I started a thread and hit tweet by accident and it’s disappeared into the twitter stratosphere.... so apologies if you saw the missing unfinished tweet....

BEING MUSLIM....

Today I have been asked more times than I like if I condemn terrorist attacks...in line with yesterday’s

attack in Reading.... before I begin I should say this....the crazy far right and racist people, the type who are asking me if I condemn terrorist attacks, chose to deflect outrage away from three people being stabbed to death by attacking a 28 year old journalist and lecturer

posting a pic of herself enjoying an ice lolly in a park on a sunny day. So, I confess to not being up to speed with yesterday’s killings.

So, do I condemn terrorism or are you asking me specifically about terrorism by Muslims? I suspect I’m being asked because I’m a Muslim

revert. However, whether by a non Muslim or someone who claims to be a Muslim as a Muslim my answer is the same over any terrorist atrocity. Of course I condemn it all, I condemn all killing, I condemn violence in all its guises, physical or mental....we should be beyond it all..

Those who call themselves Muslim on the morning they rise from their bed intent on killing unarmed, unsuspecting people I do not recognise as my brothers or sisters in Islam. It was not their acts that brought me to Islam and it was not people like them I met and fell in love

with. It was not a sign of violence, a promise of eternal life with a bunch of virgins that attracted me nor was that ever offered that brought me....it was the love and kindness, the warmth and openness and most of all welcome when I decided to find out if Muslims were people to

fear.

I actually asked some if I should be afraid slightly nervous I would offend them as of many other questions I asked. Never did I see a cold eye stare back at me....occasionally great laughter but never anger never were they offended.

I had no plans to turn to Islam I was

a serious Christian, I read my bible, I prayed it was part of my make up, if someone had ever told me I would change religion I’d have laughed with derision.

I left the army because I was sick of the British Army presence in NI. As a kid I worried about my dad deployed there, I

lost two uncles in the same incident. They weren’t blood but I had called them uncle since I was three, they regularly came to the house as they were my dads best mates always brought presents and sweets they were an extension of the family and their end is well documented and

horrendous. Imagine being the don of a soldier serving in N. Ireland and hearing another soldier had died.

I was a bandsman in the army rehearsing for a tattoo in Bovington, Dorset the day horseguards and a military band became victims of an IRA bomb here in the UK. Those

Bandsman I had at sometime worked with in mass band gigs had done what I had done so many times.....sat down on a bandstand to entertain in the sunshine not knowing beneath them there was a bomb about to blow their world apart, literally. It could have been me. The army presence

itself an act of violence only heightened the tensions and yes some soldiers acted outside what was legal which only made things worse. As a Christian I wanted no more to be a part of the violence so I bought myself out. Paid £700 to get out before my agreed year

I also condemn

the terrorism of this country. We make arms dealing a business model, a major part of our economy and we’re not fussy about who we sell to.....our weapons have been used to bring terror to unarmed men, women and children and right now it’s complicit in the human tragedy in Yemen

Instead of looking to me to condemn a man I do not know simply because he may or may not claim to be Muslim because I’m a Muslim because, in some weird way you think I am responsible how about you look in the mirror and think about what our govts have done to create radicalised

people who so hate this country they will kill themselves to kill a few of us. Blair was warned by none other than Jeremy Corbyn the long term consequences of invading Iraq, Afghanistan and the bombing and destruction of lybia later, he warned the ripples would go on long after.

I want an end to all violence and that includes drunken fights after someone’s been guzzling alcohol all night.

I AM A MUSLIM AND I AM A PACIFIST..... I condemn all violence however it is brought and by whoever brings it.

GOOD ENOUGH FAR RIGHT RACISTS?

#BeingMuslim