It doesn’t happen quickly, it takes time. For a long time you can’t imagine it happening at all. Then one morning, you wake up and it’s living within you. A spiky, pebble in the midst of joyous certainty; disappointment. Disappointment in the Ummah, you are now a part of. For ‘born Muslims’ the acknowledgement that […]

‘I’m not wearing that!’ My 12 year old daughter winces as we examine the bathing suit she must wear for swimming lessons at her private girls school in Manchester. A whole section is cut away from rear ribs to the (very) lower spine. As for the front, well, the thighs of the suit are so […]

This is my response to an article on The Hindu which has several inaccuracies about Islam.”Dear Editor of The Hindu, In the Name of Allah the Most Beneficient the Most Merciful,As a Muslim convert featured in your article, I would like to request an explanation for several statements which appeared alongside my photo;In your editorial, […]

Lauren Booth, broadcaster and journalist, is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, who converted to Islam in 2010. Here below is her journey to Islam and the heart-warming reaction of her family in this translated version of a recent interview: I thank Allah for giving me the chance to spend a month with the […]

Thanks to a Manchester Masjid’s fund raising in the UK, the children now have shoes footballs, table tennis kits, new tracksuits for the boys and the father. The girls have a new abaya each. The mothers are given tapestry and sewing materials to teach the girls the beloved Palestinian artistry of sewing. The family has […]

I, a stranger here in Beit Hanoun, walk down this road at dusk. Every window with a face in offers me ‘Salam.’ The doorway of the sole shop has a family sitting in it, I wave. ‘Assalamu Alaykum’, they shout at me – cheerily. Yes cheerily, I feel the lump in my throat that I […]

I write this from a freezing, dark hostel room in the centre of Gaza. This area is now in a twelve hour blackout, so there will be no hot water to shower with this morning and no internet. After three days here, I feel, dirty, tired and emotionally wrung out. Yet, I know that in […]