WEBVTT

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I balance things out and the job's never 
stopped me practising my religion.

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I joined because I wanted to go out and about,

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I didn’t realise this was going 
to be part of my life.

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Straight away, you think it's 
all about killing people.

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It's not, we're trying to preserve life, 
it's not all about killing.

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Religion says not to kill but if you have to,

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to defend your country or to do something, 
then it's applicable.

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I'm a practising Muslim.

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I do my prayers whenever I've got time, or when 
I'm at home I'd say I'm more practising,

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but when I'm at work it's not the job it's just...

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I do practise at the job, 
it doesn’t make it difficult,

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at home I'm more relaxed when 
I've got my family around me.

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It just makes it a little bit easier.

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It's not a problem, if it was a problem 
then we’d speak about it

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but religion has never come up in this job.

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Of course, I’ve got friends, 
Asians, other Muslims,

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go to the mosque and we're sitting there 
and they know what I do.

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Some of them would say, you know,  
"What are you doing?"

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But then when they look at the...

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There’s a group in Birmingham that talks about 
the British forces and Muslims,

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not just Muslims, other religions too.

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I've been to one of the talks.

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One of the imams said you’re not fighting the 
Muslims in Afghanistan or around the world,

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if they were Muslims they wouldn’t 
be doing what they are doing.

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If you look in the Qur'an it says what 
they're doing is against Muslims,

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so how can they say this is the Muslims, 
because they are not.

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A lot of people have objected.

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Bullying is a big factor

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A lot of bullying happens.

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They say, "How can you... you must get bullied."

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Actually, I don't.

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"No, you must do."

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It's hard to explain to them that it 
doesn’t even come into consideration.

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That's one of the biggest factors.

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But when they see me they think, 
you've been for a while,

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it must have been a bit easier there.

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Again, because I want to be here 
and want to be part of this team.

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You’re just a family, a close family,

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they don’t care what religion or colour you are.

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They’re not interested in that.

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It's never mattered really.