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I regularly get requests from schools here in Scotland to come and deliver workshops on cultural diversity, equal opportunities, Islamophobia, multi-culturalism, charity in Islam etc..

During the month of June I am invited to Robert Gordon’s college in Aberdeen. My audience is normally 6^th year students. Yesterday was my 4^th visit to this college where I delivered a 90 minutes workshop on ‘Cultural diversity and Muslims’ to 6^th years. I was very impressed with pupil’s positive attitude, hunger to learn and their questions on various subjects- arranged marriages, Charity, terrorism, Sharia law, Ramadan, culture including why I support Celtic!!! The pupils were mesmerised listening to my experiences in Scotland and abroad in various countries and then were amazed to see me in my Pakistani costume, to see photos of me recently fundraising in the Royal Albert Hall, London wearing proudly my Scottish Mackenzie tartan kilt with Prince Charlie Jacket.

My workshops aim to encourage participation and self-learning by exciting pupil's imagination with as many visual and practical challenges as possible. At the end of the workshop I was much pleased to see that all the pupils recognised the fact that Scottish society is truly very multi-cultural with 60+ languages spoken through out Scotland. The future is bright, the Future is multi-cultural.

Feedback from the Robert Gordon’s College, S6 pupils:

A very interesting talk which made me realise how the world actually is outside Scotland. My favourite!

Very insightful, addressed some very interesting issues that shone a light on some of the prejudices held by many.
 
Highlighted the difference between culture and religion. Very well spoken, lucid & informative, the issue over womanly dress was initially confusing, talk will benefit from stating clearly from the start; that there are no religious obligations to dress in a certain way as long as modesty is retained. We really enjoyed it!

Very informative and helped us understand how we can respect people from other religions and cultures.. Really interesting and found out a lot of things which I didn’t know about Islam- particularly interesting about clothing etc, thank you! I particularly enjoyed realising the differences between religion and culture.

I though it was really relevant to us today and I felt that you developed your talk with such conviction that was really captivated the whole time. I really liked the introduction to Islamic Relief and the projects they do across the world. I am glad you brought up your work with Islamic Relief charity as I am interested in all the work you have done. The talk showed me how ignorant I am about Islam and that I have previously associated cultural practices with Islam when they aren’t related at all.

Your talk was a real eye-opener and now I understand more about the differences between culture and religion. Your work as an aid worker with Islamic Relief is very admirable. The talk was very interesting and very informative especially understanding the differences between culture and religion, as well as similarities between the cultures (Scottish & Arabic, Asian). Tell us more about the religion- the rules etc, how much of you life is controlled by Islam’s rules.

I would like to find out more about the religion itself as well as Islamic Relief charity work you talked about today. It’s good that the difference between religious and national/cultural attitudes and beliefs is explained properly. It was easy to relate to the views and opinions you put across J what a man. I think it was interesting finding out the differences between religion and culture. Very interesting and educational talk. Good to know the difference between Islam and Muslims.

Thank you so much - learnt a lot and realised how much I still have to learn. Opened my eyes to different cultures and the current issues in our world. Thank you! It was really interesting and good to discuss these issues, that don’t come up very often. It was good to highlight the differences between religion and culture, and between Islam and extremism. It was easy to relate to some of the views.

And finally just received a mesage from the Dupty Head Teacher, Phil Skingley " Thanks again for coming in to our school yesterday to speak to our S6 pupils. They clearly enjoyed your presentation and found what you said both very intersesting and thought-provoking. I have greatly appreciated your support for our S6 programme and would like to wish you all the best in the excellent work that you do."