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December issue of Emel OUT NOW

Emel, issue 75
Feature: One Cool Princess, Interview with Princess Badiya from Jordan
Princess Badiya embraces two worlds: the Jordan of her birth and the Britain of her education and marriage. Now Chairman of the mentoring charity Mosaic, the Princess talks frankly to Sarah Joseph in her first ever public interview.
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Editorial, Sarah Joseph
Last month saw miniature versions of the “Big Bang” being created within the Large Hadron Collider, based under the Alps at CERN. Scientists are cheering at the achievement, which generated temperatures of over 10 trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun; this achievement opens up a new era in particle physics research. [...]

For me, I’m not overly concerned about apocalyptic warnings of the end of the world. It’s going to happen one day, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. And not being a scientist, I’m struggling to imagine the vast amounts of data that is supposedly meant to reflect conditions not seen for over 13 billion years. [...]

As a Muslim, I have no problems with science. The word for a verse of the Qur’an and the word for things we see in the revealed universe is the same – “ayah”. There was a time (albeit about 500 years ago) when Muslims led the world in scientific thinking and were prepared to embrace new ideas and discovery. Those pioneering scientists were inspired by the Qur’an itself, which encourages us to look at the Universe, including the Big Bang which it potentially describes thus, “You were one unit of creation until we drove you apart.”

However, the thing which I find more interesting is not what happened in the nano-second after the Big Bang, but what was going on in the nano-second before it. My children often say to me, “It’s strange Mummy to think of something existing from nothing.” There are two ways to look at it, I tell them. One, all this material Universe, and that includes not just our little world, but a cosmos covering some 100 billion stars in the Milky Way plus 100 billion galaxies in the visible Universe, came out of NOTHING. It just ‘Big Banged’ itself into existence. Or two, all of the Universe as we know it came out of something which no eye has seen and no mind has conceived.
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Also in the December issue:
  • Future Hajj, features from Hajj past, present and futuristic
  • Kith & Kin, an likely but beautiful friendship between Palestinian Ali and Israeli grandmother Robi.
Hijabman meets Logicwoman (Personal note: adore that these two were featured. br. Javed is a 'make chai not war' photographer/designer and Aida is too sweet for words, Mashaallah)
A wacky redundant man and a meticulous divorced woman with a child – not the most obvious match, but Javed and Aida became an instant hit...
{Read in full here...}


The M Factor - The Mosaic Talent Awards 2010
Public recognition of achievements beneficial to society can inspire a new generation of young people. emel presents selected nominees of the 2010 Mosaic Talent Awards.
My favourite winners (and role models) include:

Interfaith Award - Anjum Anwar
Having reached over 75,000 people on relevant issues, Anjum Anwar believes that acknowledging differences is the path to positive interfaith.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award - Bilal Hussain
Operating in bespoke clothing and merchandise, he helped to set up a Muslim Fair-trade coffee shop in Luton, and Charity Week - the student fundraising drive.

Link Love: Eastern Promises, bling bling from Assya & Azza Fahmy

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