Eid on the drive, ahh yes......a place for all the pakistani neds to congregate and fight with anyone they don’t recognise. A place for girls to drive around in their cars in circles as the boys in their hired cars drive behind them. A place to do wheel spins and handbrake skids. An opportunity to show the non Muslim community just how big a bunch of prats we are. A place where police are visible everywhere and probably think how pathetic we are. Yes eid on the drive, what a joyous place indeed.

In response to the negative comment above:

(1) i think it is very important for the community to come together and assert their identity (to themselves first of all), even if you are a nedd with a souped up car who hasn't prayed most of ramadan and are only there to check out women. Of course these types of people are on the 'fringes', Islam accommodates people wherever they are in their deen, with the hope that at the least they will be positively affected by being around other members of the ummah who are better than they are. Just look at the fiqh books and how it describes how one must purify themselves after doing some of the most messed up of acts, why mention such things except to indicate that even such people can sort themselves out through the deen.

=(2) With all these people around you won't be able to control the free-mixing etc, can't expect to do that in an event like this anyway, just like you can't expect to do that nationwide by employing "deen-police". But just coming together, seeing people in groups commemorating the end of ramadan, and then at prayer times the physical movement of masses towards mosques, that is something that gets in the soul and will inshallah have the effect of softening hearts. In fact we need to have more of these outside eid-time, but smaller and more interactive (not just youth-group stuff).

=(3) Benefits of such events:

When you are wee and your parents take you to 'functions' and the kids fight etc, everyone just watches them and nods their heads, sometimes they get slapped by their parents, but very rarely are they left out of the functions. The point is that if you have these unwanted qualities in you (fighting around etc), then things often get fixed when in the midst of community your bad qualities are made apparent to you when for example you get too excited and get into a skirmish in front of an auntie-g that might as well be your mother. That sort of thing teaches many lessons, for some it will be a deciding point after which they will seek change, for others it will be merely step 1 of the process. If we you don't come together in communities and such events then how are we to realise the benefit of idea that 'muslim is the mirror of the muslim', i.e. that we 'show each other up', meaning that we tend to learn much about our own selves when with other muslims due to stuff that just happens in such cases.

=(4) Identity:

One of the ills of our modern time is identity crises, for everyone (not just muslim immigrants). Most people identify themselves through their profession or little social groups they are a part of. These associations are always temporary (at most they last till you die) and even if your profession or group has a history, like being a doctor (an ancient profession), most doctors will not experience themselves as following an ancient tradition - so this profession-based identity is not 'solid', it is not satisfying enough on its own, it doesn't connect you to humanity and across the boundaries of time/space/history. The one who primarily identifies themselves (to themselves mainly) as muslim, i mean in their day to day feeling/experience not just technically, they are immediately connected to the Creator, the first of creation to the last; to the ant, the bee and a piece of dust; to this world and the next' every thing in this world is 'family' and familiar and 'close' and 'connected'; it's the opposite of alienation and hence it is *identity in the fullest sense*. And it is the duty of muslim communities (you and me) to enable its members to realize the true implications of being muslim, especially in a time when identity crises is so rampant and the root to so many other social ills, while we are 'sitting on' the cure all this time. Simply coming together within the fold of this identity such as in prayer, ramadan, etc, are the root activities for establishing this identity, but we need more branches now. An eid-drive is a branch that may not be so well connected to the root, but at the moment it's perhaps one of the only all-inclusive branches we have. It is important that we make a lot more other branches

=(5) Police and the 'others':

We shouldn't care too much what the 'police' think of us, lets just think about if we are being good muslims. The people on the fringes of our society are not unlike the people on the fringes of every ethnic group, so there is no reason to be surprised at the behaviour of the type of youth you describe. What they should be surprised about is that there is this mixing between them and the more 'mainstream' people, that they are actually accepted in their company. There is a mixing between classes/types in our muslim community (rich/poor, religious/not-so-religious, educated/not-so-educated), and this is unique in muslim communities (in such large scale) around the world - and this is what is surprising when you are not used to it. A policeman may actually be surprised at this but not be able to articulate this and instead due to not being articulate enough 'just have a bad opinion of the whole' - but that's due to his/her lack of understanding.

I am not sure if it has been cancelled. I think they could use this to advantage and make a huge fund-raising thing with everyone in the same area, with all proceeds going to Pakistan etc... that would be a wonderful way to do things.

s