Brussels

No fancy title today.

For most of today I was avoiding the details of today's explosions in Brussels. I read about it on a few WhatsApp groups early this morning when it was just hitting the news and my immediate thought was "Oh no, not again". It is definitely sad news whenever anything like this happens and being closer to home it obviously got a lot more press attention than the Istanbul bombings only a few days earlier.

As the day wore on I did glance at headlines every now and again and on each occasion the death toll rose. Initial reports came out as 13 dead which was later revised to 23 and now stands at 30+ with a significant number more with injuries.

However, alongside the death toll, the level of rhetoric appearing in headlines was also rising. As the news spread across the world I saw reports about US Presidential nomination candidates making misguided and uninformed claims and comments from media personalities known for their hate-mongering. A lot of it was very predictable as each sought to milk the horror for their own benefit.

It did take a while for the facts to settle down and very early on I remember seeing a comment on a WhatsApp group lamenting reports that "Arabic had been heard". The obvious connection, though not stated explicitly, was that Arabic was heard therefore it must be Islamist terrorism. The question that gave pause to my mind was that while it may well be true, whoever witnessed it must have recognised Arabic and for that to happen they had to have understood what was being said? But if that were the case they'd have been able to say what was being said. No one seemed to know what had been said - just that Arabic had been heard. Or was it simply a case of a witness heard something shouted in a language he/she didn't recognise and felt that it sounded like Arabic and put that out to journalists?

Be that as it may, the terrible events have now been claimed by IS, another in a series of attacks they've made on the world.

Beyond the immediate pain of the victims and their loved ones, the saddest part is that we'll all end up suffering. While walking up a stairwell at work I overheard a group of women discussing how they felt unsafe being in London and later on a company-wide email was sent out stating that additional security protocols had been implemented given our location in the centre of London between two very busy train stations.

As time wore on and no new blasts were reported, life carried on though with a detectable increase in anxiousness in the everyday person as those who seek to divide us pushed hard to break our wall of human unity. The only solace and sliver of hope to take from today is that for the most part the wall held strong and people came together to help the immediate victims but also to condemn those who would exploit the situation.


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I was fortunate enough today to witness a man accept Islam....

Next post: Learning and Commitment through Arabic
I returned to term 3 of my Arabic evening class on...

Bearing Witness

I was fortunate enough today to witness a man accept Islam. I turned up as usual to my regular Wednesday Qur'an study circle to find three strange men sitting at the back of the room. I smiled, mouthed hello and then promptly forgot about them. I continued to forget about them until the imam, Ajmal Masroor, called them over and explained to the rest of us that the middle of the three men was actually here to convert/revert to Islam.

Immediately I was excited. I'd seen recordings of declarations of faith and heard about them and have friends who've done it but in 27 years of hanging around Muslims I hadn't seen one myself! I took out my phone to make notes on the proceedings. In hindsight, the soon-to-be Muslim probably thought it was the height of rudeness for me to be texting on my phone during such a huge moment in his life. But that didn't occur to me and I wanted to remember what happened and prepared to note down extensive detail. I knew the procedure was quite straightforward but I was still surprised to see how simple it was in practice. My notes were as follows:

• State name.
• Confirm no coercion.
• Say the shahada* - repeated after imam.
• Welcome to Islam.

*This is the Islamic declaration of faith "ašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾilla (A)llāh, wa ʾašhadu ʾanna Muḥammada(n) rasūlu (A)llāh", which means: "I testify that there is no god except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

And just like that, in the space of 20 seconds, the man had gone from an agnostic to a Muslim, from a stranger to a brother. We all gave him a hearty hug, congratulated him and welcomed a new believer to the fold. Shortly after which, the three men took their leave and departed. And that was that. (In the fullness of time, the man will receive a Certificate Of Conversion from the mosque as "proof" but that's something to hang on the wall, not an official or necessary document.)

Amazing to experience and amazing to be a part of and something I'll not forget soon. However, it did make me think about the profound nature of declaring faith. Words are easy to say but to internalise the meaning of declaring belief in God is a whole different ballgame and something that needs serious work and effort.

After the man had declared his faith, the imam pointed out that Islam and the Qur'an took 23 years to be revealed and perfected so while he should make an effort, he shouldn't rush to make changes to his life that would be immediately burdensome. A gradual approach, one step at a time will be more productive, have far more longevity and help to make the belief more concrete and will, in the fullness of time, save his soul.

Previous article: To Brexit or not to Brexit?
The referendum announced last week by the British Prime Minister....

Next Article: Brussels

For most of today I was avoiding the details of today's explosions in Brussels...

To Brexit or not to Brexit?

The referendum announced last week by the British Prime Minister David Cameron immediately led to lines being drawn and allies being sought in the corridors of power. 23rd June is the date which means we'll have a lot more sniping and political manoeuvring as individual politicians decide which side they want to support and we'll have a lot more 'analysis' from media types who try and explain why so-and-so has decided in what way they have.

Image taken from here

If you're into this sort of thing it makes for fascinatingly great reading/listening as individual and personal ambitions override, get conflated or get confused with national responsibility. Almost like a real-life Game of Thrones except there's an even wider range of characters and plots are even more convoluted. Naturally, it's expected that politicians and business leaders will make noise over the issue but it seems like everyone and their mother will want their view heard. Just today we had some scientists who want to stay in and some who want to get out.

In many respects the arguments for and against are very similar to those we heard in the Scottish Independence referendum. Very simply Leave the Union and it's all either uncertain or a reclamation of our nation or stay in the Union and prosper as you have been or be forever bound to your foreign overlords. In the Scottish referendum the Stay campaign won and life generally continued as before except in a moment of panic the British government proposed to implement a whole raft of policies which would benefit Scotland - though as I write I'm unsure if these have been followed through. I suspect not entirely.

I expect similar for the EU referendum. Up until now David Cameron has been using the threat of Brexit to help in re-negotiating the treaty that keeps the UK in the EU. Having now concluded the negotiations he has to deliver his side of the bargain and keep the country in. So he'll make his case and the Leave campaign will make theirs and with every passing day the arguments will become more and more hyperbolic and doom-mongering and end up confusing most of the populace who will get annoyed and I think will end up voting along two lines:

• Stay in for continued economic security.
• Leave and bravely reclaim your country.

I'm not seeing these are correct claims (we saw them used in the Scottish Referendum as well). We'd probably have just as much continued economic security outside the EU and we'd still have to deal with Europe for trade and politics even if we did leave. But I think it's too much to ask for the average voter to care enough to read every single viewpoint and come up with a reasoned and balanced view. People vote for government (or at least have a government) so we don't have all have to deal with the politics of power and can free up time to be productive instead. Either way, there will be lots of spin on both sides as each attempts to persuade but it's worth remembering that since neither side actually knows what the future holds it's all a lot of bluster and bluff and people saying what they think is best - not what they know is best. I fully expect that after the vote people on different sides will point to events that happen and use them as proof their side was correct - hindsight is a wonderful thing.

So anyway, I'm calling a 65-35 vote in favour of staying in. From what little I've seen and read of the world, I'd say people care more for their perceived economic status than their perceived independence. As yet I'm undecided which one I care more about but certainly I'll be voting!

Make sure you register to vote.

Previous post: Tax and Google

Tax and Google

On 2 February 2016, Alphabet (Google's parent company) overtook Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. Valued at over £320 billion it's an absolutely huge company with fingers in a huge number of pies around the world. However, this extraordinary achievement was overshadowed in the UK with Google's ongoing tax avoidance saga.

In a very quick nutshell: Google recently agreed a tax bill of £130million with the UK taxman (HMRC) to cover underpayment for the past decade. No sooner had this been agreed than it was treated as an outrage by many groups. Two major reasons were cited - that it was still an underpayment given the scale of the company's activities in the UK and it was rumoured to be a significantly lower figure than that agreed by Google France with the French taxman.

This past week the head of Google Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was hauled in front of the UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee to answer questions question about Google's tax arrangements. Judging from all the press reports it seems it was quite a fierce grilling but didn't actually get anywhere to persuading Google to cough up and pay a bigger bill. There was some bluster and weak attempts to make it look like Google was a nice fluffy company which wasn't trying to avoid paying tax but Google's main argument was more or less "we're paying what we are required to pay by the laws that are in place and we've agreed the figure with HMRC".

The line of defence is pretty robust. However they've gone about it and whatever clever accounting methods and legal practices they've used, they've come to an agreement with the tax collectors/investigators and the company intends to pay that figure. The government can enforce a tax payment - it is not a charity that is raising funds thanks to its donors' better nature. Those who presume to rule in government have set the tax system and it's on them to enforce compliance. If the tax system is complicated enough that sharp accountants can find loopholes and legally avoid paying tax then that is a problem with the tax system not with the company that's trying to reduce its' tax burden.

If the government is unhappy with its tax receipts it can change the tax system - though it will then have to live with the consequent effects on how businesses and people change their behaviour, for example by moving their trading centres to different countries. Changes are starting to happen - there are now moves within the EU to clamp down on the avoidance privileges enjoyed by international companies who have been using the different tax systems in different countries to their benefit. And since the whole EU is being coordinated together on this companies can;t simply hop from one country to another to get around the change. Seems to me like a good move and a far more effective way to ensure companies pay an acceptable* level of tax than lecturing them on how immoral they are for avoiding tax.

* Acceptable to the tax collectors. Whatever level they do pay someone somewhere is going to be unhappy!

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Previous post: Free English lessons are a good thing

Free English Language lessons are a good thing

Image taken shamelessly from here

A large number of feathers were needlessly ruffled on Monday following David Cameron's announcement of English Language lessons for Muslim women and those arriving in the UK on spousal visas.

My Facebook newsfeed and various WhatsApp groups were full of outrage, vitriol and anger that the Prime Minister was providing money for free English Language lessons. The absolute cheek of it! People were posting their personal accounts of how "my mother/father knew little English and look how successful I turned out" as though their personal experience meant something and generally condemning the idea of free education for those who could benefit from it as a terrible thing.

You might have guessed by now that I think the reaction was ridiculous and misdirected and missed a fundamental point about politics - very rarely does anyone say what they actually mean.

The BBC article on the story (also with audio to an interview where he explains his position) begins as follows:

A £20m fund to teach Muslim women in the UK to speak English will tackle segregation and help them resist the lure of extremism, David Cameron says.

While there was no "causal connection" between poor English and extremism, language lessons would make communities "more resilient", Mr Cameron said.

And later on in the article:

The PM acknowledged cuts had been made to free language classes for immigrants during the last Parliament, but said the new £20m fund was "more targeted". 

As mentioned above, some of the outrage was from people who had personal anecdotes of success despite coming from families with little English. I've used "despite" rather than "while" because I think it'd be detrimental to not speak the language of the land you live in.

Taking pride in not knowing something seriously annoys me. Coming from a mathematical background it's hugely irritating when people are proud of not knowing Maths or being able to do simple arithmetic. I frown upon ignorance in the life skill there and I will frown upon people who take pride in ignorance in essential communication. Pride in ignorance is ridiculous and should be shunned wherever it raises its ugly head.

Other parts of the outrage was directed at the conflation of poor English and extremism. I can understand the outrage here - it's blatantly nonsense to think that poor English leads to extremism. This is explicitly pointed out in the second quoted paragraph by Cameron himself - a point which seems to have been missed by most people.

So why would he say that it's to fight extremism and then contradict himself? Either because he's an idiot or because he's a politician and he knows what he's saying doesn't make sense but also that the media will report the first bit and give the contradiction less air-time. And if it's reported as being an anti-extremist policy he'll have a much easier time of gathering support for an initiative that will help a much maligned group of people.

If he'd come out and said simply "we've cut £45m from the ESOL budget a few months ago but we made a mistake and the government will now allocate £20m funding to give free English language lessons to immigrants and Muslims so they can have greater opportunity" the reaction would have been favourable in the Muslim community but sadly toxic across much of the media and electorate. No politician in their right mind is going to take that approach.

So what has happened?

In a nutshell - what has happened is that Cameron has been quite politically astute. In an era of budget cuts, he has secured £20m of funding aimed at teaching Muslim women and immigrants (who speak other languages) to read and write English. And by claiming it's for anti-extremism purposes the only people who are upset about this is the Muslim community that will end up benefitting the most from the fund - the Muslim community could do with the extra education.

Another interesting observation is that it seems the excuse of extremism cuts two ways. Call a policy anti-extremist and most of the electorate won't bat an eyelid and if no one's paying attention then you can, at least politically, do whatever you like. There's no denying that most of the time the anti-extremism label doesn't help but it seems that in the odd case it can actually lead to a benefit.


Next post: Tax and Google
Previous post: A light and dark perspective

A light and dark perspective

Today was one of those emotional rollercoaster days where you're just not sure what life is trying to do to you. It was the kind of day that makes you feel like one of the Grand Old Duke of York's ten thousand men and you have no idea if you're up, you're down or only halfway up and neither up nor down. The kind of day that saps your reserves of mental energy and all you want to do at the end of it is give up and eat a large slice of chocolate cake with a double helping of whipped cream.

All in all I'd say today was a good day - given how fast everything happened it was easy to remember the ups during the downs and this helped keep a sense of perspective that even if things aren't going so well right at this very moment, it was only a short while ago that life was rosy. From a personal viewpoint, it's quite rare that I have such an oscillatory sequence of events crammed into a such a short span of time. I think it safe to say that more normally the ups and downs are spaced further apart with sustained durations of ambivalence in between - but for this one day everything came at me in a rush!

In regular life when ups and downs are further apart the upswings are naturally easier to handle - life is good and everything is going your way. The difficulty arises when you're going through a rough patch, nothing is going to plan, the world is arrayed completely against you and everything you touch turns to dust. It's during these phases, where you've previously gotten used to a smooth life, that it's only too easy to forget the good that has happened to you previously and to retain your perspective. I'm reminded of a particular couplet from Rudyard Kipling's If which really strikes a chord with me:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same

In a rather nice little coincidence, I attended a Quran discussion circle last week where we talked through Surah Duha (S 93). The main focus of the chapter is a potent reminder that life is a sum of ups and downs and that having some difficulty in life is not an indicator of divine displeasure and does not need to be a cause for worry.

When circumstances seem completely against you it is always worth remembering the good that you've gotten so accustomed to that you don't even notice them anymore. Contemplating something as mundane as the sun rising in the morning or spending time with those who are less fortunate than you will remind you to keep that loftier perspective and to take life as a whole. You will have positives and you will have negatives. Do not despair when all around is dark - remember what you could see when you were had the light.

For the curious amongst you, I've written the details of my day below.

• Plan to have brunch with friends - Woo!
• Too rainy for motorcycling - will have to use public transport - Boo!
• Have woken up with plenty of time to spare - Woo!
• The motorcycle cover that I bought yesterday has been blown off the bike by overnight wind and is now lying against the garden wall - Boo!
• Railway engineering works mean I have to take the bus first and transfer at Seven Kings train station - Boo!
• Friends are running a half hour late - Boo!
• Realise as I'm getting off the bus that my brother is actually on the same bus - Woo!
• Stay on the bus and take the slow route to brunch and chat for an extra half hour - Woo!
• Arrive at brunch place - Woo!
• It's busy and we haven't booked a table - Boo!
• Table for three becomes available just as my friends arrive - Woo!
• Enjoying brunch too much and I forget the time - Woo!
• I have overrun my schedule - Boo!
• Phone interview for a voluntary job has been booked in for 2pm - Boo!
• We pray a cheeky Zuhr at East London Mosque in congregation - Woo!
• Get the train home arriving at Seven Kings train station at 1:55pm - Boo!
• Bus transfer departs 10s before I can get to the stand - Boo!
• Decide not to wait for the next bus and walk the 15mins home - Boo!
• Interviewer rings while I'm walking and getting thoroughly drenched in the rain (no umbrella) - Boo!
• Interviewer is OK to wait 10mins until I get home - Woo!
• The next bus passes me as I reach my home bus stop - Boo!
• Reach home - Woo!
• I forgot to turn the heater off in my room - Boo!
• Room is pleasantly warm - Woo!
• I call the interviewer and the interview is more of a chat and goes well - Woo!
• Make plans to leave home by 5 to get to the homeless project on time - Woo!
• Mother arrives home at 5 - Woo!
• I get into car to drive to tube station and save 15 minutes on a 45 minute journey - Woo!
• Car doesn't start despite having installed a new battery yesterday - Boo!
• Taking car to the garage for repair will likely be a pricey activity but seems necessary - Boo!
• Take bus to Seven Kings again - Boo!
• Bus is slow and there's no way I'm making it to the homeless project on time - Boo!
• Decide to go to the gym instead and start #CardioJanuary - Woo!
• Gym is full of people with New Year Resolutions - Boo!
• Fantastic Four is on TV - haven't seen the movie and provides a pleasant distraction on the treadmill - Woo!
• Run for an hour - far longer than usual and can feel the endorphins - Woo!
• Have to take the bus home and it's still raining - Boo!
• No chocolate cake in the house - Boo!
• Decide to write about my day - Woo!
• Mother comes to my room to tell me the motorbike cover landed on some cat poo - Boo!

Next post: Free English lessons are a good thing
Previous post: New Year Resolutions

New Year Resolutions

Goodbye 2015. Hello 2016. At the stroke of midnight tonight the bells tolled, fireworks exploded and we celebrated the passing of another year. One more year to add to the histories and by all accounts a year which some will remember with joy and some will remember with sadness. Visit any news or topical website and you'll find a 2015 review detailing some of the more prominent stories of the last twelve months.

And as we approached the end it was only natural we start to make plans for the next year - a quick glance at any social media will see it full of New Year Resolutions and plans. Plans for changes to health, wealth, relationships, time, knowledge, charity and all manner of interesting concepts and ideas are decided upon, shared, edited, deleted and shared again. Somebody wants to lose weight, someone else wants to learn a language and someone else wants to get a new job. Most resolutions that I've seen tend to be worthy goals and I hope they are achieved but for me the curiosity is how tied they are to the "momentous" passing of the year as though it's a seminal moment.

The calendar change from 2015 to 2016 is a convenient and definitive point at which to mark the beginning of an attempt for personal change but it's worth pointing out there's nothing special about the second that takes us from 23:59:59 on 31 December to 00:00:00 on 1 January. The significance that gets ascribed to the new year is brought about by our arbitrary cultural decision to mark the passing of time as we have done. Someone sometime decided that 00:00:00 would be at midnight and that 1 January would be the start of a calendar year. It could easily have been something else and in many places it is indeed something else. Many communities have their own calendars which watch time differently. The lunar calendar being a notable example used around the world. Some communities mark the passing of one day to the next based upon when the sun sets which if you think about it is a much more natural and observable way to measure the passing of time from a human point of view. The Islamic calendar year takes it starting year as the year in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) fled his home city to seek refuge in Yathrib, the Hijrah. We're actually currently mid way through the Islamic, Hebrew and Chinese calendar years.

So 1 January 2016 is the day we've chosen to work with as a society but what does that mean for our plans? Why do plans for change have to fit that template? The answer is they don't have to fit that template. If you want to make a personal change, start the change as soon as you can while your resolve is strong and your thoughts clear. Now that we're into 2016 does that mean new changes will have to wait until 2017? Of course not. Time waits for no man and changes will occur around you regardless of what time of the year it is!

Waiting to start a change until a new year begins is an unnecessary delay that can become a slippery slope of forever waiting to start. Calling a plan for change a New Year Resolution gives it a grand title that you can talk to others about but does nothing for making that change actually happen. That drive to change has to come from within yourself and it takes effort. Change for the better is rarely easy (if it was you'd have already done it) but it is always a good thing even if it can be a long, hard and thankless road that you may be terrified of walking down. But if it's a change you really want and you mean to do it then don't wait and, to quote the Nike marketing department, just do it!

Next post: A light and dark perspective
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