Who am I? Mona Al Ghussein August 2019 Who am I? I am a Palestinian Muslim born in Kuwait, raised in France and England and consider Britain my home. There is some irony in that of course as it was the British in the infamous Balfour declaration that voided half of my ancestral home in…
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“BRADFORD born and raised, I have been a journalist for more than 20 years and I was writing for decades before that. One of the most frustrating things I have come across is how so many stories relating to Islam in the UK are often discussed without actually speaking to Muslims. And if you happen…
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BMSD stands in solidarity with Muslims in China who are suffering horrendous human rights abuses at the hands of Chinese authorities. The Chinese government has been ruthless and totalitarian in its endeavour to crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority. Since 2017, there has been a cultural genocide taking place in the Xinjiang province where Uighur…
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BMSD remembers the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica where over 8,000 people were massacred and over 30,000 people were displaced on this day 25 years ago. Authorities in both Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina must ensure that those responsible for war crimes are punished and that justice is given to both the survivors and relatives of victims from…
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Weekly News Bulletin: Saturday 27 – Sunday 5 July 2020 Below is a weekly round up of all relevant new stories across the past week which included stories relating to Covid-19, BAME people, LGBT people, women, the far right and hate crime. Coronavirus and BAME‘Don’t call me BAME’: Why some people are rejecting the term Ensuring…
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What we need to learn from Reading – and what we’ve ignored from past acts of terror Here’s a rather different way to start your day. Once a group of people with an interest in raising the aspirations of young British Muslims went early one morning to a north London house where a project called…
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It is the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and it coincides with the recent tragic murder of George Floyd by a US police man. The Grenfell disaster is a reminder of the many injustices felt by minorities who are disproportionately affected by institutionalised racism and austerity, and the delay in the inquiry into…
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A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi A coming of age memoir about growing up queer in a strict Muslim household. Mohsin grew up in a poor pocket of east London, in a devout shia Muslim community. His family were close-knit and religiously conservative. From a young age, Mohsin felt different but in a home where…
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In light of the brutal murder of George Floyd by an American police officer, British Muslims for Secular Democracy stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and is committed to fighting all institutionalised racism against black and people, as well as anti-Black sentiment towards Black Muslims. Our chair Yasmin Alihbai-Brown has written a column talking…
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Coronavirus does discriminate – a colourblind approach helps no one We should mourn all who are taken away by this virus, but some groups are getting sicker than others. Millions of white Brits become choleric when racial differentials are raised in national conversations. They do not want to know and, for years, have accused us…
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BMSD was set up 13 years ago to promote active democratic engagement and secularist principles. Secularism- often misunderstood or misrepresented- is not atheism. It is the separation of state and faith in order to guarantee every citizen equal rights. The constitutions of post-colonial Pakistan, India, Tunisia were based on secular rights and responsibilities. Post-Apartheid South…
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