Engaging with British Muslims -II

ED Bateman, chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police in London, was quite clear about the responsibilities Britain's law enforcers needed to carry out. With the Afro-Caribbean angry young men of the not so distant past now replaced by their Asian counterparts in the United Kingdom, it was priorities that mattered. He informed the group of journalists on a visit to London at the invitation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the focal point of those priorities was policing not so much actual incidents of violence as threats of violence. That was one way of keeping the confidence of the various ethnic communities in the country. And policing the threat surely seemed to be working. In the past few years, 120 individuals suspected to be engaged in terrorist plots, of which there had been anywhere between four and six, had been locked up. A significant thrust of the police, said Bateman, was reaching out to the Muslim community, to those members of it who upheld the ideals of a tolerant democracy and could in turn exercise their influence on those prone to falling back on a misguided policy of using faith as an explanation for their acts of violence. But he admitted that in certain cases, particularly where Islamic television channels were involved, reaching out to a section of Muslims proved pretty intractable.
There was little ambiguity in Bateman about where his men were finding the going hard. It was in not getting through to young, vulnerable groups of Muslims in the United Kingdom. To deal with such difficulties, however, there are groups of young, moderate Muslims. Andleen Razzaq of the group City Circle exemplifies just such a group. Head scarf on, this young woman (somewhat a look-alike of the actress Tabu) explained in brisk manner and in crisp English the goals her organisation pursued, which basically was giving young Muslims space and a forum to express themselves and thereby ease their own way into mainstream British society. And yet, judging by Khurshid Ahmed's comments, a goodly part of the problems Muslims have confronted in the United Kingdom has had to do with the imams in the mosques. As many as 70 per cent of these imams, said the spokesman of British Muslim Forum, speak poor English, have little understanding or background of British customs when they first arrive and generally pursue the methods of teaching that were the rule back home. That was the bad part. The good one is that ideas are on the table about making the rules more attuned to present-day realities, which means that from here on the emphasis will be on bringing in preachers well-versed in English and at the same time conversant with the laws and customs of the UK. That sounded fair enough.
But it was Ali Miraj, once a Conservative Party parliamentary candidate, whose bluntness injected a new spirit into the interaction. He freely acknowledged that he might have lost the parliamentary election because of his refusal to pander to Muslim, as opposed to community, interests. "As I met people, all Muslims, in my constituency and sought their support," said Miraj, "they asked me what I would do for the Muslim community if I were elected." Miraj's response had been brusque: he did not seek a place in the House of Commons as a Muslim but as a British citizen like everyone else. And that was the point he made at the panel discussion at the FCO. Muslims and all other communities in the UK had to do more to integrate themselves into the mainstream. They simply could not come in with their old psychological baggage and claim special privileges on account of their ethnic or religious background. It was refreshing to hear Ali Miraj declaim thus. One wished there were some more such moderate voices around, at that particular point.
Moderation apart, it was the journalist Michael Binyon's feeling that after 11 September but especially following 7 July, the British media went through a learning curve trying to understand Islam and the Muslim mindset. All at once it became clear that the media needed to know about an application of the correct terminology when it came to talking of Muslim matters. For instance, terms such as jihad and fatwa and a whole lot more were what newsmen in the media industry dug into. Faith, said the senior journalist of The Times, had suddenly turned into a live political issue. Of course, such emotive matters as Iraq and Palestine exacerbated Muslim feelings. But he did acknowledge that what was not so long ago British Muslim views on Iraq, on its invasion and the resultant chaos, were now the views of the majority of Britain's people. And then came the question from the visiting journalists: Was the theme of multiculturalism working, was it indeed leading to self-imposed Muslim segregation? The response appeared to be a yes and even the term 'ghetto' came up briefly. And yet Binyon sounded upbeat about the future of British Muslims. Even as he spoke, he noted that some Muslim organisations, four in all, had succeeded in giving shape to a draft set of guidelines for all mosques in the UK to operate on and that he was planning an editorial for his newspaper on the subject.
When you think of the progress the Muslim community has made in the United Kingdom, despite all the difficulties it has been going through and despite the difficulties some of its more radical elements have caused for the government, you cannot but be impressed. Lord Nazir Ahmed has just had a successful trip, along with Baroness Warsi, to Khartoum to have the detained English schoolteacher Gillian Gibson freed. The Bengali Baroness Pola Uddin is a vocal advocate of minority as well as Muslim rights in Britain. It was hugely refreshing to hear her, though, over lunch in the House of Commons speak of Bangladesh, where her journey began, with deep feeling. She remains proud of the secular traditions that led Bangladesh to a war of liberation and that yet fundamentally underpin its politics. There are Muslim newscasters on British television and radio. Names such as Asad Ahmed and Riz Latif and Mishal Hussein spring to mind here.
In Preston, at the University of Central Lancashire and at the Scaitcliffe Community Centre, there were other Muslims, all British and yet all holding fast to their heritage, waiting to give us their views of the world they have been part of. Sisters for Sisters, a group of new British Muslim women, waited to meet us, and we to meet them. (Concluded).
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.