My Visit to London and The Ottoman Lands
After my trip last year to Poland and Jerusalem I immediately began planning for my next trip. The first step was purchasing the cheapest ticket I could find to London. I purchased a one-way ticket from Chicago to London on TAP Portugal Air with a six-hour layover in Lisbon.
Given the fact I'm a budget traveler, and London rooms are super expensive, I opted to find a cheap room in the far northeastern Ilford section of London. The important thing in London is to be near an Underground Station which will connect you to the rest of the city. Besides, I liked the idea of staying in a non-touristy part of London.
I arrived at Heathrow late and I didn't want to be impolite and keep my host up too late. Therefore, instead of taking the Underground all the way, I opted to take the Elizabeth Line to Ilford Station and take an Uber. Exiting the train station the first thing that hit me was the fact Islamic Relief advertisements were painted over the turnstiles. I simply cannot imagine this happening on an American public transit line (and, let's be real, outside of a handful of American cities, public transportation in the US is crap). If I wanted a message that Ilford was an area heavily populated with Muslims it was there for me to read loud and clear.
Yet, that wasn't the only message I received. Leaving the train station I immediately recognized a climate of seediness with the slight aura of danger. Young men wearing masks covering their faces, albeit minus the purses with guns in them, common among young American men in places like St. Louis. The local UK flavor added to this is young men walking around with big menacing dogs. Perhaps this is in lieu of being able to walk around openly and legally carrying assault rifles as young men in St. Louis do before a night of mayhem and murder.
Unable to get my Uber app to work, I was slightly perplexed and unsure of how to order a taxi. I also hadn't taken the time to exchange US dollars for any local money. Seeing a Muslim brother walking down the street wearing a white thobe, I asked him how to get a taxi, and he pointed me in the right direction, warned me the streets were unsafe at this late hour carrying luggage, and shortly thereafter I was in a cab driven by a Kenyan Muslim brother.
The room turned out to be a great find in an incredibly diverse neighborhood. There appeared to be an older Jewish population and a massive amount of South Asian Muslims, endless halal restaurants, and a sprinking of Caribbean and Eastern European immigrants. The room I rented was in a house in which the owners, immigrants from the Philippines, lived upstairs, and their daughter and grandchild lived downstairs with a Muslim husband with roots in Sierra Leone. The family was kind enough to allow me to Uber Eats a meal before my arrival and keep it fresh for me (rasta pasta from Manjaros).
Day One London
Knowing that I would be tired, I scheduled the first day as a museum day, figuring there would be less walking. Yeah, I was definitely wrong on that one. After careful consideration, and an online exploration of the countless museums in London, I opted for the Imperial War Museum, British Museum, and the small and quaint Charles Dickens Museum. I highly recommend all three. The first two because I'm a history buff, and the last because I have a fondness for Dickens and English authors of that era, and found it a real treat to be in a home where the great author actually lived. In between museums, I found time to run into a halal restaurant and get a plate of chicken biryani for my first UK restaurant experience (Shaheen Tandori Restaurant).
The next stop was meeting brother Terron Poole at the Redbridge Islamic Center- Gants Hill mosque. Terron is one of the most interesting guys out there and a kindred spirit. He is a Black American Muslim convert from the Bay Area of California who moved to the UK a few years ago, settling in Manchester, after marrying a local woman. Like me, he is a working-class guy with a thirst for knowledge and bookish tastes, and he has been able to take those traits and create the Skepislamica Youtube Channel, which is dedicated to interviewing some of the most renowned academics in the field of Islamic Studies. After meeting Terron for some delicious halal burgers, and later dessert, we agreed to hang out again and do a YouTube video about what it's like to live in the UK as an American, Muslim, and a Black man.
Day Two London
On day two I opted for a five-hour walking tour, which included many famous sites including St. Paul's, St. James, the City of London, the London Bridge, the Tower of London, Big Ben, the houses of parliament, 10 Downing Street, and Buckingham Palace. We had an amazing and very knowledgeable guide who was full of historical information. In my younger days, I would've opted to not hit the major sites, and I wasn't even sure how I felt about them this time around, but I'm very happy I took this tour.
After this tour I had one of the real treats of my vacation- a private tour of the BBC News studios. I've been a fan of the BBC World Service since I was a teenager. How did this come about? During the 1990's, when the Muslim community was generally a lot more conservative and fundamentalist, brothers would either drive around listening to Islamic lectures on cassette or listen to the NPR or BBC World Service. Also, as someone with a real curiosity as to what is going on outside of the US, and with the abysmal state of the mainstream American media, most especially trashy and low information cable news outlets such as Fox, MSNBC, and CNN, the BBC becomes a valuable resource for Americans interested in global news stories. Even as the quality of NPR news may have fallen, with ideology and correct speech often taking precedent over the process of discovery and reporting, the BBC World Service has remained a valuable source of information for me.
Some years back, I was interviewed on the BBC World Service, during a panel discussion regarding the Ferguson Movement, and they later had me on during a focus group for a Clinton-Trump debate watch party. Chris Ancil was the producer for those programs, and working with the two Bens, helped facilitate my tour. It was really an amazing experience to look behind the scenes, as actual journalists are working, at the nerve center of a place broadcasting the news to countless millions throughout the world.
After the BBC tour, Ben walked me over to meet Joe Dobson at a nearby coffee shop. Joe is quite an interesting guy. He is a native Londoner, the son of a former member of parliament and cabinet member under Prime Minister Tony Blair, a diehard West Ham fan, and a convert to Islam since the 1990's.
Joe took me trekking through London. Walking, Underground rides, more walking, and busses. Eventually we ended up in south London at a Somali restaurant where we met a Black British convert named Andrew. We had a delicious meal and I think we both enjoyed picking each other's brains on our respective Muslim communities, their similarities, and differences.
Day Three London
The next day I met Terron for a traditional English breakfast at a halal restaurant in Gants Hill and we then took the train into Central London together. Because Terron lives in Manchester, he doesn't get to London often, so he went sightseeing while I toured the Churchill War Rooms. To be in a place that impacted human history in such a positive manner, was a powerful experience, but being stuck with loads of Americans in cramped quarters, seemingly everyone but me wearing a backpack, made me feel a bit claustrophobic.
We met up outside of the Peruvian embassy and then took a taxi to the London Central Mosque (Regents Park) for jummah. This is a very large indoor and outdoor mosque and perhaps the most famous house of worship for Muslims in the UK. I found the experience interesting, the people watching first-rate, and the khutbah incredibly boring.
After jummah we headed to the nearby Dar al Taqwa bookstore. The bookstore is a London Muslim institution founded decades ago by the late Sheikh Samir Elatar and currently ran by his wife. There is no such bookstore available in the US for Muslims, so I encourage all Muslims tourists to the UK to take a visit.
From there we proceeded to Trafalgar Square where we checked out the crowd, the monuments, and popped into a church briefly to hear a live performance of classical music. Terron had to meet someone, and I was meeting someone at the East London Mosque for maghrib, but I first toured the truly spectacular National Portrait Gallery. Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, and much much more. This is a truly amazing museum and one I could've easily spent all day in.
The East London Mosque is where I met Brother Umar. Umar is a local psychiatrist, who is familiar with me due to some of my writing, and we connected online. The ELM is located within a heavily Muslim area, Bangladeshis being the largest population, and surrounded by Muslim businesses. After praying, we drove to Ilford to eat at the popular and higher-end Saffron Street halal restaurant.
As we waited to be seated the owner chatted with us and asked me if I was Umar Lee from St. Louis. I pled guilty not knowing quite what to expect. This could go many different ways including being put out of the restaurant! It turned out the owner was an extremely friendly guy and he even chatted with us after our meal for so long that we ended up closing the place down and getting our food comped by the house! This is a double example of Muslim hospitality many never get to experience and I am very thankful for. I will also say I learned a lot about UK Muslims just listening to those two men talk.
Day Four London
I met Joe Dobson at an Underground Station in East London and we began a walking tour of the old neighborhood where West Ham was born. A generation ago the area had been solidly white working-class, the kind of place the TV show East Enders parodies, and today it is a melting pot that, in particular, has a huge Muslim population. The majority of the restaurants appeared to be halal and then every now and then there was a traditional English pub or a place catering to eastern Europeans.
The main event for that day was attending West Ham vs. Manchester City at London Stadium. The Premier League is the best soccer league in the world, Manchester City is the best club in the world, Erling Haaland is arguably the best footballer in the world, but West Ham has the most enthusiastic fans! I had actually never attended a soccer match before at any level. On my first go I did it big! The fifth row from the field with diehard Hammers. Unfortunately, my St. Louis luck didn't rub off, and Man City took the match 3-1, but I left with an entirely new appreciation for the elite skill level of the players. This opportunity would've never been possible without Joe so I'm incredibly thankful for his hospitality.
After the match, Joe took me to an upscale halal restaurant serving traditional English cuisine for a wonderful meal and then I headed back for Ilford.
Day Five London
I initially planner to attend an historic English church or do a tour on Sunday morning, but I overslept. After grabbing a quick bite I headed to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. For those unfamiliar, Speakers Corner is a place in London where people gather to debate and discuss ideas. Most of the speakers appear to ge lunatics, but the atmosphere is highly entertaining. There are Muslim speakers who have become famous from their appearances at Speakers Corner including Mohammed Hijab, Ali Dawah, Uncle Omar, Shamsi, and others.
My idea for attending Speakers Corner was to get some videos of the Muslim speakers, but I arrived too early. When I got there there were mostly Christian speakers, a guy dressed as a Roman soldier, a right-wing nut, and an assortment of others. It started raining, and I left, as I had a tour scheduled at Lord's Cricket Ground anyway. The tour was great and Lord's looks as amazing in person as it does on TV.
Day Six London
I had to check out of my AirBNB at eleven, and this left me with some time to kill, before I headed to Heathrow. Unfortunately, I was hauling luggage. I opted to head to Shalom Jewish Bakery to get some cheesecake to start my day. This turned out to be an educational experience. Nearly all of my drivers in London were Muslims (I did have two traditional white working-class English Black cab drivers and a Polish Uber driver). On this morning, I had a Bengali Uber driver and he seemed downright saddened that I was going to a Jewish bakery. He asked me if I knew the place was Jewish and offered to take me to a Muslim bakery. I told him that wouldn't be necessary. For all of the faults of the American-Muslim community, I simply cannot imagine that happening here. After eating a delicious piece of cheesecake, that I was sure to wash down with a Diet Coke, I went on a walk and eventually found myself in a barbershop. The barber is an immigrant from Guyana who splits time between the two countries. After that, it was to the airport. I arrived in Istanbul late at night.
Istanbul Day 1
After a few hours of rest in my cheap hotel room in the SultanAhmet neighborhood, I headed to Taksim Square to meet Angie. Angie is both a fellow St. Louisan and 1990's convert. She hasn't lived in the US for nearly twenty years and has been living in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Like most 1990's Salafi converts, Angie has burned out. Her preference now is much more on fashion and being a foodie than on fiqh and fatwas. I felt it was important to meet my old friend , and fellow hoosier first, before I got swept up in the romanticism and idealism of Erdogan's Turkey and neo-Ottomanism.
We had breakfast in the very secular and tourist area of Taksim, and then jumped on a bus, in order to catch a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. Not only was the boat ride lovely, but she wanted to show me a secular neighborhood and a religious one (Uskadar). She wanted to illustrate to me there is now open public piety, and enthusiasm for both Erdogan and an Islamic Turkey, and detractors who love Atarurk, secularism, and integration into Europe- and unfortunately in this camp there also exists a lot of racism and xenophobia towards immigrants.
As with Terron Poole in the UK, I'm intrigued by Americans living abroad, and this is something I've always wanted to do. Not only are they living abroad- they're thriving abroad and both say their standard of living and quality of life is higher than what it would be in the US. With things headed the way they are in America, I predict many hundreds of thousands of Americans, if not millions, of Americans will be joining them in the years to come unless there is a serious change of direction.
That evening, I took a very wild taxi ride through the narrow, hilly, and dense streets of Istanbul to the ultra-religious Fathi neighborhood in order to meet the Indian-American cleric and student Nihal Khan.
The taxi ride was amazing, just in terms of watching the car navigate the hills, the throngs of hijabs, niqaabs, and kufis interwoven into the hills, a level of population density not seen in the US, and the fact cars were speeding going forward- and in reverse! Down narrow streets only fit for one car.
I was to meet Nihal at a small local mosque popular with the Naqshsbandi Sufis who dominated the neighborhood. As Nihal was running a little late, I prayed and then browsed the nearby Muslim clothing shops and bookstores. I wanted to buy a Turkish prayer jubba, as I really like them, but opted only for a kufi because my suitcase was already jammed.
Nihal arrived and we ate at a nearby restaurant with a little Sufi flare. Apparently the store owners and staff do salawat over the lentil soup for over twenty-four hours before it's served.
Nihal Khan is an interesting guy. He has been studying Islam, both classically and academically for years, and he is seeking to chart a unique path for Muslim leadership in America. I can honestly say the mini tour of Istanbul he gave to me, culminating in a visit to the Eyüp Sultan Mosque and the grave of the sahabah Abu Ayub al-Ansari, was one of the most amazing nights of my life. That experience will be with me for a very long time.
Istanbul Day 2
I began this day with a Turkish breakfast and then visiting the Topkapı Palace Museum complex. This complex was once home to the Ottoman caliphate, which ruled over much of the Sunni Muslim world, and features amazing architecture, artwork, and relics from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the sahabah, and some I'm much more skeptical of the authenticity of from Prophets Musa (Moses) and Dawud (David).
After that, I went to pray at the two famous mosques and here is where I must speak of my previous visit to Turkey in 1999. During that visit, the mosques were virtually empty, there were no lines to get into the famous mosques, in fact the Aya Sofia was a museum and not a mosque at the time! I saw few hijabs, almost no beards, and virtually no Muslim tourists. Turkey has dramatically changed! The mosques are full, beards and hijabs are common, after generations of being forced into the closet, religious Turks, the sons and daughters of the Ottomans, have resurfaced with a newfound religious fervor. The SultanAhmet mosque is beautiful; but seeing Aya Sofia, once the seat of Orthodox Christianity then turned into a mosque by the Ottomans, before being turned into a museum by the Turkish Republic, renovated and transformed back into a house of worship, was something breathtaking to see with my own eyes. When I visited in 1999, security attempted to stop me from praying. Now the muezzin calls the adhan five times a day for the faithful.
The next morning it was off to Bosnia.
Sarajevo Day 1
Nihal Khan gave a recommendation for Funky Tours, so I used them in Bosnia, and I enthusiastically endorse that recommendation. After checking into a cozy and residential AirBNB in walking distance from the city center of Sarajevo, I headed over to Funky Tours.
Beauty and pain. I witnessed the breathtaking natural beauty of Sarajevo and visiting the scenes of 1990's murders, massacres, and the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population by Serb nationalists. I walked in the “Tunnel of Hope”, which provided a lifeline to the besieged Muslim population as Serb snipers fired down from the mountains, aiming at anything moving. More than 11,000 Bosnians died during the siege, including more than 1,100 children. Of course, this was outdone by similar, and even greater carnage, in other parts of Bosnia. And, as the tide of the war began to turn in favor of Bosnian Muslims, America put an end to the fighting with the Dayton agreement, and codified the ill begotten Serbian gains. We ended the tour at the exact spot where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, which marked the beginning of World War I and one of the darkest and bloodiest chapters in human history. This place has seen a lot of bloodshed and pain.
Sarajevo Day 2
Opting not to visit Srebenica, where thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serb forces, or Mostar, a place of tremendous natural beauty, I decided just to chill and relax in Sarajevo on day two. I ate delicious Bosnian food, attended jummah at the historic Ottoman Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, and did some shopping before heading to The Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide 1992 – 1995 (and later a memory center near my room dedicated to Bosnian commanders who gave their lives).
I would recommend not skipping out on the mosque or museum when visiting Sarajevo. At the museum I had a common interaction on my visit- questions about St. Louis. Everyone seems to have a friend or family member in St. Louis. For those that don't know, St. Louis is home to the largest Bosnian community in the US. This time I got a question that was quite telling- “many people tell me St. Louis is a violent place. Is this true?”. I answered with honesty. Yes, I told him, St. Louis is a very violent place and many American cities are violent. There is a lot of opportunity to improve one's fortune and the future of their families in this country, and this is why our southern border is seeing a steady wave of economic migrants, but there is also a lot of danger coming to America given our rates of violence, weak social safety net, degenerate modern culture, most often a weak family structure, and political instability. There is great opportunity and freedom in America; but you'll be dancing on the edge of a razor blade. If you come to America, St. Louis will welcome you.
Serbia
I had no real desire to go to Belgrade, and it was only on my schedule because there are no flights from Bosnia to the US, and my time there was horrifically bad. I'm sure that under the right circumstances, and with proper preparation, I could have a nice visit there. As it was, Air Serbia canceled my flight and put us all on a bus to Belgrade. Most of the people on the bus were Russians opting to live outside of the country. Not only was the bus ride dangerous, as it trekked through the mountains and in the rain, but two hours were added onto the trip because they decided to drop a guy off at his house. Taxis are few in Belgrade and there is no Uber, so I was left getting soaked in the rain, seeking shelter, and catching local public busses. I also accidentally exchanged for too many worthless Serbian dinar, my flight was switched without my knowledge, and I was feasted upon by bugs and came back with bites all over my body. On top of that, there are banners reading “Kosovo is Serbia” all over. By the end of my stay, I was regretting I didn't join my buddies in the 90's, who served with Bosnian volunteer forces. The only bright spots to Belgrade? I got to watch the final day of the world wrestling championships and saw some very interesting street art.
For many more photos and videos of my travels you can follow me these places:
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Umar Lee YouTube Channel
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Due to space I couldn't include them all, but I have some really cool photos and videos