For over thirty years, extremist groups have been used to justify wars, surveillance and Islamophobia while harming Muslims more than anyone else. This piece explores how these movements were shaped, infiltrated and weaponised to attack Muslim identity, and why the real face of Islam is found in everyday acts of compassion.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s story is the glitch in the matrix the world wasn’t ready for — a mother who disappeared with her children, reappeared alone, and became the one detainee the War on Terror could never explain or release. While other mistaken prisoners walked free, she remains buried under an 86-year sentence. This is the story that exposes the entire system — and forces us to ask why Pakistan stayed silent, why Muslim governments cooperated, and why Muslims are still angry. One word: injustice.

Cinema is supposed to entertain, but Bollywood has quietly turned it into a political tool. By recycling the Muslim and Pakistani villain again and again, it mirrors Hollywood’s old propaganda model while exhausting audiences who are craving real stories, not manufactured enemies.

Britain keeps insisting Muslims are the problem, while ignoring the truth: we are one of the strongest defences against the hate tearing this country apart. As fear rises and politicians fuel division, the real danger isn’t Islam — it’s the narrative built to silence the compassion, justice and integrity Muslims bring to Britain.

Empires always return — they just change uniforms. From the Ainu of Japan to the Rohingya of Myanmar, from the Aboriginals of Australia to the Palestinians of Gaza, the pattern is the same: erase, rename, and call it progress. Yet faith remembers what history buries. It rebuilds where empire destroys, and it restores dignity where the world looks away.

From the spin of atoms to the twist of DNA, creation leans one way — revealing the balance, beauty, and warning within Allah’s design.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives They tell us it’s tyranny. But to those who live it, it’s mercy. For decades, Western politicians and media outlets have deliberately twisted the meaning of Sharia law. They present it as a threat — a dark, foreign system creeping into “their” societies — when in truth, it’s nothing more than what every faith already has: a moral and spiritual framework to guide believers in matters of ethics, justice, and conscience.

A raw reflection on war, hypocrisy, and the stench of power — where leaders trade lives for profit while the faithful grieve, remember, and rise through truth. “The Stench of Power” is a cry from the heart of the Ummah: disgust at injustice, anchored in faith that Allah’s justice never forgets.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives A Misleading Word for a Violent Reality We call it “domestic abuse” — but there’s nothing domestic about it. That word almost makes it sound like a private household issue, something that belongs behind closed doors. It hides the truth: this is violence. It’s psychological warfare that destroys souls, generations, and families. Language has power. When you soften the word, you soften the accountability.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives Money, wealth, gold, silver, diamonds — none of it is real.It’s all an illusion built by human hands. A system of belief stronger than any religion, where faith isn’t placed in God, but in paper, plastic, and pixels. Who gave gold its value?Who decided diamonds were rare?Who said a printed note or a digital number in a bank account defines a man’s worth?

Mohamed Miah | the-narratives.com A reflection on the myth of “integration” and the hypocrisy of modern politics. So now the right-wing politicians are spinning a new narrative — integration. Do they not realise that they are the ones who created the very divisions they’re complaining about? Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s, governments and councils kept people separated by design.

Mohamed Miah | the-narratives.com A Deep, Unshakable Sickness Lately, my chest tightens and my stomach knots when I hear someone who looks like me — same skin, same roots — spit on the very people we once were. It’s a sickness that goes beyond politics. It’s spiritual. It’s generational. It’s grief. I feel it when I hear Black and brown faces — the grandchildren of the colonised — standing on stages, behind podiums, or in front of news cameras, proudly declaring that borders should be shut, benefits slashed, and refugees treated like criminals.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives There are moments when tears fall, silent and true, Memories awaken, they come flooding through. The smell, the touch, the sound of her near, Alive in the shadows, alive in the tear. I remember her, yes — but more than her face, The struggle, the madness, the loneliest place. Nothing more brutal, nothing so rough,

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives Why Weak Punishment Fuels Crime and Shame in Our Communities Every few months, the headlines hit again: another grooming gang, another attack on worshippers, another child abused. Too often it’s men, sometimes with families, living double lives while preying on the vulnerable. Let’s call it what it is: sickness. These men are not just criminals — they are a disease.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives A Girl Behind the Fire Door She is twelve. Her earliest memories are not of playgrounds or kitchens filled with family smells, but of anonymous hotel corridors, fire doors covered with plastic bags, and bathrooms turned into makeshift kitchens. Her parents fled war. They thought Britain meant safety. Instead, they have spent years in limbo — unable to work, unable to choose where they live, and unable to build the future they dreamed of.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives When the rich tighten their grip, the cracks begin to show. History has taught us that corruption does not last forever — it collapses like dominoes, one by one, until the illusion can no longer hold. South Asia: The Cracks Begin to Show India once believed it could dominate South Asia with a mix of money, muscle, and manipulation.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives The hidden hum of existence Silence, as we imagine it, does not exist. Sit in a forest or stand alone at night and you will still hear the shifting of leaves, the beating of your heart, or the faint rush of wind. Science now tells us the universe itself is never quiet. Every atom vibrates, every star pulses, and even black holes emit resonant frequencies.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives The race for the front row Sometimes I look around at my own community, and I feel we’ve lost sight of what faith truly means. Especially among us South Asians, there’s this mindset that religion has become a competition, a constant need to prove ourselves in front of others rather than in front of Allah.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives Capitalism is a system that survives on emptiness. It thrives when people are insecure, when they look in the mirror and believe they are not enough — not young enough, not beautiful enough, not successful enough. The engine of the modern West is built on dissatisfaction: endless upgrades, constant rebranding, and the quiet promise that happiness is always one purchase away.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives The Colonial Birth of an Empire Unilever was never built on fairness or sustainability. It was born in empire and exploitation. In 1885, William Hesketh Lever founded Lever Brothers in the UK, producing Sunlight Soap. Lever marketed it with a moral slogan: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” To the British middle class, soap was civilisation. But behind that bar of soap lay palm oil ripped from the Belgian Congo, where forced labour under King Leopold II’s brutal system supplied the raw materials.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives There are countries that carry love on their name, and others that carry hate. Not because of the soil, the food, or the people, but because of the weight of history and the cruelty of foreign policy. A flag may be a source of pride to one nation, but to others it is a reminder of bombs, famine, and occupation.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives We keep telling ourselves it’s the rulers’ fault. Egypt, Saudi, Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan, Bangladesh, Morocco — their leaders sold out, they betrayed us, they are cowards. And that’s true. But what about us — the people? What excuse do we have? When children starve behind fences, when babies reach out with hands too weak to cry, when mothers wail while the world watches — who are they reaching for?

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives What Taghut Really Means Taghut refers to anything that diverts people from the oneness of Allah: false deities, tyrannical rulers demanding blind obedience, or systems of oppression that strip away justice. It is rebellion against Allah’s sovereignty. But in modern times, this concept has been twisted. Instead of guiding Muslims to resist injustice, Taghut has been misused to silence dissent.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives When most people think of their pension, they imagine a safe pot of money building quietly in the background – a promise of security after a lifetime of work. But hidden inside the Hampshire Pension Fund’s latest disclosures is something darker, millions of pounds flowing into arms manufacturers, Israeli banks, and defence-linked technology companies. Because Southampton City Council staff (like thousands of others) are locked into this fund, local pensions are complicit in financing war and occupation.

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives Dil ke zakhmon ka shor thamm jaayega ek din, Meri tanhai ka bojh halka ho jaayega ek din. Meri nazrein tumhein dhoondti rahengi ek din, Phir yeh nazrein thak kar band ho jaayengi ek din. Aaj bhi har raaste pe tumhari yaad aati hai, Yeh yaad bhi dil se utar jaayegi ek din. Kal shayad tumhara naam bhi be-asar lagne lage, Mohabbat ka bojh bhi halka ho jaayega ek din.