Do we still have to explain to each other that Moslems are people too?

Are we still that far back in the dark ages?


I think back on all the Moslems I have befriended and the ones I am friends with today.


They're just some of my friends.


It upsets me to think that there are people who see them as being different, as being terrorists, or as being cannon fodder.


My Friend Shabir and his wife Hadira ran the curtain shop a few dooors down from my house on bridge road in Leicester.

They had three kids. I knew their daughters, Hadra and Mariam.

Mariam used to play with my daughter.


They used to come to the shop after school to play for two reasons.

The first was because there was a playground opposite.

The second ... or was it the first ... was because their neighbours, where they lived, used to threaten the kids with dogs, throw stones at them, and tell them to fuck off back home to Pakistan and bring their bombs with them.

Mariam was 4.


Shabir was kind, gentle, philosophical, and patient.

So was his wife.

His kids were a ray of sunshine.


They were under so much stress at home, with faeces and firecrackers being shoved through their front door, but I never saw them lose it.


Hate is just evil.