His childhood in leafy England suburbia was blanched so white, he barely knew he was Muslim until February 1989, when Iran’s Ayatollah Khomenei placed a death sentence upon the British author, Salman Rushdie, for his work, “The Satanic Verses.” Sadikali’s interest – obsession really – with the subject of Identity, began on that day.

By day he kids himself that he cares about computing, and by night he writes – usually something caustic. Dear Infidel, his first novel, is the result.

Talking about his inspiration to write, Sadikali says “Growing up, there was a constant frustration when watching ‘Muslim’ news stories. I was always left with the same thought – ‘…but that’s not me.’ In time, I understood that the agenda would always be set by the same band of protagonists, antagonists and apologists – or put another way, I realized that only another channel would throw light on the gaps the media missed. And that channel, for me, was literature.”

Going forward, he wants to play more squash, take his kids for swimming more than once a week, try to be a bit more romantic, and less of an robotic. He is sitting on a collection of short stories that’s about 60 percent complete.