Failed with the first bomb.
Bruce http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=18344 Britains Multiculturalism Falters While the British government worries about the face veils worn by a very small minority of Muslim women, Britain's multicultural society addresses its deeper problems and threats in uneven ways, says Wendy Kristianasen. Jack Straw started it. Britains former foreign minister, who is MP for Blackburn in Lancashire, where nearly 20% of his constituents are Muslim, wrote in his local paper that he felt uncomfortable about talking to someone face-to-face who I could not see because they were wearing a face veil (niqab). It was a visible statement of separation and of difference." The niqab was an easy target: a cultural attack made for political reasons. Straws decision to raise the issue created a storm amplified by the media and used by politicians as Labour figures positioned themselves for the announced post-Blair era, as government discipline broke down and as Britains disastrous foreign policies in Iraq unravelled. Labour sensed it was losing the voters over Iraq and perhaps looked to the white working-class vote, while gambling on the retention of the core of its massive Muslim vote of the past. Was it also a distraction from the uncertain war on terror and the unending bad news from Iraq? The prime minister, Tony Blair, had been forced to agree with the head of Britains army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, who had said the army should get ourselves out [of Iraq] sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems. The suspension of Aishah Azmi, a 23-year-old classroom assistant at a junior school in the Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, for refusing to remove her niqab in class, intensified the debate. On 15 October the government minister for race and faith, Phil Woolas, told the Sunday Mirror that she should be sacked. She has put herself in a position where she cant do her job. Harriet Harman, a minister in the department of constitutional affairs and, like Straw, probably a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour party, told the New Statesman that she would like to see an end to the niqab because I want women to be fully included. If you want equality, you have to be in society, not hidden away from it. Then it was Blairs turn. He said he backed Azmis suspension, as part of a difficult but necessary debate about how Islam integrates into British society and the modern world. The niqab was a mark of separation and that is why it makes other people from outside of the community feel uncomfortable. On 19 October a Leeds employment tribunal dismissed Azmis claims for discrimination and harassment, but awarded her £1,100 for victimisation by Kirklees council over its handling of the dispute. The tribunal rebuked government figures, including Blair, for commenting on the issue while it was sub judice. Azmi announced an appeal against the ruling. The government then brought schools into the debate: State schools should introduce ethnic quotas into admissions criteria to end segregation along cultural and religious lines (school heads saw this as unworkable); new state-funded faith schools should take up to 25% of pupils from outside backgrounds; independent faith schools (including 114 Muslim schools) could lose charitable status if they did not integrate with the local community. Changing partners On 11 October, Ruth Kelly, the government secretary for communities, publicly warned the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the main umbrella organisation with its 400 affiliates, that funding and engagement must shift significantly towards organisations tackling extremism and defending our shared values." This no doubt referred to the governments preferred new partner, the Sufi Muslim Council (headed by Hisham Kabbani), linked to the wider Naqshbandi Sufi movement. This has risen to prominence in the United States, where it is backed by neoconservatives and the Bush administration. The Sufi Council, with 102 affiliates and limited support mainly in the northwest of England, was launched in July 2006 at the House of Commons; Kelly gave the keynote speech. Government relations with the MCB have deteriorated over the past year because of the MCBs perceived failure to confront extremism since the London Transport bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 commuters were killed, seven of them Muslim. The failure may say more about the MCBs competence than its political orientation, although no special pleading could excuse its refusal to observe the annual Holocaust memorial day, of particular importance on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This summer the rift deepened when the MCB joined 38 Muslim associations, three Muslim Labour MPs and three peers in sending an open letter to Blair expressing concerns about foreign policy: The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all." The letter came amid the arrests, ethnic profiling and heightened security after the announcement on 10 August by the home secretary, John Reid, of a plot to commit mass murder on a scale never before witnessed in Britain through the detonation of improvised bombs aboard transatlantic airliners. After the 7/7 bombings the government had consulted the Muslim community extensively under the banner of Preventing Extremism Together (PET), and there were recommendations for joint initiatives from both sides. The most promising were a roadshow of personalities and thinkers to address young people around the country, and the establishment of the Mosques and Imams national advisory board (MINAB) to consider the need for reform of teaching in some mosques. The MCB is only one among four associations in MINAB thus increasing the representation of different Muslim practices within Britain. A new body, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), has also been appointed; it will fill a gap in race relations legislation by recognising religious affiliation as part of the definition of an ethnic group. With a yearly budget of £70m, it will be Europes largest human rights body. But the government has refused Muslim demands for an independent public inquiry into the events of 7/7, which had also been requested by victims families. This refusal came on top of the governments subservience to the United States and to its unpopular foreign policies, which have alienated Muslims through their persistent double standards and contributed to the radicalisation of some Muslims. The governments failure to address such core concerns means that the PET consultations have felt patronising: as if reduced to mere lobbying for funding over cucumber sandwiches in Downing Street. John Reids advice to Muslim parents in East London on 20 September was patronising too. He told them keep a closer watch on their children to prevent radicalisation by extremists: Look for the telltale signs now and talk to them before their hatred grows. These fanatics are looking to groom and brainwash children, including your children, for suicide bombings." A golden era After the election of New Labour in 1997 there seemed to be a golden era of secured relations with British Muslims. They entered parliament, both the Commons and the Lords, and were given state funding for faith schools. Religion was introduced into the 2001 census. There was a flowering of Muslim newspapers and magazines, a television channel, schools, colleges, professional and political lobby groups, while London became a centre of the $250bn Islamic financial industry. However, Lord (Nazir) Ahmed, the staunch Labour supporter who became the first Muslim peer in 1998, said: The vast majority of us, 90-95%, have traditionally voted Labour, but support is ebbing. Relations with the government are probably the worst theyve ever been the problem is foreign policy. Muslim underachievement is at an all-time high, with escalating drugs and related crimes. Extremism, yes, theres a problem, but only about 20 of the 1,000 arrested have been charged. There are genuine fears about security. The much-reported preachers of hatred -- Abu Qatada, Abu Hamza and their lesser-known acolytes -- spread more violent extremism than they provided intelligence to the authorities. There was a breach in the covenant of security under which they were allowed to serve as honeypots (as long as they did not call for physical violence) in order that their operations could be open to surveillance and penetration. Even after the 7/7 bombings and the banning of al-Muhajirun and its clones, the activities continue, if less openly. There is concern about radicalisation among Britains 2 million Muslim citizens, especially after well-founded reports that al-Qaida is targeting Britain through the extensive British-Pakistani connection. (Of 2 million British Muslims in the 2001 census, 660,000 were Pakistani; there are 500,000 annual visits between the countries.) The sense of alienation that encourages radicalisation has been fed by British and U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world, in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere. Despite tough anti-terror measures including the 2006 Terrorism Bill, Tarique Ghaffur, assistant commissioner to the Metropolitan Police (who is the highest-ranking Muslim and Asian police officer in the western world), expressed concern at the growing separateness of teenagers, especially among converts and the Pakistani community. Muslim families are no longer able or willing to share anxieties about their children with the authorities. He was worried about young Britons travelling on their own without sufficient supervision, sponsored by older people, a concern he had raised with Pakistani authorities. For among young Muslims there is anger and a feeling of injustice but there are also elements of denial: They have their own myths, and through the internet it leads to a huge industry of conspiracy theories. Khaled experienced this and described how he became radicalised at 17: Its about energy. I felt I had limited energy and I was lonely. If youre lost, the Salafi package is very appealing, there are no grey areas. I came to London and bumped into a group of Muhajirun. Youre hooked up with them as soon as you meet them. Theyre moving, trying to change things. And it was Islamic. The violent radicals, the jihadi, are the least alienated, the most integrated. Theyre high achievers. As I radicalised, I felt myself filling with confidence. Then I got arrogant and wanted to break the apathy of the others, the alienated masses. The extent of disadvantage A small minority become radicalised but the really widespread problem is crime. Muslims now represent 11% of the prison population; the number grew by 161% between March 1994 and June 2004, when it reached 6,571 of the total prison population of 74,488. The 2001 census revealed the extent of Muslim disadvantage: Their unemployment is three times the national average, 33% live in the most deprived areas and 41% in sub-standard housing; 33% have no qualifications. Kurshid Ahmed, from Dudley in the Midlands, is chairman of the British Muslim Forum (which is spiritually close but politically distant from the Sufi Muslim Council) and a partner in MINAB. He speaks for a large Muslim underclass in Britain: The Barelwi Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are not properly represented: 80% of Pakistanis are from rural areas. Most are illiterate, even in Urdu. Theyve worked here in factories for 40 or 50 years and still cant speak English. The same goes for the Bangladeshis and the Yemenis. Muslim children usually attend madrasas attached to local mosques until they are aged between 13 and 15; there they learn about Islam and how to recite the Quran for two hours daily after school and at weekends. As Ahmed pointed out: In the disadvantaged Barelwi communities the imams come from the home villages; theyre competent but they cant communicate with the young because they dont speak English, or barely. Its a huge problem. The reason for having these imams is local allegiance, and because theyre cheaper: £50 to £80 for a long working week. Ahmed, whose organisation is a partner in MINAB, wants to deal with this. Salma El Gaziari, 16, an articulate student who has begun to address public meetings in Leicester, agrees that the trouble starts in childhood, even among the more advantaged Deobandi community: Citizenship needs actively to be taught in the madrasas when children are still young. And they need to address political issues. Kids go there with real problems about politics and they get told the Islamic way to wash. Theres a vacuum. The void widens in their teens. But the trouble starts at home. That needs addressing first. Young Muslims feel misunderstood by their older, male family members. So they make trouble to get heard. Its an easy answer to worrying issues, especially the feeling that the whole world hates you. Those views were shared by Muhammad Kirk Master, 32, half African, half Irish, a social worker in Leicester, who spoke of alienation leading youths to crime and hard drugs, including dealing. In one area of Leicester three-quarters of the dealers are Muslim. He saw that the madrasas are crucial: Kids either buy into the madrasa mentality or they disengage and fall into bad ways or bad politics. They say they feel faceless. In 2002 he set up Build, an ambitious project that will eventually target 15,000 children through the madrasas. Last year he ran a pilot project on drug abuse on a local station, Ramadan Radio. The response, via phone, was impressive. We realised there was a massive need for our work: one-to-one mentoring, youth development (sports, drop-in clubs) and educational advice (drugs, drink, sexual health). Were offering this in the madrasas, in order to provide what is missing, approaching them through the schools and parents. The main 12 madrasas have accepted; this is just a beginning. Diverse but parallel Leicester is regarded as a model of British diversity: 33% of its 300,000 inhabitants (and nearly 50% of its children) are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or of Caribbean descent. Inter-communal relations are excellent. The Federation of Muslim Organisations (FMO), an affiliate of the BMC, calls itself the voice of the citys 50,000 Muslims and is active in education, social welfare, policing and interfaith work. Suleman Nagdi, from Zimbabwe, a prominent FMO member, said: Leicester is special because many of us are from Africa, where we were already minorities. It was easier for us to integrate and weve been successful. We came for security whereas the people from the [Indian] subcontinent came for work and had to adjust to being a minority. At an interfaith meeting, Muslims and Christians cosily agreed, over weak coffee and samosas, on the calamitous nature of Britains foreign policy and the excesses of ethnic profiling. To mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, they had held a cricket match between clergy and imams, with an Orthodox Jew and a Hindu as umpires. But at the large, Barelwi Leicester Central Mosque, where the faithful came in thousands for pre-Ramadan prayers, Sheikh Shahid Raza revealed the less convivial fact that the Deobandis had ousted the Barelwis from the old FMO board, which had been inclusive. In Leicester only the FMO people knew of the PET initiatives, and there was some opposition. Ismail Patel, an optician originally from Malawi, criticised the roadshow (organised by the magazine Q News and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies): Its a colonial way of doing things, bringing in foreigners to tell people how to behave. Outside London, few had heard of PETs Hamza Yusuf Hanson, a U.S.-based evangelist, or Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-Egyptian philosopher. There was also strong criticism of the government promotion of the Sufi Muslim Council. Patel and the Friends of al-Aksa organised a protest counter-roadshow of 30 British scholars to speak in six cities, including Leicester. Parallel life is a fact, even in Leicester, said Riyaz Laher, a teacher. But its not always the fault of the Muslims, people move out. He lives in Highfields, an inner city area where 75% of the inhabitants are Muslim. It has 19 mosques. With the rise in house prices around the mosques, I could afford to move to a more affluent, mixed area, but Im lazy. Here I can just step outside my house and there are mosques all around. Outside Highfields, at work or college, where people do meet, we get on fine. My best friend is Irish and Jamaican. A coming to terms In Dewsbury, a former textile mill town of 50,000, 33% of the population is Muslim. Savile Town is almost all Asian, a mixture of (Barelwi) Pakistanis and (Deobandi-Tablighi) Indians. Its narrow, quiet streets of small terraced houses are dotted with Islamic womens clothing shops, an Asda hypermarket on the land of the old mill and six mosques including the immense Markazi mosque, purpose-built in 1980, the European headquarters (Merkez) of the Jamaat Tabligh. Dewsbury has been wary of journalists since the reports this summer linking the Jamaat Tabligh to al-Qaida. Mohammad Siddique Khan, the 7/7 bombing ringleader, lived here. But Abdul Hai Munshis family welcomed me into their home, where they were watching cricket on television; seven-year-old Ismael supported England of course. Abdul Hais father, Sheikh Yakub, joined us. He is a respected, and locally revered, Islamic scholar, a founder of the Merkez. The family was devastated by the arrest of the sheikhs 16-year-old grandson on 7 June on a security-related charge: The police burst in and treated us brutally. We didnt know what was happening; we only had contact with the boy by email or cell phone. We feel like victims. To an extent we are. The boy has since been released on bail. It was surprising how reluctant people in Dewsbury were to say that, as Muslims, they felt targeted. At first, they would only admit off the record that many now avoided travelling by public transport because you dont want to make people feel bad. But you feel it in small, unsaid ways, like in the supermarket. A few weeks later, some of the more affluent people were wondering if it was time to pack their bags. Bashir Karolia, chairman of the Indian Muslim Welfare Association in nearby Batley, which is now trying to open to the wider community, said: Its really our fault. We kept ourselves to ourselves. We should have been telling people about Islam before 9/11. People have been struggling to understand problems in their midst. In Savile Town madrasa texts are mostly in Urdu, which most children do not understand, while teachers often speak little English. Abdel Hai did not think the madrasas were the problem: Its the ones who havent been to the madrasa who are the trouble. We need to keep our ethnic culture. As Gujarati speakers we will hang on to the core language, Urdu, come what may. There have been positive initiatives to address Muslim issues. Sheikh Yakub founded the Sharia Council, one among a very few such national bodies, to resolve practical problems about divorce, marriage and inheritance, using Islamic precepts to supplement the British rulings. Maulana (sheikh) Ilyas Dallal, 36, is head of the Illahi Masjid madrasa in Dewsbury and a lecturer at Leeds University. The madrasa has 200 children aged between 5 and 13; a quarter of its teaching is in Urdu, the rest in English (in other parts of Dewsbury it is in Gujarati and Urdu). He had not heard of MINAB. He thought schools should teach citizenship, not madrasas, and called for more interaction between them. Two months ago the madrasas of Dewsbury, Batley and Huddersfield met to consider madrasa coordination. He spoke about radicalisation: The young are only getting part of the message of Islam Theyve only got to turn on their TV either theyre using foreign policy as an excuse or its being used by others to radicalise them. It isnt to do with social deprivation. Its after they stop coming to the madrasas that they get into drugs, crime and so on and they may feel guilty. So they drift into their own networks, through the internet. They badly need mentors, a local role model, because theres a lot of tension out there. Kurshid Ahmed said of Muslim immigration to Britain: First we tackled discrimination. Then we campaigned for multiculturalism. But some communities have turned into cultural ghettoes, segregated. Now we need a new definition of an integrated society; not assimilation as in France. The model should be equality plus participation plus engagement. But that means a two-way partnership which is difficult in the present climate of fear. A young Muslim generation is both integrated and dangerously separate; you become separate if you dont feel British enough. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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