Ask Azeem Nader (aka Craig Nader Kennett)
Q What is your favourite story from the Quran?
Although the story of Yusuf (as ) is often described as rhetoric mist beautiful of stories. There are many facets to the story of Ibrahim (as). I have enjoyed covering the story in our Arabic classes and it often shows such a profound reliance on Allah over adversity – from the time that his people were to throw him in the fire, to the time Hajar and Ismail were taken to the desert, to the time he was asked to sacrifice his own son.
Q What is your role as a trustee?
I am General Secretary of KMWA
Q What have you been most passionate about within KMWA?
Expanding the existing Masjid to the conservatory extension, representing the community through local and national media and robustly defending them, instrumental in new Masjid land bid and purchase, improved engagement with local and statutory bodies including Islamic awareness training and Islamic awareness weeks, visit my Mosque open day and taste Ramadan. Appointment of an English speaking Imam – 10 years ago. Facilitating youth groups, women’s groups to operate more freely .Help expand the operating group of people within KMWA.
Help found the volunteers group.
Q What is your 5 year Vision for the Gillingham community?
Find the answer to this question and more in the full article in KMWALTR #003
KMWA OASIS
Important Notice
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
Dear sisters
We are back for our weekly Wednesday Halaqa/ Circle ⭕️
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Day: Wednesdays
Time: 10.30 am 11.30am
Location: KMWA Masjid in Gillingham.
Followed by a cup of coffee ☕️/tea & biscuits until 12.30pm.
Look forward to welcoming you back insha Allah. If you’re unable to attend, please share with friends & family!
Should the Nationality and Borders Bill become law?
Three hundred thousand. That’s how many people have signed a petition against a clause in the Nationality and Borders Bill, which, if made law, could give the government the power to remove someone’s citizenship with no prior warning.
In addition to the petition, thousands of people have protested on the streets against the citizenship removal clause in the Bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Lords.
The power of the UK government to remove citizenship is not new. The government can remove citizenship from someone “for the public good” if it doesn’t make them stateless, if the person obtained their citizenship through fraud, or if the person’s actions could harm the UK’s interests and the person could claim citizenship elsewhere.
The Case of Shamima Begum
The most well-known recent case is that of Shamima Begum. Born in Britain, Begum travelled to Syria when she was just 15 to join the Islamic State. In 2019, after she was found pregnant in a refugee camp, she tried to return home to the UK; the British government revoked her citizenship on security grounds, saying her ancestral home of Bangladesh could take her in.
But Begum is not a citizen of Bangladesh and doesn’t hold dual nationality, and has been left stateless, something which is not allowed under international law.
The government has stripped other people of their citizenship before, and the Nationality and Borders Bill could see this happen to more British citizens, all without giving them any advance notice. The government says: “The Bill allows for the Home Office to deprive someone of their citizenship without prior notification but only in exceptional circumstances.” But many minority groups fear they could become second-class citizens if the Bill is passed with this clause intact, punished in a different way to white counterparts for the same crimes, for example.