"As Muslims on campuses you need to be preparing solutions for the whole society," Altikriti said

CAIRO, June 19 (IslamOnline.net) - The three-day annual conference of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis) is currently in session in the Nottingham University , with ending Islamophobia and encouraging community integration high on the agenda.

Attended by more than 1,000 people, the conference, which kicked off Thursday, June 17, addresses student loan systems that do not contradict Shari`ah and a campaign to get proper prayer facilities on every campus, reported The Guardian on Saturday, June 19.

HSBC banking group has become the fist high street bank in Britain to offer mortgages and current accounts in accordance with Shari `ah.

The bank’s Asia-Pacific chairman David Eldon said previously that the bank would like to expand a London office, which currently offers advice to Muslim clients.

Ways to make Muslims benefit from the government's efforts to encourage more people into university and Islamophobia on campus are also on the table of the conference, first held in 1975.

The Guardian said the conference's title, Student Life, indicates that Fosis, the premier Muslim student representative body in the UK and Ireland , is trying to shift the focus from the international agenda to more student-based issues.

Interactive lectures and workshops complemented with a wide selection of exhibitions and stalls in addition to a public sector careers fair are held on the sidelines of the conference, which has an unusually high profile this year.

Participants include renowned Muslim scholars in the West such as Jamal Badawi and Professor Tariq Ramadan.

Change

But for some students the real problems are more personal.

Asma Patel, a 19-year-old first year student at Aston University , says there is, inevitably, a cultural divide.

"Some Muslim students find it hard to integrate with the clubbing culture. That's what can separate the two," she told the British daily.

"We have a role in this society, at local level and at national. The world's on fire but our backyard is as well. We need to look at that first."

Other students find the event more important to send a clear message on a religion and its followers long tarnished by media outlets, especially after the 9/11 attacks.

Aisha Janjua, 21-year-old Nottingham University medic student, probably would not have attended the conference before attacks on Washington and New York three years ago.

"After that I even wondered whether Islam really was a terrorist thing."

"It happened in a month, I started reading the Koran to find out, and on October 30 I started praying very deeply."

Since then she has become the Fosis general secretary, the Guardian reported.

Fort Janjua , the conference is also about networking.

"It's the one time you can see so many Muslim students together. Old friends meeting up, new friends feeling united. It's a sense of focus and stability; it's guiding for the Muslim students."

Integrationist

The Guardian said there are signs that not everyone is on message, citing one student asking whether Muslims should be joining the mujahedeen, and another arguing that Muslims should not be associating with non-Muslims.

It asserted, however, that such comments found little favor with Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, a leading young imam, calling on Muslim students to reach out to their peers and be more integrationist.

"That is where the struggle lies. If we as Muslims reach out we can win the hearts of this country," Mogra said.

Political Voice

Anas Altikriti, a former president of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) who last week unsuccessfully stood for the European parliament, agreed.

Muslims are finding their political voice, he said, calling on the delegates to put their weight behind issues that affected the whole of society.

"Tuition fees are a political issue, almost as important as Iraq or Palestine in weight in Westminster ," Altikriti asserted.

"As Muslims on campuses you need to be preparing solutions for the whole society."

Altikriti’s nascent Respect Party has garnered a total of 2.3 percent of the votes or 250,000 votes nationwide.

He, as an individual, got 2.5 percent in his constituency, while prominent party candidate George Galloway secured five percent of the votes.

"We are at the crossroads. The Muslim vote is taken into consideration now. People want to talk - they see we're strong now," said Hasan Salim Patel, one of the organizers.

The government has recently drafted a strategy to "win the hearts and minds" of young Muslims and address what it believes to be the underlying causes feeding extremism.

The Foreign Office released last December a CD targeting the sizable Muslim community, reminding them that their contribution "is not just a matter of history, but a reality in every walk of life".