This is how I wrote the words below. They form the first paragraphs of my essay.

Go to TEMPLATE - scroll down to  Now for the paragraphs… 

Then click on the paragraph you want to use.

Here is mine:

5. How would you like it if…

(I am writing about racism.)

Them and us. Abdul Al-Rhazim thinks he fits in when he just doesn't. He is not “us” he is “them”. And it hurts.

When I was living in San Pedro in Murcia, Spain, I flattered myself on loving the Spanish, speaking their language and being a Spaniard. When I went into the local store that sold everything, I asked the lady for something or other. I then apologised for her not understanding my Spanish. “Soy Ingles.”

Her contemptuous reply I have never forgotten, “Como se parece.” (That's obvious!)

I know a family who live in a Muslim country. The woman opposite is a very bitter second wife. Her husband, a devout man, visits here regularly in accordance with Sharia. She has a lot of children who play in the street and kick their ball against my friend's family car. She has rigged up several cameras outside her house to spy on my friends who live just opposite her. She deliberately blocks the road with her own car and treats her servants – two wretched Filipinas – abominably.

Eventually my friends fixed up their own small camera to record the children's antics. By that time, they were alone in the street – everyone else had been driven out. The next day, the Police came round with the Manager of the Estate to tell them to remove the camera! It was a case of “Yessir!” - or immediate deportation.

Now they live in a different part of town, as far away from her as possible.

The lady of the house – the woman opposite - was a Muslim citizen of the country and my friends were expats. And they were not even Muslim! They were, in other words “them”, and treated as such. So they got hurt.

How would you like to live as a devout Muslim in Britain today? I can tell you, being a “foreigner” in your own country hurts. It really does.