"We are a Muslim, please" by Zaiba Malik:

  Extract -

It was an announcement Umejee used to make, say, once every couple of months when we were in our teens or whenever she felt the need. She might declare it to us individually or in a family setting as we watched TV or ate our evening meal.

And that was fine. Completely unnecessary but fine. We all knew what we were. How could we not?

"We are a Muslim".  "Yes, Mum. Thanks, Mum. That's great, Mum".

She'd state it at times when she thought there might have been a bit too much Western intrusion into the house. For example, on a Sunday evening when 'Songs of Praise' was on the telly or when there was an ad for sizzling Danish bacon or when I'd taken home a copy of Vogue magazine with a semi-naked supermodel on the cover. There was one occasion I remember particularly well when Hanif Kureishi's 'My Beautiful Laundrette' was on Channel 4 and it got to the scene where the actress Rita Wolf lifts her top up in front of a room full of Uncles. I think it's the only time I've ever heard Mum scream, rather than firmly proclaim: "We are a Muslim! We do not do these things! Switch it off! We are a Muslim!"

 It was a phrase Umejee would also use in the outside world. In front of strangers who, quite frankly, didn't give a shit."What's your name please?" asked the receptionist at the doctor's surgery.  "Mrs Malik. Malik. Yes. We are a Muslim, please".  "You look very colourful in your clothes", observed the old lady at the bus stop. "Are you from Pakistan?" "Oh yes. You know, we are a Muslim, please".

I would smile apologetically at the vexed third party.

 Umejee put so much enthusiasm and pride into one of the few sentences she could speak in English that I didn't have the heart to explain to her that these white people really didn't care what religion she was. But to her, her faith was her everything. It was who she was, not just what she was. I could only repeatedly correct her on her grammar. Not that she took any notice.

                         copyright © 2010 Zaiba Malik

Reviews - by G.J.Weeks

The author is a journalist born in Leeds in 1969. She was she says,' born with British citizenship, Pakistani values and a Muslim soul'. She was brought up in Bradford, now as she says, Bradistan. But the book opens with her imprisoned in Bangladesh accused of filming illegally, suspected of being a spy for India. She fearfully but bravely protest that she is not a spy but a Muslim woman and that her torturer interrogators are not good Muslims. Being a good Muslim is really the theme of her book for it ends with a letter to one of the dead 7/7 London bombers, also Yorkshire born, who had a similar upbringing to hers. She protests to him that he will be burning in hell for his evil deed. Islam means peace and suicide is a sin.

… Malik appears not to be the pious Muslim her parents were. She does not seem to be an observant practicing believer but she has no criticism of Islam, only of the Islamist whose creed is violent. Hers is not critique of Islam per se but of jihadist Islamism with its disregard for life in the pursuit of a restored caliphate. I believe hers is the majority view of British Muslims but the frightening thing in the book is the way she shows that those closest to a suicide bomber had no idea he was so radicalised.

She has a passionate love for her family. She describes the tension of being a good Muslim girl, obedient to parents while entering secondary education, where she being the only Pakistani, wanted to fit in. She gives an entertaining portrayal of the family she loved but felt the need to explore the majority culture.

by Anirvan Sen

… Her story evolves around her growing up in Bradford in the 70s when on one-side UK was still trying to come to terms with new influx of immigrants from the sub-continent and on the other, the British Muslim identify had sown its seeds in the United Kingdom. What makes this book more interesting than its peer collection is that Zaiba narrated her life as it came, her constant battle between British and Muslim, her growing up in an English country without necessarily being integrated into the English society. She highlights the confusion of the identity of the new generation of British Muslims and their predicament on how to integrate to the mainstream British society …   

Andrew Dawson