Islam. I recall watching Ahmed Deedat debate Christian preachers on video tape.  Each of the debaters would be grasping his text book whether Quran or Bible and trying to prove the other wrong by referring to the text.

In the 90’s the concept of atheism was not within mainstream thought and schools still sung hymns but the paradigm that Islam was taking was distinctly western. Ahmed Deedat’s methodology of debate was something formalised in Europe during the reformation.

This was in contrast to what had happened in the 60’s when Europeans were travelling to the East to study Islam as an Eastern Philosophy and bringing back the teachings of Maulana Rumi and Ibn Arabi  but in between we had the re-contextualisation of the term Jihad in order to propagate recruitment to the Afghan conflict and Saudi sponsored mosques with £20,000 sponsorships.

As someone who has spent over a decade in the rehabilitation of the some of the toughest terrorists and most recently IS members, I cannot help but raise my head above the pulpit and ask “Is anyone looking at the BS that these guys are following?” As the late great Robert Anton Wilson said “Your always following someone’s belief system, someone’s b….s!”

Let me be clear that I am not attacking the ritualistic practice or an individual searching for spiritual awakening within a collective through moral symbolisms of systems like Islam, Hinduism, Judaism etc. I am simply asking all of us who subscribe ourselves to a particular group to consider the possibility of stepping back from own imagined allegiances to a more universal perspective. To consider the fact that everyone is searching for tranquility and that if someone is aggressive towards you, it is a veil borne of their own vulnerability. To consider we approach each other without ego and with compassion and truly understand and practice the othering does not separate us from the one true community of this earth; the community of humanity. I do not claim any enlightenment but I do bask in the reward of love and stillness that such an approach delivers and it is this that compels me to invite you to join me.