By Emb Hashmi
Asian World caught up with the funny man Rash on one of his recent visits to Birmingham and had a cup of tea and chit chat with the northern lad. Rash is a support worker for people who suffer from drug and alcohol abuse and he feels this is where his niche to really want to help and make a difference in people’s life stemmed from. After appearing in the well-received documentary ‘make Bradford British’ Rash decided to take this message to the masses.
Rash said he is born and bred in Bradford he went to Dewsbury boarding school and said “I did my GCSE’s and A’ levels and the results are still pending” and has experienced both sides of life, the good and the bad, he said whilst playing rugby for almost 15years semi-pro he was associating with non-Muslim’s and so saw life as a typical rugby player and all that went with it outside of the pitch.
Rash said he met the recruiter of ‘make Bradford British’ by chance “and the two ladies recruiters wanted to sign me up straight away” he said. Rash said he would only participate in the show if two of his demands were met, one was if he was allowed to pray in the local mosque and two if he could bring certain stuff into the house like his weights as he said he loves excising and keeping fit.
Rashid with others from the popular two part documentary make Bradford British, was so touched and inspired by the positive response he received after the program was aired, that he decided to use the programs aim and unite communities, regardless of their colour, creed or status through a series of workshops in Bradford. The workshops in schools, became so successful and well received that he decided with some of his fellow show buddies to take the community cohesion workshops nationwide, so from Bradford Rash (Rashid) came to Birmingham a well-known cultural melting pot, and has a plan to make Birmingham British.
Rash describes his new action as a blessing, and said he would love to do inspirational speaking as a fulltime occupation. He is incredibly charismatic and has a bubbly warm personality, he said he is a chatterbox and loves talking and meeting new people.
Rash told Asian World “I want to tackle issues like racism and prejudice through workshops, and promote diversity, social/community cohesion and answers questions to help People Bridge a gap between them and others in their community”
Rash went on to say “by integrating and mixing you find out a lot about other people’s views and prejudices, and so I feel by addressing these views you can change someone opinion for the better, and this is something I feel I can do”.
Rash told Asian World he had a personal experience where he faced prejudice on the program “Damon Scally thought , mosques where terrorism centres, before I explained to him that they were not, now his completely changed his view on them”.
Rash’s and some of his co-participants from the popular show have turned their motivating workshops into a business calling it ‘celebrating the difference’ Rash said “I would love to be an inspirational speaker full time, I love the response I have had from school children and there so full of questions, which is fantastic”.
Rash has a concept of running 6-8 weeks workshop program with small groups, Rash said “I would love to work with anyone, young old, black white, any religion any culture everyone”.
Rash said he has been around the world promoting Muslim’s, so feels he know wants to develop his skill and unite cultures to live together in peace and harmony.
Rash also said he was working with culture fusion in Bradford, to spread his inspirational words, and is desperate to continue his good work and so thinks Birmingham is the next place he would like to work in.
Rash said he has received mostly warm and positive responses from viewers of the show, and at one point was bombarded with media requests, Rash said one poignant interview he did on BBC radio 5 live with Nicky Campbell “I was on the peak time 8am breakfast slot, with millions of listeners, and Nicky asked me quite a controversial questions out of the blue, but unknown to him I was prepared for it, Nicky asked me; what I would do if my daughter home with a different race, colour, creed man and wanted to marry him?, I quickly responded I wouldn’t mind as I believe we are all people of the book and as a Muslim we don’t look at colour, creed and culture, and that point Nicky quickly moved on to other questions, don’t’ think it was the response he was hoping for”.
Rash said “out of 182 hours of filming they only showed viewers 2 hours’ worth over two weeks, so the viewers missed out on a lot, and Martin Fuller who has been filming for 25 years said he had never met a person like me in his entire life”.
Rash rounded up his interview with Asian World by saying he would love to write a book and make sequel to Make Bradford British. So we might be seeing him sooner than you think.
