User:Gulamgakbar/sandbox

Gulam Akbar

Born on 11th February 1973 in Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, Gulam is a community and political activist who now lives in London.

In his early years Gulam was involved in thuggish and Asian Gang culture behaviour, which soon subsided with his embracing of Islam, even though he was born a Muslim. He had come across something that would solidify his identity as a Muslim and from which he would draw inspiration, at least in the early years that is. Gulam went onto complete his diploma in business and finance at the Hammersmith and West London College.

In 1994, he came across the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir whom he joined and worked with for the next 9 years. Their goal was to establish the global Islamic State which would then conquer and spread Islam to the rest of the non-Muslim world. His experience as an Islamist calling for fundamentalist Islam was to cause the loss of his friends, family and his career. It was as if he had lost everything for the cause of Islam. These feelings of isolation would come back to haunt in years later when he could no longer reconcile his growing doubts about Hizb ut-Tahrir and he slowly started to distance himself from their blinkered view of Islam.

Gulam is currently in the process of writing his book, Fundamental, which he is hoping to publish soon. He has changed many of is former Islamist views and now calls openly for the very values he was working against whilst he was with Hizb ut-Tahrir – human rights, democracy, pluralism, freedom etc. He now openly supports organisations like the Quilliam Foundation (a counter-extremism group) and attends strategies overseen by the Home Office such as Prevent who do a great deal in counter-extremism work in London.

Gulam is a family man with 2 children from his first marriage. His first marriage unfortunately came to an end because of the nature of the Islamist ideas he was following; they were even too extreme for his practising Muslim wife to follow. His divorce and subsequent separation from his two children would cause him great anguish and he did in fact fall into depression.

However, he was to overcome all and return to his former alive and bubbly self.

He now works voluntarily for the Marylebone Bangladesh Society (MBS) as their Community Development Manager; has set up a charity which he is the Project Co-ordinator of, Ethnic Minds and does as much political activity to curb the influence of Islamism as possible.

He lives with his elderly mother whom he helps as much as he can.

Gulam can be contact at: gulam.a@mailcity.com

Hizb ut-Tahrir literally translates as the Party of Liberation