Girls just wanna
have fun
From their 'despotic parents' to the wild days they hope will never end, Muslim women speak frankly about their lives on Britain's university campuses and how their elders are letting them down. Sonia Malik explores the complicated lives of British Islam's “bad girls” and finds there is more to them than boys, booze and bhangra.

The enduring spirit of Aceh
When Marco Polo passed through, Islam was already well established. Ibn Battuta was delighted by the strength of its people’s faith. But until the tsunami struck in December 2004, few Muslims had heard of Aceh. Abdal-Hakim Murad traces the glorious history of southeast Asia’s ancient Islamic nation.

The threat of internal extremism
As tensions between the United States and the Muslim world steadily escalate, destructive elements on both sides undermine the prospects for more peaceful and cooperative relations. Western Muslims, in America and Europe, suffer as a result. Targeted as a potential fifth column, their circumstances continue to deteriorate. Anti-western extremism within a small minority of Western Muslims, argue Muqtedar Khan and John Esposito, is undermining efforts to allay fears that Islam in the West is a threat.

Where are you
really from?
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...” Layla El-Wafi recited the patriotic oath every morning she attended state schools in America. Now, living in Britain, she gives a transatlantic perspective on the citizenship education debate that is increasingly looking to the country of her birth for solutions.

Struggling to
fill the gaps
With Manchester mosques failing to address critical social needs, Muslim social workers are finding innovative ways to fill the gaps. Rumeana Jahangir gives us a snapshot of Manchester’s diverse inner city Muslim community.

Another Labour ploy?
The arrest of BNP activists over the Christmas period has delighted many. But, don’t celebrate too soon. Anthony McRoy warns of the political agenda fuelling the arrests.

Q-Notes
Affan Chowdhry on second wives, discovering Brick Lane, the joy of being Punjabi and another lonely Valentine’s Day.

"Free and fair" elections...under occupation
Braving Israeli checkpoints and the notorious wall, Palestinians went to the polls determined yet cynical. Nadia Evans reports from the West Bank as Abu Mazen is elected president of a people without a state.

The Top Ten Good News Stories of 2004
Like establishment bobblehead Fareed Zakaria, Ma'sood Cajee compiles his own annual list of Good News stories from the Muslim World.

Islamophobia: The language and politics of dependence
That Muslims suffer prejudice is not in question, but, as Hassan Scott argues, it is a defective concept which limits our understanding and, thus, prevents an effective response.

"And when the seas rise…"
Sanjana Deen and Rumeana Jahangir report on how Muslim aid agencies the world over are meeting the needs of the hundreds of thousands left homeless in the wake of the tsunami disaster.

"I hear the
voices of ghosts…"
UNICEF estimates that 35,000 Indonesian children have been orphaned in the wake of the tsunami. Traumatised and threatened by disease, they are housed in dozens of makeshift refugee camps. Eleven year-old Nina Maulidia Rizka tells her story to Indonesian Children’s Relief correspondent Santi Soekanto.

Upfront
Photographer Horst A. Friedrichs explores Pakistan’s ecstatic Sufi culture in Troubadours of Allah: The Spirit of Sufi Music at London’s Horniman Museum.

Review: Making Muslims acceptable - The Guardian's Big Muslim Debate
The recent Guardian report, entitled Young, Muslim and British, was an attempt by the liberal press to portray muslims in a new light. It failed. What readers got was the acceptable face of British Islam. Missing, argues Adam Riaz Khan, were the vast majority of British muslims - working class, unemployed and still without a voice.

Review: Urban music’s jihadi face
Islamist rappers take on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in their own style. Mehrak Golestan reports on radical Islam's new cultural frontline.

FROM THE PULPIT
February 2005, Issue 360
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When I was a teenager, I once asked one of my shaykhs what a Muslim should do when an Islamic New Year approaches. I explained that my question was in the context of how society celebrated the beginning of the Gregorian New year - fanfare, parties, resolutions and so on. More than three decades later Nadir, my teenage son, has asked me the same question.
The Islamic New year [10th February 2005] is a sombre event, I was told. It is not a time to let go of your senses. Rather, it is an opportunity to regroup them and re-focus them. Making resolutions isn’t a bad idea. But they need to be more serious than those relating to weight loss, holiday destinations or using your mobile phone more sparsely.
A major resolution should be to set standards in a conscious effort to get closer to your Lord. A resolution aimed at instituting a few minutes of dhikr daily is recommended as is the promise to try and regulate one’s life around prayer times. As for New Year day itself, I was told there was nothing specific that a Muslim is supposed to do, although it is highly recommended that he prays the morning prayer in a mosque. It is even better if he can spend a few minutes in contemplative prayer the night before. Also, fasting on the tenth day of Muharram - the first month of the Islamic calendar - is highly recommended. The ‘Ashura, with similar roots as Jewish holy days, is a day of “beneficient character” for the Sunnis. Among the Shi’ites, it is the terrible anniversary of the murder of Husayn (the grandson of the blessed Prophet) by the troops of Yazid. Shi’ites fast on the ninth of Muharram; on the tenth certain Shi’ite groups wander the cities and publicly inflict wounds upon themselves. This mortification is an expression of guilt among the Shi’ites for having abandoned the imams in their moment of need.
However, what has always stuck in my mind about the answer my teacher gave me was the counsel that the Islamic new year is a good time to learn more about Sayyidna ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph and one of the most notable figures in Islam. It was, of course, Sayyidna ‘Umar, who determined that the year of the Hijrah (the migration from Makkah to Madinah) should be the first year of the Islamic era.
So to me, the Islamic year has always meant an opportunity to re-discover this inspirational person. Among my favourite anecdotes is one related by Zaid ibn Islam. “One night I saw ‘Umar patrolling with the night guard. I joined him and marched with him. When we left the city, we caught sight of a fire a short distance away. When we reached it, we saw a woman with two or three weeping small children. The woman had placed a pot on the fire and she was saying: ‘May Allah get me justice from ‘Umar, for he has eaten his fill and we are hungry.’
“Hearing this, ‘Umar stepped forward, greeted her and asked: ‘May I come closer?’ She said: ‘If your intentions are good, you may.’ He questioned her and she replied: ‘We left our distant homes and arrived here hungry and tired. The hunger has made us miserable and we cannot sleep.’ The Commander of the Faithful asked her what was in the pot and she replied: ‘There is water in it. I hope to get the children quiet with this pretence, for they think I am cooking food.’
“Umar then went to the flour merchant’s shop and bought a sack of flour, which he slung over his shoulder. Then he went to the grocer’s shop and bought supplies and cooking fat. I said: ‘O Prince of the Believers, let me carry these things for you.’ ‘Umar said: ‘If you carry this load, who will carry my load of sin and ward off that woman’s prayer against me?’
“Umar began weeping and walked to them. ‘May Allah reward you with blessings,’ said the woman. ‘You are better suited to look after the Muslims than ‘Umar is.’ He then started to prepare a meal for this family. When it was completed, he gave it to the children and said to the woman: ‘Do not wish ill on ‘Umar. He had no knowledge of your troubles.’ Then he left - sobbing into the darkness.”
Happy New Year everybody!

Fuad Nahdi

Malcolm X, in Smethwick on 12 February 1965, just nine days before he was killed in Harlem, New York City. England was one of the last countries Malcolm X visited before his death. He spoke in London, Birmingham and Oxford.

Remembering
Malcolm X
Special 20-page supplement, including rare  photographs
In these pages Q-News pays tribute to a man whose legacy we are blessed to inherit and whose life is a sign of God’s abundant grace. He gave his life in the service of God seeking justice in the world. Rizwan Mohammed remembers and reflects on the legacy of a martyr.

Our pride was Malcolm
It was Benjamin Karim who handed over the podium to Malcolm x moments before he was assassinated. Few knew Malcolm as well. After all, Karim was his assistant minister during the turbulent nation of Islam years and later at the Muslim Mosque Inc. Karim remembers, here, the private moments of Minister Malcolm x.

Malcolm X and the Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama held Malcolm X in her arms as he lay dying on the stage of the Audubon ballroom in New York on 21 February 1965. She was one of his closest supporters during the last tumultuous year of his life. Here, she writes of her first meeting with the man she came to call her “north star”.

Malcolm X:
On the edge of life
Howard Dodson couldn’t believe his eyes - private letters, diaries and never before seen photographs of Malcolm X were being sold on eBay for peanuts. He tells the incredible story of how the items were saved and gives an extraordinary and exclusive insight into what they reveal about a man who liberated a generation.

Searching for
Malcolm X
From April to October 1963, Malcolm X served as interim minister for the nation of Islam's Temple no. 4 in Washington, DC. It was a pivotal year - he would leave Elijah Muhammad and begin his journey to orthodox Islam. Nabila Munawar visits the mosque where Malcolm preached, hoping to find something of his spirit still there.

The world is waking up
Malcolm X, on the eve of his death, was formulating a profoundly global approach to injustice. If the situation in the Congo wasn’t straightened out, he declared, there was no hope for Mississippi. Drawing on Malcolm's personal experiences, travels and reading of history, James Tyner explores his geopolitical thought.

"We have been denied his insight and his passion"
James Tyner stumbled upon Malcolm X’s writings almost by accident. Now, he is advancing an innovative approach to understanding his legacy. He spoke to Abdul-Rehman Malik about how Malcolm X was a man ahead of his time.

Celebrating our shining Black Prince
Britain’s urban music underground is hearing the call to faith. Led by the groundbreaking Islamic hip hop group, Mecca 2 Medina, a new generation of Muslim performers are beginning to shake up the scene. Inspired by Islam and moved by the social conditions, identity politics and economic disadvantage of young Muslims, these artists are challenging hip hop’s bling and booty culture with edgy, witty and spiritual lyrics. They are definitely making a connection. Rakin Fetuga, Abdul Karim, Ismael South, Mohammad Sulaiyman, Mustafa Obaidi and Gohar Akhtar spoke to Q-News about an upcoming concert and the impact that El Hajj Malik El Shabazz has had on their lives and music.

What would
Malcolm do?
What if there was a question you could ask in any dilemma that would guide you to do the right thing? What would it be? Naushaad Suliman draws on the life of Malcolm X and receives some compelling answers.

Make it plain
Bibliography of the best books, videos and websites on Malcolm X.

To Allah we belong and to Allah we return
"I know that any moment of any day, or any night, could bring me death… To speculate about dying doesn’t disturb me as it might some people. I never have felt that I would live to become an old man."

Review:
Are Muslims hated?
Atif Imtiaz takes on Kenan Malik’s narrow vision of Islamophobia, Muslim leadership and freedom of speech.

Write Mind:
Caught in the act!
Under the cover of darkness Abdullah Bradford tried to dispose of the evidence. Little did he know that London’s finest would be there to catch him.

Classic Q
Shattering Absolutions. Farida James loves smashing bottles at the recycling centre. It’s like virtuous vandalism and she can’t get enough.

Fiqh questions, with Faraz Rabbani