Muslim model defends Miss Universe contest bid

A model bidding to become the first Muslim to represent the UK in the world final of Miss Universe has been defending her decision to enter.

Shanna Bukhari, who is 24 and lives in Manchester, said she's been sent racist and abusive messages since making it to the beauty contest's UK final.

She believes Muslims in the UK should be allowed to have a western lifestyle. But Muslim groups have accused her of disrespecting Islam.

Shanna was born in Blackburn and she became a full-time model after finishing her degree.'Swimwear round'

She said it's her dream to be crowned Miss Universe but has been told she's going against her religion.

"[I get] comments like, 'You're not a Muslim because you're doing this' and it's like, this competition does not make me a bad Muslim at all.

"So it does hurt me to think that people are thinking like that," she said.

One of the main reasons some Muslims are angry is that Shanna would have to appear in swimwear in one round of the competition.

Mohammed Shafiq is from the Ramadhan Foundation, a group that works with young Muslims in the UK. He's against Shanna taking part.

"Islam is very clear that a woman should dress modestly and we do not believe that parading yourself in a bikini is appropriate," he said. We are clear that we find what she's doing distasteful - lots of women find these competitions degradingMohammed Shafiq Ramadhan Foundation

"We are clear that we find what she's doing distasteful. Lots of women find these [competitions] degrading."

He said he accepts the right for Muslim women to wear whatever they choose, but that those living in a western country should still be respectful of Islam.

"We celebrate individual freedom but to suggest that someone who is opposed to something she's doing needs to move off to another country is quite offensive," he continued.

Shanna said most people do support her, including her family in Pakistan and that she won't be wearing a bikini but a one-piece and a sarong.'Really jealous'

But her older sister Sameera admitted some of the abusive comments have worried her.

"Is it going to be bricks and stones next when she's walking out on the street? People thinking, 'Oh look at her, she's a Pakistani and she's entering this competition'."

Shanna Bukhari responds to criticism If Shanna wins the UK final on 1 May, she'll be the first ever Muslim to represent Britain in the grand final in Brazil later this year.

"People are attacking me, using religion as a tool, but is it really religion?

"Or are you really jealous of a girl coming forward and not allowing anyone to dictate to her? "There are people out there who want to control women," Shanna said.

Meanwhile, other young Muslims have told Newsbeat that being allowed to live a Western lifestyle in the UK is a big issue.

Rayan Jawad, 27, said: "This is a discussion that goes on all the time.

"She's doing pretty much what any girl would love to do who's been brought up here."

Rumena Begum, 18 said: "It goes against our morals and our religion. "But it's her life - she can do whatever she wants really."

Afghan asylum seeker who lived in £1.2million house faces jail over £30,000 benefit fraud

A refugee from Afghanistan living in a £1.2million mansion paid for with a colossal £3,000 a week housing benefit faces jail after admitting benefit fraud.

Toorpakai Saiedi, 38, a mother of seven, shocked Britain when it emerged that New Labour rules allowed her to live in the luxury home at taxpayers' expense.

One of her seven children even boasted that having the house paid for was like winning a lottery jackpot - and suggested it was 'mad' for the state to pay out so much.

The case caused such outrage that Conservative chancellor George Osborne has totally overhauled housing benefit laws as a result, affecting thousands of claimants.

From next month the maximum payable is to be reduced to just £400 a week.

But Saiedi's next accommodation at public expense could be in a prison following her guilty pleas to four counts of benefit fraud.

For despite being scarcely able to believe her luck at the mass of benefits that flowed her way after her family arrived in Britain, she was greedily building up savings and hiding a private income of £16,000 a year, and keeping them secret from the authorities.

Today she wore a blue veil and spoke through a Farsi interpreter to admit swindling the taxpayer out of £30,000 in housing benefit, working tax credit, and council tax credit, by not telling officials about her Barclays bank account.

Prosecutor Henrietta Paget told Isleworth crown court that by concealing the account Saiedi was able to collect illegally around £29,000 in benefits between August 2006 and September 2009 while living in her palatial home in Acton, west London.

At the time she was receiving benefits totalling £170,000 a year, including an astonishing £150,000 paid to a private landlord for the rent of the property - the equivalent to £12,500 a month.

The charges involve Saiedi not disclosing the bank account to Ealing council officials when claiming for council housing benefit and council tax benefit, and similar deception when claiming tax credit from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Judge Jonathan Lowen warned she may face imprisonment as he ordered a pre-sentence report and, without any irony, demanded she must not move from her luxury mansion without informing the court.

Judge Lowen said: 'I am asking for a pre-sentence report. It is not intended to limit any sentencing. All options remain open including custody.

Son Jawad Saiedi who idled away his days playing snooker and driving around in cars
'You have been granted bail on the condition that you do not move from your current address without informing the court and that you must co-operate in the preparation of the report.'

Saiedi claimed asylum after coming to Britain in 2001 with her children, a year after her husband Haji Rahmat Shah Saiedi, 47, had arrived in London.

The family, who were granted leave to remain, said they were wealthy farmers near Bagram airbase, 20 miles from the Afghan capital Kabul, but claimed they were forced to flee because of Taliban threats.

They then lived in a series of ever larger properties, all paid for by local authorities - first in a three-bedroom terrace house in Enfield, north London, and then in a five-bedroom semi in Ealing, before moving into their controversial seven-bedroom palace.

But three years ago the huge cost of their imposing state-funded home became public, attracting a storm of headlines and criticism.

When the family invited a newspaper through their front door, they revealed a haul of expensive games consoles, including a £160 Nintendo Wii and £250 Playstation 3, top of the range mobile phones and two laptop computers, worth around £350 each.

And on top of the seven bedrooms, the house boasts two large reception rooms, one featuring an enormous plasma TV, two kitchens, a dining room, a breakfast room, three shower rooms and a 100ft garden.

Saiedi's son Jawad, a student who said he idled his days away driving around in cars and playing snooker, said at the time: 'When the council chose to put us here we did not say no.

'If someone gave you a lottery jackpot, would you leave it? When I heard how much the council was paying, I thought they were mad.'

The family's private landlord, Ajit Panesar, who bought the house in March 2008 for £1.2million, has said of the rent he receives: 'I have done nothing wrong. I can’t help it if the law says I should get paid the amount of money.'

Saiedi was freed on bail until she is sentenced at the same court next month.

Indonesian Mosque is still standing after the earthquake and tsunami

Muslims Furious over Quran Verse Written on Floor...

Parents claimed a female member of staff at St Saviour’s C of E School on Alum Rock Road, Saltley, had been chalking out a phrase from the Koran, something seen as disrespectful to Muslims.

One mother said she was reduced to tears after being told of the incident, which happened on Tuesday.

The phrase “in the name of Allah the beneficent the merciful” was written in Arabic on the school playground before being removed later that day, parents said.

Concerned mums and dads met with senior school staff the following morning at the church school, which serves a mainly Muslim community. Parents said they had no idea why the phrase was written on the floor.

The school would not comment and a spokesman for Birmingham City Council said the matter was being “dealt with by the school”, although he would not discuss what action had been taken.

One parent, who did not want to be named, said: “A lot of parents complained about it. To write the word Allah on the playground floor is deemed to be a huge insult.

It’s akin to putting scripture on the floor, which isn’t a very clever thing to do at a school which is predominately Muslim.”

An Ofsted inspection carried out at the school nearly three years ago said all 400 pupils came from ethnic minorities, with the largest groups from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

African Woman Kept as Slave by London Doctor...

An African woman was kept as a slave for four years in the London home of a retired doctor, a court has heard.

Mwanahamisi Mruke, 47, who was flown over from Tanzania in October 2006, was summoned by a bell to carry out chores for Saeeda Khan, 68, around her Harrow house, it is alleged.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard Miss Mruke was forced to sleep on the kitchen floor, even after she had an operation on varicose veins in her leg.

They were shown an interview with the Tanzanian in which she described to police her normal working day in which she was expected to wake up at 6am and not go to bed until midnight.

She did cleaning, gardening, cooked meals and accompanied Khan's disabled son on walks, often in the middle of the night, because she wanted to support her 23-year-old daughter through college in her home country.

Miss Mruke said she was paid £120 for her first year's work, just £10 a month, and received no pay for the following three years.

A total of 50,000 Tanzanian shillings (£21) was sent to her daughter each month for two years.

Her mother died during her enslavement, but Miss Mruke said Khan told her she did not have enough money to send her back to Tanzania, the court heard.

She did try to complain, but she was sent a letter from another person in Tanzania to warn her that she must obey Khan, and that if she talked to anyone else her life may be in danger.

Khan, of Whitmore Road, Harrow, north west London, is believed to be one of the first people to stand trial for modern-day slavery.

The pensioner, who denies trafficking Miss Mruke into the UK to exploit her, wore a beige overcoat and a black headscarf as she listened to the evidence from the back of the court, outside of the dock.

Taxpayers 'Gave' 500,000 to Violence-Linked Group...

The Government gave more than half a million pounds of taxpayers' cash to a controversial Islamic group, it has been revealed.The Department of Communities and Local Government handed the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and related groups £550,985 over three years.

In March 2009 the Government suspended links with the MCB and demanded one of its leaders should be sacked for allegedly supporting violence against Israel.

In a written Parliamentary answer tonight, the coalition detailed its grants to the MCB and linked organisations.

It said £174,000 was given to improve mosques, £167,000 went to the Nottingham-based Karimia Institute for "youth leadership training", and £25,000 was awarded to Young Muslims UK to "promote talent.

The Department also paid the MCB £2,500 for a table at the Council leadership dinner and gave £157,000 to Muslim Youth Helpline to "build their capacity to extend the reach of their support services to vulnerable young people".

Explaining the grants, junior communities minister Andrew Stunell (pictured) said: "The Muslim Council of Britain has a large and wide-ranging national membership of organisations affiliated to it."

Welsh police report forced marriage cases at an all-time high

South Wales Police say they are dealing with the largest number of cases of forced marriage and honour based-violence they have ever seen.

In the past 12 months, the force has dealt with 49 cases of forced marriage, up from a typical 30-35, with new cases almost every week.

The four Welsh forces have been involved in about 60 cases, with four in north Wales in six months.

The figures are released to coincide with International Women's Day.

A forced marriage, as opposed to an arranged marriage, is where either bride or groom, or both, do not consent to a wedding and are coerced into accepting it.

In many cases they are told they will bring their family shame or dishonour if they refuse.

Ch Supt Neil Kinrade, head of South Wales Police's communities and partnerships department, said forced marriage was a "hidden harm" among some sectors of the community.

He said: "I'm pleased that we are dealing with the numbers [of cases that] we are, however, we are still only dealing with a small number of the actual incidents and practices that are taking place.

"This, amongst the community, is a hidden harm.

"It goes on and it goes on often unchecked by senior members of the community who know it's taking place....