A new generation of Isocs set national example

Islamic Societies in Edinburgh have pledged to challenge false perceptions of the religion in the capital after press reports comparing similar societies in London with terrorist groups. 

Excerpts from a confidential document about the ‘taliban-style’ rule of City Univeristy London's Isoc was published in The Times last month, linking the group to alleged airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdalmuttab, one of it's former Presidents.

But the heads of the societies at Edinburgh's universities have told The Journal that they believe charity and education programmes will help highlight the positive work that they do in Scotland's communities. 

Usman Ayub, Vice-President of the Islamic Society of Napier University hopes Charities’ Week, lectures and greater collaboration between Isocs can help tackle what he sees as ‘ignorant’ reports about Muslim radicalism in the press.

“Some people just see the word Islam and they walk away", he said. "I think that has a lot to do with the way Islam is portrayed in the media. I do blame ignorance for a lot of it. Sometimes I think we should just let them, what’s the point, but then I realise that it’s our job to be good Muslims and to go out and be an ambassador for Islam."

Charity Week started in 2004 by London University students. Organised by the University of London Union Islamic Society in partnership with Islamic Relief, the project has given Muslim students across the UK the chance to raise their community profile raising money for causes such as the Pakistan earthquake.

Napier Isoc has been working closely with both Heriot Watt and the University of Edinburgh during Charity Week 2010, but Mr Usman feels there is still a lot of work to be done in getting their message across.

“During Charities’ Week where our charity is Islamic Relief, they put their logo on the buckets, we realised people would read ‘Islam’ and not the words ‘orphan relief’ and just put their purses back in their pocket. When we used different buckets we made as much in one day as we had in the previous two.

“I say to everyone who buckets with us that people look at you and they judge you. We try to teach them that we should be respectful twenty four hours a day and hopefully over time maybe people will change the way they think.”

The leaked report conducted by the Quilliam Foundation, whose research intends to support being Muslim in a British context, found that university campuses are “key places where Islamist ideologies can spread”.

Mr Usman hit back: “Our own people have done this. It’s important to see this from the other perspective. I can understand why people can hate Muslims. It’s important for us to tell our own people the rights and wrongs, that’s the reason we have mosques in general.

“Last year I was just starting in the Islamic Society, before that I had not really been interested but I met a guy from Strathclyde who got me involved. Some Muslims at Napier, they don’t know basics of Islam, so last year we organised lectures on the basics of Islam and lectures on pious women in Islam.”

Mr Usman hopes that the work of the Isocs in Edinburgh can help to bridge the gulf between Muslim and non-Musim students.

“It’s not rare to have non-Muslims coming to your events, but it’s rare to have active members who are non-Muslim. The Edinburgh University society has two or three and that’s a great achievement.”