WALTHAM FOREST: "7/7 changed my life" (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: "7/7 changed my life"

7:30am Wednesday 7th July 2010 in Waltham Forest News By Ryan McCarthy

THE horror of the 7/7 London bombings prompted a young muslim to dedicate his life to promoting a positive image of Islam in Waltham Forest and beyond.

Nadeem Javaid was a 20-year-old student who woke up expecting to collect exam results on the tragic day five years ago this week.

But the devout Muslim received a text telling him the Tube network was down as he was about to leave his Walthamstow home.

Mr Javaid and his family, like millions of others, spent the day glued to the TV screens as it emerged that the coordinated attacks had killed 52 people and injured almost 800.

“On that day Islam was further hijacked by a minority who did not represent the true values of Islam,” he said.

His initial anger at the atrocity soon turned to a determination to challenge the lasting legacy the extremists had attempted to leave on his faith and wider society.

Since the attacks, Mr Javaid, of St Mary’s Road, Walthamstow, has joined a host of projects to promote engagement and understanding between different groups in society.

He said: “The attacks felt quite personal because they were the Tube lines that I would take everyday and an attack on the people of London. They bombed our doorstep and there was the bigger picture that they put down a misconception of what my faith is and created a mess that would take decades to clear up.”

Mr Javaid joined the Waltham Forest Faith Forum, the Young Muslim Advisory Group and worked on an international inter-faith project.

He meets with faith and community leaders throughout the borough and works to address a host of community issues, ranging from littering to domestic violence. The Young Muslim Advisory Group is a group of 23 young people from across England, which advises the Government on issues affecting young Muslims.

The group aims to find ways to tackle discrimination, raise employment levels, prevent extremism and boost civic participation.

Mr Javaid, who attends the Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow, has also taken part in a Faiths Act Fellowship project. This work saw him travel to Tanzania in Africa for an anti-malaria campaign.

He said: “I had to engage with young people of different faiths and get them working together on the campaign. It was an awesome experience and I got the opportunity to find out about different faiths and teach people about Islam.

“The anger I felt after the 7/7 attacks is difficult to put into words. The bombers were irresponsible misguided individuals.

“People should be aware of the dangers that are out there but they can be stopped by people, of all faiths, talking and working together and those with crazy extreme ideologies should not be given a platform,” he said.

Mr Javaid said he would spend the anniversary of the 7/7 attacks “reflecting on the lives that were lost and the work that still needs to be done”.