An excellent and refreshingly personal piece from Sarfraz Manzoor in the Observer which touches upon some of the concerns I had mentioned on Friday about the use of the phrase ‘our way of life’.
In the aftermath of the bomb attacks, even moderate British Muslims who denounced the perpetrators were forced to rethink where they considered home. In the days after the 7 July bombings, I spoke to my friend Fahim, who confessed that he had even considered, albeit briefly, leaving Britain. He was not alone; a recent survey suggested two- thirds of British Muslims had also considered whether they ought to remain in Britain. There is an irony here that the people who are prompting such thoughts are not white racists but jihad-waging Muslims.
My friend changed his mind soon enough; he knew that there was nowhere else to go. This country was his home and he was not going to allow anyone, be they white racists or Muslim extremists, to take that away from him. When I asked him about his feelings about the attacks, he replied: ‘Those people bombed my home; why would I approve of anyone doing that?’
