Peace

  • The Silence Echoes 

    Bareera Ghaffar, Birmingham  “My Lord, open out for me my breast, and ease for me my task, and loose the knot of my tongue, that they may understand my speech” – Surah Taha verse 26-29. The last few weeks I have found myself pondering on this verse in a different way than I had been

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  • Our Voices Must Not Stop

    Sameea Jonnud, Aldershot Christmas is approaching and here in the UK the shops are full of festive colours, gift ideas and party food. Houses have been decorated for days with twinkling lights and inflatable snowmen. On the television we can see the Covid inquiry which has been investigating the top politicians’ behaviour and choices during

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  • The Blood of Children

    Sameea Jonnud, Aldershot ‘Thou shalt not kill’; whatever background or religion we belong to or whichever country we come from, the taking of a life is a most terrible crime. That crime is even worse when children, innocent and helpless, are the victims, because of course, what kind of person would take the life of

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  • Nooresahar Ahmad, Hampshire Grief sends tremors through the living with monstrous force. It causes changes in behaviour, sleep, body function. It affects the immune system, it makes the sufferer spend whole periods of time wrapped in a brain fog, repressing and warping their memory forever. Right now, we are witnessing grief on an unprecedented scale.

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  • Bareera Ghaffar, Birmingham  The last few weeks there has been a plethora of news from multiple mediums coming from the Middle East. At the centre of this news is a place engulfed in pain, grief, yet a strong sense of resilience. But Palestine, and Palestinians are more than their pain and more than just this

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  • With Patience and Prayer

    Maria Anwar, Bradford South There is a devastating acronym being used in Gaza: WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family. A paediatric intensive care doctor from Doctors Without Borders described the situation as “an avalanche of human suffering” which is 100% manmade. i The world powers who were so vocal in their condemnation of Russia’s

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  • Ayesha Naseem, Blackburn In a few days time, Armistice Day will be commemorated across the world, with special remembrance services around the UK and the USA. The only question I have is, how? How will the world leaders commemorate Remembrance Day and repeat the slogan of Lest we forget when in real time, in front

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  • Iffat Mirza, Cambridge Have you ever seen a young child trip and perhaps graze their knee? Perhaps they burst into tears and perhaps you told them to ‘be brave’. Perhaps that was enough for them to dry their eyes and go back to their games. It is deeply saddening to think – is this what

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  • Iffat Mirza, Cambridge If you’re like me, you’ve probably also been glued to a screen the last two weeks. Simultaneously wishing you could simply turn off your screen and hoping the violence, injustices, and horrors would stop, but also knowing that living in the safety of a London suburb, the least I can do is

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  • Tooba Khokhar, Cambridge I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils… I still remember encountering this poem for the first time, as many of us will have done, in an age its poet deems “apparelled in

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