As told to Sophie Monks Kaufman for BBC 5 Live
After the Manchester attack, I went around feeling ashamed to be a Muslim and to be Asian. Recently, it feels like all I've done is try to explain to people that Islamist extremists don't represent the religion I follow.
I’ve even had moments, especially after the London Bridge attack, when I’ve felt like I don't blame people who have difficulty believing me.
Lately, I’ve been walking around with this prickling feeling of self-consciousness. This sense of, 'is everybody looking at me and thinking I'm 'one of them'?'
After Sunday’s attack on worshippers outside a Finsbury Park mosque, I was thinking that it doesn't matter what colour, race or religion you are. We are all victims of terrorism. And anyone can be a terrorist.
But it seemed like some people saw it differently. I saw so many horrible comments on social media the day afterwards. Somebody said, 'You're stupid if you think the guy who carried out the attack at Finsbury Park is a terrorist.'
I thought, 'So, basically, brown people who have extreme views and kill people are terrorists but white people who have extreme views and kill people are not; they're just psychopaths with mental health issues?’
Why is there a difference between white person insanity and brown person insanity?
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Whenever there’s a terror attack I am always the first to go, 'people need to realise that there are hundreds and thousands of different types of Muslims.’ For example, I’m a Dawoodi Bohra - a sect within a branch of Shia Islam. What people don't get is that the main teaching of Islam is to be tolerant of each and every human being. That is the fundamental crux of it.
When a white person does something like this – Anders Breivik, James Harris Jackson, Dylann Roof– nobody feels like they need to defend the rest of the white, Christian population. Everyone just automatically accepts that these murderers are a horrific exception to the norm.
It’s impossible not to notice how differently some news outlets reported this attack compared with other recent attacks. The Times headline called the perpetrator a ' Jobless lone wolf' as if his circumstance made him do that. Compare that to ‘ Massacre in the Market’, which is how The Times described the London Bridge attack.
ISIS hate me as much as they hate anybody else. Most of ISIS's victims in the Middle East are Shia Muslims.
Research shows that Muslims are the most likely victims of terrorism, but people are not willing to listen and and that's where I get really frustrated. There is a soft racism creeping into UK society and that worries me because I've never experienced it very harshly or savagely but I feel like it's only a matter of time.
Terrorism is a minority problem – that’s for sure. Whether they're Islamist extremists or right-wing extremists, terrorists are a minority. And they are trying to impact upon the majority.
It was amazing to see how many people have turned out in solidarity with Muslim worshippers in Finsbury Park and to see messages emphasising our shared humanity, like this one by a tube worker.
It’s made me realise that the majority of people are not inclined to think all Muslims should be tarred with the brush of extremism. It’s also made me hopeful that we British people, will resist the fear these terrorists are trying to spread.
As a Muslim who is currently observing Ramadan, please know this. I am first and foremost British. I feel the same anger and sadness as you.
Ariana Grande deserves so much credit for bringing everyone together with her amazing One Love concert in Old Trafford reminding us that just by living our lives we are not letting those cowardly, abhorrent terrorists win.
I offer my condolences to the bereaved, and give all my respect to our wonderful emergency services who lay their lives on the line for us every day.
I stand with you and always will. We must stand together, always. Love will always beat hate.
