And it's even harder when you're Muslim

No really it is. Why, you ask? Oh that one's easy. I went to the Icount march some months ago in London, a very large environmental protest which convened in Trafalgar Square. I remember I came right at the end and squeezed into the crowd that had gathered. After the rudimentaty speeches, I stood there in the middle of a bunch of hippies, listening to the latest in British Rock music being performed on the stage, whilst the crowd swayed and sang along. Did I feel out of place? Possibily, although I found it interesting to be witnessing my first mass live music performance as if I was at Glastonbury. Imagine that, A hijabi at Glastonbury! Whether I felt out of place or not didn't in the least change the fact that I LOOKED out of place. No, I didn't look out of place- I STUCK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB. I am pretty sure the hippies were looking at me and thinking "whaaaa? What the hell is she doing here? This is not a Palestine march, hmm she must have gotten confused, or taken a wrong turn, or just plain misunderstood, she probably doesn't even speak English." The only people who made me feel remotely welcome were the communists who were only trying to convert me, and were happy because I was the only one who actually stopped to listen to them. Some of those communists didn't even know what the march was about. When one girl wrote in chalk on the tarmac floor 'disposable cups are for mugs' a communist guy at a nearby stall said 'Yeah I love disposable cups!'.

I tried to look in vain for the only Muslims who I knew would be there, the ones from IFEES, and even they had come as part of an inter-faith contingent. Inter-faith! As if two people have anything in common just because they both happen to have a 'faith'. But that is as much as the modern world cares to cater for religion. Ever notice how public prayer rooms are now stressed as 'inter-faith' prayer rooms? Like the one in heathrow airport, for example, where once a Sikh guy took over the women's side because he wanted to pray in privacy, leaving the Muslim men and women to pray in the same room, right after they had to do wudhu in the shared toilets, of course.

Anyway, I digress.

So I left the Icount march embittered and lonely, and went right back to my mosque where everyone chucks away disposable cups without a care, and stares at me as I drink from the mug I have brought from home.