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