this is technically a romance, but it is the story of nur and yasmina during their relationship - the book opens with them being in an already 4-year long relationship. nur is a british pakistani muslim and yasmin is a british sudanese muslim - i loved the explorations of race, religion, and familial vs romantic love. the book gave a lot of insight into culture, tradition, and family ties. i really enjoyed reading this. Ali was arrested for drug dealing on May 11, 2016 in Merstow Green, on September 10, 2017 in Bromsgrove, on September 30, 2017 in St Paul’s Street, Worcester and finally on November 6, 2017 in Teme Road, Worcester. Kasim Ali: I guess, before I was just writing to write. There was no idea of an audience, that’s maybe what’s crippling me since. The idea that there is an expectation, which is why I’m really glad that I wrote my second book before I sold Good Intentions. He feels he has let his family down, that at a time when his mother was still grieving and dealing with the sudden loss of her husband, she has also found her son before the courts,” Mr Latif said.

I want to show that you can be a South Asian softboi, and that you can be the kind of person who falls in love with someone and expresses that emotion” – Kasim AliA love story full of hard choices and tensions, family obligations and racial prejudices. Not to be missed by fans of Modern Love." I wanted, too, to ask questions that I felt weren’t being asked. Of parents’ expectations of their children, of the way my culture can judge, of the way it can often feed into our very worst traits. I strove for authenticity above all. Alluring . . . [A] thoughtful portrait of young people weighing the bonds of tradition with personal identity. Readers will root for this imperfect love until the end." Ever fallen in love with messy, confusing consequences for everyone involved? Then Good Intentions is for you' Stylist

Judge Angela Nield told Ali there was ‘an element of grooming and a significant age disparity between you and the decoy child’. Nur wants to be the good son his parents ask him to be, and the good boyfriend Yasmina needs him to be. But as everything he holds dear is challenged, he is forced to ask, is love really a choice for a second-generation immigrant son like him? Yet, we also tend to underestimate our parents — a theme Ali highlights in his book. “Sometimes we talk about our parents as being a product of their time and their environment — we think that we have all these ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ ideas of the world and that our parents are not going to be accepting of those opinions,” explains Ali. “I really wanted to talk about the difference in politics between our parents and us and the gap between those dimensions, but I also really wanted to talk about giving our parents a chance to change with us.” Representing modern and multidimensional MuslimsOnce considered a true-blue constituency, Labour candidate Emma Dent Coad caused a major upset by winning Kensington in 2017 – becoming the first Labour MP to represent the constituency. Kensington was then the second most marginal Conservative gain from Labour in the 2019 general election, when Tory candidate Felicity Buchan took the seat by just 150 votes. Compelling, emotionally honest, and unafraid of the gray areas of race, faith, sexuality, and love. Kasim Ali's debut Good Intentions shows how complicated relationships can be, even with the best of intentions." We have enough money to keep us going for about another month and anything left over will go towards helping the wellbeing and mental health of hospital staff once the crisis is over.” A frank, moving, and truly compelling tale of the complexities of modern romance, and how family, friendships, society, and our own internalized prejudices can impact upon it. Good Intentions is a beautiful and honest story that I'd defy anyone not to be pulled in by, from a fantastic new talent in contemporary fiction."

Rita Begum has also put herself forward. She is currently a councillor on Brent Council, representing Kilburn ward. She was previously a councillor on Westminster Council, representing the former safe Tory seat of Maida Vale. Begum stood for election to the London Assembly in 2021, coming second behind the Conservative candidate. Outside of politics, she works as a development manager for the charity London Tigers, which provides pathway opportunities in sports and wellbeing to disadvantaged communities across London. And staff at the two hospitals have been delighted with the meals. “They’ve said, ‘You’ve stopped us eating junk,’” says Kasim. “It’s something for them to look forward to in the middle of their shifts. Knowing they’ve got a good meal coming helps take their mind off things and at the end of the shift they might have something chilled to take home if they’re too tired to rustle something up.” Nagging parents who believe marriage is the most important thing in the world; a disillusioned South Asian Muslim man who wants to escape his culture; a white love interest who represents Western freedom.The talk of racism and prejudice in Asian community, specially South Asians, Pakistanis in this book is refreshing, this issue is rarely seen. But again most of the conversation about race was mostly in protagonists head not with actual people. Dont even get me started on that ending. Kasim Ali: I grew up in an environment where I wasn’t able to express emotion otherwise I’d get taken the piss out of, right? Called ‘gay’ or ‘a girl’ or whatever. And then I’d internalise those things as insults, and stop doing the things I wanted to that led to people calling me those insults. A YouTube video, not shown in court, showed members of the Silent Justice group confronting Ali and waiting for police to arrive. You have lost your career, suffered public humiliation and been met with disapproval from your close knit community. A little away from that plot point, I also liked how this book discussed mental health and homophobia. Nur and Hawa both have depression (and Nur anxiety as well) and I thought it was good how it showed that symptoms eased and got worse throughout. Perhaps I would say I’d have liked there to be some discussion of therapy—be that psychological or biological—but I did also like that the book was about characters with mental illnesses but wasn’t about the mental illnesses specifically. With regard to the homophobia, that was more peripheral, but I thought was still dealt with well. I never felt like the book was trying to cover too many topics here—they were all given time and space to be discussed and with nuance.

I feel like the book could have dived into the Nur’s anxiety more and the stigma that surrounds his dealing with depression in his Pakistani-Muslim community, because the book highlighted great points about mental health. The unbearable deflection he put onto his parents the entire book derailed that component. The story kept repeating the same questions Nur had in his mind with no concrete answers nor a solution to resolve his doubts and worries. It seemed like the author was pushing for Nur to have a climactic moment, when at the end Nur was more lost than ever before.however … i found nur and yasmina - especially yasmina - hard to warm to. i struggled to root for either of them. i think them having flaws was effective and refreshing to see, however it’s important to root for characters and often i felt disconnected; which could be due to the 3rd person narration. however, i LOVED the side characters - imran and rahat 🥺 every time they were in a scene i got very very happy - they were just so lovable, and i wish i’d felt that way about nur and yasmina. i also loved nur’s siblings - they were such a great addition to the story. Compelling. In the tradition of Spike Lee's film School Daze, Ali's novel explores the ways that racism may do its insidious damaged even among those who are traditionally not its targets and victims." Rep: British Pakistani Muslim mc with depression and anxiety, British Sudanese Muslim li, British Sudanese Muslim side character with depression, British Pakistani Muslim gay side character, British Palestinian gay side character, British Pakistani Muslim side characters