I recently attended the parents' evening of my two sons. My eldest son has always had a good report and the teacher's comments are quite similar to that of my daughters ie good behaviour, bit shy and reluctant to take part in class discussions but on the whole he's doing well and enjoying school. This was the first parent's evening i had to attend for my 4 yr old who started school full time in September, I was wondering then what if he got a bad report? After years of being told my children are well behaved, intelligent contributors in school how would i feel if for the first time i received a bad report from the teacher? Would i blame the teacher for not helping my son or would i take on board the comments made and help to improve my son's attainment at school? It turned out that i had nothing to worry about, I was told he's settled in nicely and has stopped falling asleep in class now (just about!!) and he was one of the select few who has learnt the phonic sounds being taught in the curriculum. The only bad news is that he hates school dinners so its packed lunch for him when he goes back to school this week!

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If you become a muslim it can be a lonely world out there, your family don't understand and think you've been brainwashed, they may pray to their "God" to guide u or you may have doubts as to why you reverted to islam in the first place. It's therefore important to have a good network of fellow muslims whether new or old who can help and support you along the way.

On my journey to islam i have met countless muslim sisters from many different backgrounds but as a british born chinese muslim i have struggled to find any. I did meet a Japanese muslim at an event but as u know thats completely different. Anyway, in the space of the last few months like waiting at a bus stop for yonks 3 turn up at once!! Being chinese there are certain things english people just don't understand no matter how hard they try, one example is the attitude and behaviour of chinese parents but thats another blog for another day.

Back to the point, i met 3 chinese muslims all under the age of 30 and all recently converted to islam, it helps that they all now each other, so now i have my own little cirlcle of friends who can relate to what i been through, it helps that they are a good laugh too! We all went out for a lunch at a chinese restaurant something that i havent done for ages! If you're chinese its quite easy to accept the teachings of islam as many of the teachings can be found in the ancient works of confucious the wise old man. Even small things like how to conduct a battle during wartime are quite similiar we also use the lunar calendar and many chinese people have morals and manners required to live an islamic life eg looking after your parents and importance of family. The major issue would be the chinese' love of pork.

Chinese muslims can be found in China, those with the surnames Mo and Ma are the shortened names of Muhammed and one of the Prophet' Muhammad's uncles Sa'id Ibn Abi Waqas is buried there after staying in China to spread the word of Islam. I purchased a great book called 'In the Shade of the Tree" a couple of years ago and the author a Muslim photographer Peter Sanders,travelled to China (as well as other countries) to photograph the Muslim community. At a lecture i attended he said that they were very humble people as they suffered constant persecution under the chinese government to practice thier religion, including the government turning their places of worship into pigstys (u won't find this in the news as of course all news is censored by the government). Many of them have to practise their religion in secret as all religion in china is banned and u can forget about freedom of speech! Sanders was due to return to china to make a book solely on muslims in china but at the time the SARS outbreak prevented him from travelling there which is a shame.The Muslim population is approximately 60 million which is small when u consider the size of China but their small presence is felt with one of the oldest mosques in existence being 1200 years old from the outside it looks like a chinese temple but inside its decorated with chinese translation of the qur'an in red and gold, magnificent. The mosque is situated at DAXUEXI LANE (Big Learning Lane), Xian, Shanxi Province and was established in 706 AD approximately 96 years after Islam was established!

Back to my new friends one is getting married on Xmas and one is already married and the other shes hanging around as her family dont know she is a muslim, will keep u posted on what happens to her!! Being a muslim in these difficult times is truly a test of character, it would be so much easier to return to your old way of life but in order to grow spiritually u need to perservere and be brave, be brave is my catchphrase which i say to myself when fearing a new situation, i have taught my 4yr old son to be brave so i have to practice what i preach, whats the worst that could happen? Im rambling now so i will finish this post with an extract from an Andalusian poem

"These are our traces that we leave behind.
They indicate who we were.
So look, after we are gone, at our traces".

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Everyone from politicians to sikh comedians (dat guy who won celebrity masterchef for those of u who live in U.K!) is jumping on the bandwagon and telling anyone who will listen that a muslim woman wearing a veils is separating themselves from society. Has anyone bothered to ask a Muslim woman why they choose to wear a veil? As a muslim i know plenty of muslim women (who we refer to as sisters) who cover their faces and guess what they got a nose and mouth underneath there too, the majority of them are actually very pretty and when attending social gatherings where no men are around they like to dress up and look nice just like any other women, except when they go out in public they prefer not to show their beauty to those whom they are not married or related to. Is that so wrong? Also 99% of these women when questioned will say they chose to adopt the veil themselves not like the Taliban who beat the women up, they made a conscientious choice based on their beliefs.Why does Jack Straw need to see the woman' s face when he's communicating? Communication is achieved via eye contact and body language and verbal cues. A person can communicate effectively with another human being without seeing their face otherwise emails, phones, texting and instant messaging would have died out. If we really want to see the face of someone 3g phonesales should be on da increase? do u ever use your video calling on your phone? Back to Jack, if he wants to see the womans face, what next does he want to see the shape of her body too? Does that mean men can't communicate without seeing a woman's face? The majority of the british people have not met a Muslim person before all they have is the Sun newspaper and BBC News the poor devils, if they came across a Muslim women they would probably assume she had a bomb strapped under her baggy coat. Before u say not all people think like that they wanna generalise about us so we will generalise about them. The veil is worn by only minority of Muslim women in the UK when u put that into context there are 65 milllion people with 5% of population made up of all ethnic groups thats approximately 2 million muslims. U do the maths and tell me how many Muslim women is he talking about that are so called "separating themselves from society"?

What the issue really comes down to is votes and making the general population increasingly scared of Muslims? They doing a good job of it but what sickens me is that Muslim sisters who choose not to go out half naked with their bodyparts showing, plastered in make up attracting male attention will be spat at and verbally (some physically) abused by the ignorant folk out there? Their crime? Not conforming to the western ideology of how a women should look and dress. A little town in Belgium has banned women from covering their face, the first offence will be equivalent to a £40 fine!What next?

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