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Al-Istiqamah: I
think that's what everyone was expecting. So you joined this
crowd of people congregating around the screen?
Umm Ruqayya: I did. I tried to strike up
a conversation with some of them and asked what had happened.
One of the women turned to me and said "It's one
of your lot."
Al-Istiqamah: What
was your reaction?
Umm Ruqayya: I was shocked. I walked away
and later discovered that it was a terrorist attack. Later
on that day my husband came home and told me that he'd been
trying to phone me, but all the mobile networks were down.
He was trying to ring to tell me to stay inside.
Al-Istiqamah: You
noticed a rise in hostilities immediately after 7/7?
Umm Ruqayya: Yes. After 9/11 there was some
hostility but after 7/7 it was greatly escalated because it
was in my home town (London). The threat had come here. I
remember pushing my pushchair along the street and even though
I wasn't in the way, but masha'allah if you have as we sisters
often do, children in the pushchair, around the pushchair,
hanging off the pushchair…It was the first time I'd heard
people say as we passed them, "Bloody Muslims".
Al-Istiqamah: Did
your children hear?
Umm Ruqayya: My children heard that
and this is what upset me the most. If they have a problem
with me, they can take it up with me, but why target children
who are completely innocent? To speak like that in front of
my children, it was so cowardly and despicable. I felt we'd
reached a new low. Muslims now were all tarred with the same
brush. Whether you were on the tube blowing up a bomb or a
mother with children…whether you are a 5 year old Muslim girl
wearing a hijab, or a woman with hijab and niqab (veil).
Al-Istiqamah: As
a mother you felt angry?
Umm Ruqayya: Yes, it is often the women
and children who have to bear this cost, as they are so easily
distinct. Once I was on the way to post a letter with my children.
My 8 year old daughter ran ahead. To a bystander it would
have looked as though she were by herself.
Al-Istiqamah: Does
she wear hijab?
Umm Ruqayya: She does. She had just started
wearing it actually. Some men in a van - I noticed they were
skinheads but I don't know if that's any correlation – they
threw a piece of lead piping at her whilst their van was driving
quite fast.
Al-Istiqamah: Subhanallah.
Did it hit her?
Umm Ruqayya: It missed her, but had
it hit her, that would have been a serious injury. I was so
shocked that they would target a child because she was identifiable
as a Muslim. I was shaking with anger and also fear for my
child. I was just grateful to Allah that she hadn't been hurt. Al-Istiqamah:
Did your daughter realise what had happened?
Umm Ruqayya: She told me
that something had fallen at her feet but she wasn't really
sure where it had fallen from. It was completely unprovoked
and in broad daylight.
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