2009: A great year on umaronline.com

Season Greetings from umaronline.com (123greetings.com)

May I begin by wishing those celebrating, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you are in the best of health in this season of goodwill. As we wave goodbye to 2009, I would like to take this opportunity to review what has been a highly successful and productive year at umaronline.com. The blog, officially established in 2006 was re-launched on 4th June 2009, bringing you exclusive coverage and analysis of the European elections. At that time, I could not have imagined the level of interest a personal website could generate and I was delighted to be proved wrong. The election coverage acted a catapult to coverage of some bigger events as ratings soared in the latter part of the year. To date, I have covered 21 events in Bradford, Manchester and London. Here is an overview of the fun times we have shared. Thank you for your support.

In June 2009, after the election coverage, umaronline.com brought you exclusives from the Bradford Mela 2009. Backstage exclusives included the official ceremony to mark the opening of the 21st Bradford Mela, interviews with some of British bhangra's finest and videos from RDB's rocking performance. The final event covered in June was the launch meeting of the Conservative Muslim Forum in West Yorkshire, attended by around 50 Conservative party MP's and councillors at the Rio Grande in Bradford. As far as comedy value is concerned, seeing Pakistani political leaders fight on TV was a real highlight around the community. However, the month ended with tragic and shocking news that the king of pop, Michael Jackson had died of a heart attack in LA. RIP MJ.

July began with the coverage of Spiritual Reality - an event highlighting the multi-faith nature of Bradford. Video coverage included exclusives from the performance by Sheffield NoXcuse among others. Other highlights from July - Pakistani stage comedy in Bradford, a Kabbadi competition in Bradford, graduation ceremony from Bradford university, ft. Chancellor Imran Khan and the one which got the most acclaim - the visit of Pakistani politician Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman to the UK.

August was by far one of the most successful months on umaronline.com. There were many exclusives and lots of hits. South Asian independence day exclusives included two massive events, each carrying their own appeal. It all started with the flag-hoisting ceremony at Pakistan Consulate in Bradford, as news came through of Umaronline.com starting work with Urdu Times UK to bring you the very best in independent journalism and ground breaking exclusives. The first big event was the Rock On concert, in Manchester, featuring Atif Aslam and other South Asian performers. This was followed by exclusive coverage of Pakistan Dhoom 2009, featuring some of the biggest Pakistani pop-stars at Wembley Arena. I was delighted with the record number of visitors to umaronline.com during August, because by contrast, September was a quiet month as I moved back down South for my final year of the Law degree. Notable, however, was minimal coverage of my first experience of the Notting Hill carnival, along with my first encounter with Scientology.

October saw the return of boxing commentary to umaronline.com as the sister site sportscene.tk closed down. The big fight LIVE came from Nottingham as Carl 'the cobra' Froch took on American Andre Dirrell in the Super Six series. Other highlights from October included an exclusive poll asking Queen Mary law students about their best lecturer, the National Union of Pakistani Students and Alumni (NUPSA) freshers dinner with an exclusive interview with the Pakistani High Commissioner in the UK and the launch of the Conservative Party general election volunteers campaign at CCHQ with Party Chairman Eric Pickles.

November was an even bigger month and it began with an exclusive that had you all talking. Umaronline.com brought you an exclusive interview with Anjem Choudary, the head of Al-Muhajiroun about his 'March 4 Shariah' campaign in the UK. At the same time, there was coverage of secular Muslims who organised a counter-demonstration against Choudary's plan to impose Shariah law in the UK. Big fight LIVE continued with David Haye taking on Nikolai Valuev in Germany, followed by Manny Pacquiao taking on Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. Mid-November, NUPSA was back on umaronline.com with their joint-press conference emphasising Pakistani youth unity.

This month (December), umaronline.com brought you yet more exclusives. The first major event was David Cameron's speech at the Conservative Muslim Forum Eid party, a personal favourite of many. This was followed by coverage of an intensive debate on the Islamification of Britain held by the Muslim Debate Initiative (MDI) in Central London.

So there you have it, thanks to you, 2009 has been a superb year on umaronline.com. It was, however, just the beginning and what's to say 2010 will not be bigger and better. I aim to bring you more independent journalism, more commentary/analysis and more exclusives from the world of news, sports and entertainment, right here. Thank you so much for your help and support throughout 2009. Thank you for visiting umaronline.com and thank you for taking part in the big debate by commenting on my coverage. Once again, I would like to wish those celebrating a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope 2009 was a successful year for you and 2010 also brings bundles of joy. The man with the camera will keep on exploring in 2010 and I'd like you to be part of my journey. Keep reading umaronline.com.

Warmest Regards.

Umar Farooq

www.umaronline.com