Eid Milad-Un-NabI | >Re-PHOTO

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi & End the Siege of Gaza – 2008

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi & End the Siege of Gaza: On Saturday 5th April 2008 was a rather frustrating day for me. I struggled to get to Tooting for the procession honouring the birthday of the Prophet as rail services to the west of London came to a halt. I finally made it but left as the procession neared its end. Thankfully the tube was working to take me into central London to view some exhibitions and photograph a protest at Downing Street calling for an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza.

Milad 2008 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi

Procession and Community Day, Tooting

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi & End the Siege of Gaza - 2008

As usual I’d planned my journey into London carefully, intending to arrive in Tooting well before the start of the procession but a cable fire stopped all services into Waterloo with trains piling up back along the lines. Mine “came to a halt in Feltham, then crept forward slowly to Twickenham where it expired completely. Ten minutes later another service took me the few hundred yards further to St Margarets, where I abandoned rail and jumped onto a passing bus to Richmond.”

Then as I commented “Should you ever want a slow and frustrating ride through some of the more obscure southwest London suburbs I recommend the 493 route, which even includes a ride past Wimbledon Park and the world’s most famous tennis club before taking you past the dog track and on to Tooting.”

A full 50 stops and over an hour later I jumped off the bus and ran the last mile or so towards where the procession was to start on Tooting Bec Road, meeting the procession a few hundred yards from its start. Back in 2008 I wrote “half a mile” but I’ve just measured it and my run was at least double that. The Tooting Sunni Muslim Association’s procession for Eid Milad-Un-Nabi had started ‘promptly’ only around 20 minutes late so I hadn’t missed too much.

The Juloos to honour the birthday of the Prophet was part of an all-day community event and as well as the Muslims there were other local community representatives taking part including the Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Mrs. Claire Clay.

The previous year I’d gone on after the procession to the celebrations at Tooting Leisure Centre, including the impressive whirling dervishes – who I photographed again there in 2009. But in 2008 there were exhibitions I wanted to see in London – and a protest at Downing Street, so I left as the procession turned into Garratt Lane and took the tube from Tooting Broadway.

Milad 2008 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi

End the Siege of Gaza

Downing Street

In September 2007 the Israeli government had imposed a siege which was preventing vital medicines and other supplies from entering Gaza. This was a collective punishment against the population, illegal under international law and had by April 2008 already resulted in a number of deaths.

It was one of a series of protests organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on a rather smaller scale than the hundreds of thousands in some more recent demonstrations, but sharing similar aims. It called on the British government to end the arms trade with Israel, and to press Israel to abide by international law, end its illegal occupation and allow the return of refugees.

During the protest one young man with a Palestinian flag crossed the road and stood in front of the gates of Downing Street holding it. It was the police reaction to this – and their attempts to stop me photographing it that made up most of my report in 2008.

*The man picks his flag up from the wet pavement and the officer shouts at him, telling him to put the f***ing flag down*

Police pulled him to one side and questioned him, telling him that the SOCPA had made it a crime to protest there. They pulled his flag from his hands and dropped it on the pavement, and when he picked it up an officer swore at him, dragged it out of his hands and dropped it on the pavement again. He was then told he was being stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act 2000, though waving a flag is clearly not terrorism.

*Clearly I was a already a good distance away when the officer on the left edge of this picture ordered me to move away*

At this point an officer stood in front of me to stop me taking photographs. I told him I was press but he insisted I move further ways as I was “interfering with the actions of the police.” Clearly I wasn’t and I made this clear to him before moving back as ordered.

A woman officer came up and held her hand in front of my lens. I told her that this was illegal and a senior officer in the Met had told a colleague that he would consider it “a sacking offence” and she hurriedly moved off across the road and away from the area. Unfortunately I failed to get a good picture of her or to take her number.

I went back across the road to continue photographing the protest. Police officers at the protest on the other side of the road were approached by the event organisers about the man being held but denied any connection with the officers on the other side of Whitehall. The officer did attempt to excuse their actions on possible grounds of security, but I didn’t feel he felt too happy about it. The man was still being held by police when I left the area.

End the Siege of Gaza

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NT Racism Protest & Eid Milad-Un-Nabi – 2009

NT Racism Protest & Eid Milad-Un-Nabi: I began work on Saturday 21st March 2009 outside the National Theatre . A protest by East End artists and community activists was calling for an open debate at the National Theatre over a play there which they say was racist. I then went to Tooting where I had been invited by the Sunni Muslim Association to photograph their annual Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations.

Love Theatre Hate Racism Protest NT Play

National Theatre

NT Racism Protest & Eid Milad-Un-Nabi - 2009 — *East-Enders object to racial stereotyping in ‘England People Very Nice’ and call for a public debate*

A small group of East End artists and community activists protested outside the National theatre calling for an open debate on the play ‘England People Very Nice‘ which was being performed there.

They say the play, set in Bethnal Green and covering three centuries is anti-Bangladeshi, anti-Irish, and Islamophobic, and in February East-End playwright Hussain Ismail and teacher Keith Kinsella had walked on stage during a talk by the play’s author to make their views clear, interupting the talk for around 10 minutes before they were removed by security.

And National Theatre security tried to stop this protest on a public walkway in front of the theatre too, telling the protesters they could not protest there and a cameraman who was videoing the event that he was not allowed to take pictures. But the protesters refused to leave and we kept videoing and photographing and after a few minutes he left.

I’ve not seen the play, though I did read a number of reviews and it certainly caused a great deal of distress, and the publicity over this made it a box office hit for the NT who extended its run. As I commented in 2009, I think it is a proper part of the NT’s remit to be controversial, but it should also – as the protesters were demanding “provide a proper forum to explore that controversy. I very much support the protesters who challenge what they see to be racism and the motives of the playwright and the NT in putting on this work.”

The link to the Institute of Race Relations article from May 2009 gives a good indication of why this play became so controversial.

Love Theatre Hate Racism Protest at NT

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi Celebrations

Sunni Muslim Association, Tooting

I was pleased to have been invited by the Sunni Muslim Association to photograph their Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations to mark the anniversary of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

It was publicised as a a community event to which all – Muslim and non-Muslim – were invited, although unfortunately few non-Muslims took the opportunity to attend. I think many more would have enjoyed it.

The personal invitation came after I had photographed a couple of their annual processions and had attended an earlier cultural event by the SMA at Tooting Leisure Centre, run by the London Borough of Wandsworth.

As I commented, “It was a very friendly event and although much of the first half was in Urdu or Arabic, there were some fine voices to listen to in the recitations. There was also a very well-produced exhibition about Islam.”

But many outside of the Muslim community would have found the second half more enjoyable. A Sudanese group give some fine performances of religious songs, Muslim comedian Prince Abdi was extremely funny and the Whirling Dervishes were just amazing.

Their dance is “a kind of spiritual rebirth, with their tall hats representing the ‘tombstone of the ego’ and the wide white skirt it’s shroud. The right arm lifts towards the sky to receive God’s blessings and the left palm on which he directs his gaze is turned towards the earth… And they do whirl and whirl, making me dizzy just watching them.”

Photographing them was something of a challenge as the lighting was low and there was a delicate balance between freezing the movement with flash and allowing a certain blur to indicate their movement. I didn’t always get it right.

On My London Diary I list the other performances that follow with my comments. I particularly enjoyed an a capella performance about life in Gaza by Muslim convert rap poet and activist Spitz, but all were excellent.

As I concluded, “It was a fine night’s entertainment – and one that showed (unlike some religious events I’ve attended in the past) that being profoundly spiritual doesn’t mean not being highly talented or not having a good time.”

*The Pearls of Islam – two spendid Afro-Caribbean performers from East London*

Among others invited to the event were Sadiq Khan, then MP for Tooting who spoke at athe event and several of the neighbourhood police, one of whom as on the jury of four which awarded the prize for the evening’s entertainment to the two remarkable Afro-Caribbean women from East London, ‘The Pearls of Islam’, drumming and performing their own poetry and songs.

More about the event and many more pictures on My London Diary at Eid Milad-Un-Nabi Celebrations.

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Milad 2007 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi

Milad 2007 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi: On Saturday 14th April 2007 I was invited to the Eid Milad-Un-Nabi Procession and Community Day in Tooting in the south of London.

Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, also known as Mawlid, is observed on the 12th day of the third month of the Islamic calendar, Rabi’ al-Awwal. It commemorates the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. The name means “the first Spring” and it is a bank holiday in parts of India and there are processions in Lahore and elsewhere in Pakistan where it is a national holiday as in almost all Islamic countries. The day is celebrated by both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Some local Muslim Saints also have Mawlid celebrations on their birth dates in some Muslim countries.

In 2025, Mawlid is the Islamic Day from sunset to sunset on Thu, 4 Sept 2025 – Fri, 5 Sept 2025. Here is the post I made in 2007 on My London Diary with normal capitalisation and minor corrections.

April seems to be a very religious month for me. On Saturday 15th I went to the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday organised by the Sunni Muslim Association in Tooting which included a Juloos or procession from Tooting Bec Common through Tooting to the Leisure Centre in Garratt Lane.

Eid Milad-un-Nabi, or simply Milad, is an all-day community event and one that doesn’t tolerate “political banners or activists“. It was one of the friendliest events I’ve photographed, and as well as several hundred Muslims, their were also honoured guests including the Mayor of Wandsworth, various representatives of the police, of the fire service, a chaplain, someone from the local council of churches, the local conservative candidate and others.

It was a hot day, and walking in the sun made it feel hotter. I was glad to arrive at the leisure centre and take off my shoes, and relax on the mat in the hall. It was just a little dark for taking pictures (and I was still having to use an old flash unit while I wait for the new one to be returned from servicing) and both the whirling dervishes and the Islamic Martial Arts display presented a challenge, although the speakers were not too difficult.

The speeches, in English, stressed the peaceful aspects of Islam (and declared suicide bombing and violent demonstrations over the cartoons of the prophet as un-Islamic.) Perhaps the longest speech was by Lord Sheikh, a Conservative life peer since 2006, chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum and also chairman of the Conservative Ethnic Diversity Council, who has had an extremely successful career in insurance since coming here from Uganda.

I left shortly after, and decided not to wait to pay homage to the Holy Relic Of The Prophet (peace be upon him) as I wasn’t sure if I was in a suitable state of purity and cleanliness. Probably not. But it had been a very positive and enjoyable day.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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