As I walked towards the mosque, for Jummah prayer, yesterday, I was amazed to see a police officer standing outside mosque. There, sometimes, are traffic police guys, putting fine tickets on the wrongly parked vehicles, but Met Police, never saw them around, before.
Anyway, I walked in wondering about the police officer. I also noticed a couple of cars, which are normally not there, but anyway.
It was just before Mua’zhan was about to say 2nd Azhan, when Imam sb announced that we have some guests with us today. And as he introduced the guests, they happened to be some goverment officials, including Foreign Secretary David Milliband. I was literally shocked. What is he doing here? was my first thought.
Khair, he was invited to speak after a while. And as he spoke, it dawned on me that he is here to wish Eid Milad-un-Nabi to his Muslim country men. As its the birthday of Holy Prophet (SAW), he took time from his busy schedule to wish us. What? Are you sure? was my second thought. And then I realized its the election year, and Labour Party is expected to get some tough competition in this election, Mr Miliband was on a compaign to please his voters.
Aaaahhhh, this politics, what-not it makes people do
And BTW, as he was speaking, myself being on the first floor of the mosque, and there being a big space left out in the first-floor’s floor, you can see the ground-floor hall, I left my place just to get a glimpse of Mr. Miliband. Yes rite, the Pakistani spirit. And as I looked at him, despite disagreeing with all his foreign policy stuff, I felt a little desire somewhere deep in my heart to stand by his side for a photograph
. Well to be honest, everybody has a right to think about his future, and who knows I shall have a shop, of anything, in future, in Pakistan, and then I can hang this picture on the wall at least, you know
Khair, what else amazed me was that nobody out on the street was least concerned that Mr. Miliband is around. And there were no dozen police vans around, after all he is Foreign Seceretary of United Kingdom. I could only spot one officer on my way in. And it was just 3-4 men in suits, including Mr. Miliband, standing beside Imam sb, to say some words, inside. No bearucratic baraat or anything. Nothing. And yes, to keep the records straight, I did see another police officer on my way out of the mosque, so it was not just one, rather a couple of them. So much for a protocol.
And as I got back to my machine, in office, BBC Urdu had this interesting piece of news waiting for me. So much for a frustrated afternoon …
