[Rememavotscam]

Asalamukum

I would like people to share with people my experiences of different countries from my direct experiences and some sort of first hand knowledge. Please feel free to include the countries and areas you have visited, the positives and negatives etc.

1. The United Kingdom (England)

The part of London I was raised in has the following benefits; A large Muslim population. Within a 5 mile radius at least 30 masjids that I know of. A lot of ulema, duroos, mashaikh (though taswuff mashaikh are rare). A lot of visibly practicing people with beards and this is even so amongst the younger people. Most of the lectures are attended by the younger brothers. A number of islamic schools, all kids go madrasah from 5-7pm each day, 5 days a week etc. A lot of halal restaurants.

The negative points are that we also have a massive drugs problem, zina is a big issue etc.

The greatest quality I think the UK Muslims possess especially those that live in my area of London is that they all respect deen in their hearts even though many may not be practicing. When a gangster, drug dealer etc sees a practicing Muslim he shows the utmost respect and actually really admires practicing people. This quality is found amongst a lot of UK Muslims. You will find people who do practice deen follow complete deen rather than a ritualisitic attitude especially the more younger people. There is no sense of inferiority complex though some of the younger muslims are effected by black hip hop culture but even these guys many of them become very good pioous muslims.

The % of people who pray 5 times a day would be I think around 10% and around 5% have a beard. Around 40% of women were hijab and around 5% wear niqab. The niqab is more common amongst the younger generation of girls.

The majority of Muslims of the UK are from india, pakistan and bangladesh and somalia though there are large turkish, kosovan, yemeni and other arab communties. The somalian brothers are very good hearted and love deen in their hearts and even though many are involved in drugs and gang culture eventually many of these guys become practicing. I have noticed that many of the somalian youngsters are gradually becoming more religious. The other communities are mostly irreligious with the least practicing being the turks and kurds. The turks are mostly from northern cyprus.

There is some sort of equality in the UK and Muslims do not really feel out of place. There are many job opportunities, education etc. Nowadays there is a problem of housing which has resulted in the majority of Muslims acquiring haram mortgages.

The greatest group to do effort in the Uk is the tablighi jamaat which has the most followers. At the local markaz in London a few thousand people attend the talk each Thursday. There are many religious personalities in London; Mufti Sadrudeen shah, Maulana Mujahid Ali, Maulana Saleem nawab, Maulana Yunus dhudwala, Shaykh Suleman Ghani, Shaykh haitham al haddad, Shaykh ba bikr sudani, Mufti Umar Faruq, Mufti abdur rahman bin yusuf, murtaza khan, shakil begg, shuaib hasan etc.

Please feel free to agree and disagree

[Rememavotscam]

The UAE (United Arab Emirates)

The UAE is a unique country in many ways. The locals are outnumbered by the outsiders with the majority of outsiders being from India (kerala), phillipnes, egpyt, syria, jordan, palestine, pakistan, bangladesh, the united kingdom etc.

Everything in the country is based on your skin colour and your passport. You will never get citizenship and your employment opportunities are mostly related to your passport and skin colour.

Islam is more of a cultural pheneomen. Maybe 50% of people pray 5 times a day though with Fajr these statistics will be lower. There are many masjids even in shopping malls. The azaan in 5 of the 7 emirates is transmitted from 1 central masjid and the rest of the masjids transmit this azaan. The exception is sharjah and Dubai where the muadhin in each masjid calls out the azaan. A lot of the older women wear niqab and hijab is worn by all ladies but once again most of the time it is a cultural thing. Many of the ladies plaster their face with makeup and perfume and wear very alluring abyahs.

There is a serious inferiority complex and everything by the west is seen as superior.

The masjids are pretty dead apart from salah there are not many activities. The shuyukh are limited in what they can do. Most of the meat is imported from kuffar countries like Brazil and Australia and thus is very doubtful.Very few people have beards and there are very few islamic schools and thus the education for children is mostly provided by secularlists and kuffar.

Many people actually hate religious people and show contempt to those with beards etc.

UAE is a good place if one wants to pray 5 times salah and observe some outer tenents of islam like hijab etc. It is also close to the harmain. Opportunities with people of indopak descent or with a darker skin are very less compared to the UK.

[Rememavotscam]

India (Gujrat)

Islam in India depends on what region a person is from. The area in India where my family is from is a place which does not offer much hope. Most of the people live on handouts from the UK and the people are dreaming of going to the UK. Many of them think that because they have an uncle in the UK this automatically means that they have a right to marry his daughter (the girls have other ideas). The number of people who pray 5 times salah is very less compared to the UK and the same is true for the beard. In Gujrat our bharuch district is generally a very irreligious place. I remember when I was a young kid and I was at a relatives house who were playing a video of a wedding in India. I was a little kid and shocked to see that not a single one of the ladies was wearing hijab. The place is pretty depressing with hardly any opportunities for work or education. Then we have Modi as the chief minister of Gujrat which is enough to depress any sane muslim. Many of the Muslims are very weak and overawed by the hindus. In many places there is obvious discrimination etc. There used to be a lot of brelvi influenced islam but the work of the tablighi brothers has done wonders in the last 30-40 years.