GPU 2008 – Global Peace & Unity (Part 1)

First things first, if you’re expecting a slamming of this event, believe it or not, you’ve come to the wrong place. Sure, I have a Masters in cynicism, but my family and I had a great weekend. The event was far from perfect, but then some people might need to re-calibrate their expectations.

I’ve been to four such events this year, starting with the Islam Expo 2008, which I attended on my own, then Eid in the Square and Brent Eid a few weeks ago. GPU 2008 was the best of the lot.

What was I expecting? Well, I wasn’t sure, and am still not sure. A lot of Muslims are not sure. I didn’t expect my wife and daughters to enjoy it, but we all had a really good time.

ExCeL

The event was held at ExCeL. Not the greatest place in London (some would argue it’s barely in London) to hold an event, but we enjoyed the adventure of getting there by tube on Saturday. Not too many complaints about the event, but can someone explain why TfL chose this particular weekend to partially suspend the Jubilee line? The damn thing never works when I need to get to City Airport or ExCeL. I didn’t let this dampen my mood. We changed for the Central Line at Bond Street and then picked up the DLR from Bank.

Crammed with Muslims of all races, we got off at Custom House and joined the throng. There was definitely a positive buzz to the air, the kind that is notably absent from an England match for example, or most pubs. The lack of alcohol, that’d be it…

We opted to buy our tickets at the door. Described as a non-profit event, the entry fee was steep at £60 for two adults and two children. (I would have got a small discount had I ordered a month or more in advance.)

We proceeded to the exhibition hall, but it took a while to get in. There was a lengthy queue, the tickets only being the price of entry to a hand-stamp. The oldies (the wife and I) needed a rest, so we sat down to eat. The girls noted some fair-like lights in the opposite corner of the hall and ran off excitedly. They returned excitedly, having bought a few glow sticks and seen the promised land – dodgems…

After having a light lunch, we all had a go on the dodgems. It was more fun than I expected. It always is.

Dodgems at GPU

Now, what have dodgems got to do with Global Peace & Unity, or with Islam? The rides weren’t even staffed by Muslims. Then again, why does that matter? Dodgems are hardly un-Islamic and they are fun. If the event brings Muslims together, and there are events that make Muslims happy, that’s fine by me.

We saw an exhibition of the Qur’an next, which was inspiring. It’s always uplifting to see a 9th century script compared to a 21st century script and realise with awe that there are no essential differences.

Next, the ladies hit the stands. Lots of clothes, books, charities and whatnot. Muslim events = books, charities, clothes and some media usually. For some reason, perhaps because the event was so packed, I enjoyed this. There were sweets too. I think I was happy because the ladies were enjoying themselves.

There was a zakah talk by one of the Islam Channel sheikhs. Not many attendees. One of my pet peeves about our events recently (and Indigo Jo Blogs has picked up on this too) is the rubbish left behind by kids, brothers and sisters. Frankly, we Muslims need to do better. Everywhere we sat we saw an unbelievable amount of rubbish. Everywhere that is except the prayer hall, which was impeccably clean. So it’s not as if we don’t know how to use bins.

We took our rubbish with us of course.

There were other events going on too, but we didn’t get to see all the things we wanted to. There were BMX displays, archery (shame I missed that, I wanted to give it a go)

There were talks given by many people, but I didn’t have time to catch too many of those either. I strolled right past Imran Khan, after taking a couple of pictures of course.

I was far more impressed by the imposing and charismatic presence of Abdur Rahim Green, who I brushed past as he was on his way to his next appointment.

It was nice praying with Muslims of every hue and from every background.

We had been passing by the food outlets, before we realised that they all had halaal signs. That explained the queue for the £7.50 burgers! As you know already, I opted for the Square Pie.

I know this has been quite superficial by my standards, but I will do a part 2 tomorrow.

(Link to Part 2 of this article.)

Tagged as: events, GPU2008, Islam