One of the biggest fallacies that Muslims like to insist on to their fellow Muslims is this notion that ‘you should help your fellow Muslims’.

It is your duty to help your fellow Muslims because if you don’t do it then no-one else will.

As a fellow Muslim you will receive so much ‘reward’.

The problem with this notion is that much of it is a tool to extract money from you.

The ideal is correct but this notion of helping fellow Muslims is now one that is used to encourage people to part with their money.

In much the same way that Evangelical Christian Groups in America aim to extract funds to further their cause.

We as Muslims are encouraged to feel guilty about not helping other Muslims.

Many of us have no problem with assisting those less fortunate but there is now a whole industry which uses this against us. And there is nothing we are able to say about it.

The problem we have is, in reality, as a Muslim I am unlikely to help a fellow Muslim living across the street from me.

I would go as far as to say I will more than likely treat a fellow Muslim with greater disdain than I will anyone else.

This is no more apparent that in business. I am more likely to fall out in business with a fellow Muslim. I am more likely to argue over money with a fellow Muslim. I am more likely to hate a fellow Muslim because the way I was treated.

But then why should then feel I am indebted to ‘other’ Muslims?

There is fine line here about how our religion expects us to behave and how we actually behave due to our culture.

I hate those people who spout on how culture and religion are separate things. We know that!

But face it in life they are not! In life they are not.

We behave like Muslims and then Asians and then Indians, then Pakistanis and then Bengalis…it is all a huge mess.

We don’t know where religion starts and culture ends. Every time we think we know one from the other the whole thing returns to slap us in the face.

This notion of helping the fellow Muslim has much to do with our guilt. We feel guilty that Muslims are treated badly and then we try to make up for it.

Yet, fellow Muslims are likely to be the first people we dump upon when the going gets tough.

We all do it every day. The people we mix with are the ones we talk badly of.

In real practical terms - here and now - in this country we are more in tune with the non-Muslim. If we want a job done we will pay double to a non-Muslim because we sense we won’t get ripped off.

We would rather send our kids to a school where there are less Asian children.

If we were going to trust someone in South Asia we would trust a non-Muslim organisation. The truth is they will do as they say.

Our experience shows us that we must doubt fellow Muslims.

The general idea was that non-Muslims are more trustworthy than Muslims. If you fail at something then it is someone of the same religion and culture who has made your life miserable.

Our parents actually instilled this level of fear of all things Muslim and Asian in us many years ago. And we are doing the same to our children.

They came to this country to get away from this ‘Asian’ attitude.

By doing so they helped us to hate other people of the same religion and culture.

‘Help a fellow Muslim?’ give me a break.