Where's my ummah?

Assalamu Aleikum!

Before I go any further let me just say this - I have found the people in the UAE to be friendly and welcoming. I find the country a delight to live and work in. As a Muslim I have mosques on every street corner and, for the first time in my working life, I have Fridays off. And to make it even easier for me English is so widely spoken I need never learn another language. The country is home to a multitude of nationalities.

I work with Brits, Americans, Algerians, Palestinians, Indians, Australians, Canadians, Jordanians and the list goes on and on. Living in the UK as a minority meant that there was a sense of Muslim identity that was strong. True, many Pakistanis seemed to view themselves as Pakistani first and Muslim second but on the whole Muslims mixed together. In recent years this has got much better in the UK now that English was being used far more widely in the mosques. It meant that Muslims from Pakistan or Morocco or Turkey or converts could enjoy a real sense of ummah.

Here in the UAE Arab Muslims mix mostly with their own countrymen. So when I have been invited to a Palestinian get together I will be the only one there who is not Palestinian. There will be no Tunisians or Syrians or any other Arabs. An Algerian colleague quickly made friends with just about every other Algerian in the town. I myself have found that I mix more with those I have more in common with. In my case it is Brits, Americans, Australians and any other English speaking westerners. Most of these are not Muslim and so the thing I have in common is a shared culture (not religion).

It makes me ponder was there ever a united ummah?

Masalamah
Yahya

In the footsteps of Wilfred Thesiger

Assalamu Aleikum!

I am back in the UAE after my time back home in rainy Britain. I came back just in time for another holiday. This time it's the Islamic New Year.

One of my colleagues decided to spend the holiday in the desert and I volunteered to drive him to his drop off point and pick him up again. As for myself I spent the afternoon at Mirfa, a seaside town on the road to Saudi Arabia. The town and beach were deserted except for a few couples looking out to sea. It was funny but the road leading to the sea when I had turned off the main highway reminded me of just about any seaside town in Europe. I felt my excitement rising as I got closer to the sea. It was a bit like my feelings as a child on holiday in Pembrokeshire. And......the beach was golden with palm trees and little areas of seating. The weather was warm but not hot. I guess it will be more crowded when the weather heats up a bit.

Meanwhile, my colleague spent his night sleeping under the stars with only the sound of roaring 4x4 jeeps to keep him company. Apparently it is a popular pastime to camp out in the desert and race 4x4s over the dunes well into the night. But he did manage to have a chat with a camel herder and I arrived right on time to bring him home. When I picked him up he was barefoot as he said it was easier to walk over the sand that way. He also managed to avoid any encounters with snakes, scorpians or camel spiders.

Masalamah

Yahya