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Issue 158, Friday 28 June 2002 - 16 Rabi' al-Akhar 1423 Hope yet for Muslim community Readers must feel a certain amount of bewilderment at the contradictions in the experience of the Muslim community in Britain encapsulated in these pages. Recognition of Muslims in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the community and invitations to rub shoulders with Royalty at an interfaith reception held at Buckingham Palace on June 10, vividly contrasts with continued stigmatisation of Muslims by the Establishment and the media. In the past month, this stigmatisation has occurred over the usual areas ranging from asylum to alleged isolationism; oppression of women to 'links' with extremism and terrorism abroad. One sees recognition of the necessity to accommodate the needs of Muslim inmates in prison as a welcome development, but one is depressed by the Government's apparent rejection of Muslims' persistent calls for even-handedness, particularly in foreign affairs. Such discrimination is highlighted in the failure of pressing for the long-overdue implementations of UN resolutions on Palestine and Kashmir. It sometimes seems as though the 'Alternative' Oxford English Dictionary definition of politicians and journalists is true: they shake your hand before an election or an interview and shake your confidence afterwards. But could be change on the way? That august institution of the liberal establishment, The Guardian has just devoted a whole week of features to Islam and Muslims. Their coverage was specifically designed “to look past the stereotypes perpetuated by those who insist that the world is living through a total clash of civilisations”. A poll of Muslim opinion, specially commissioned to launch the series of features on June 17, confirm the findings of a survey conducted by The Muslim News in December, and argued in these columns, which showed that contrary to the impression given by the likes of Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain and Home Secretary David Blunkett, the majority of Muslims regard themselves as being “British” and have no reservations about the need to fully integrate. The Guardian’s evidence was linked with the coinciding publication of a British Council survey of over 5,000 young Muslims in nine Muslim countries, who were found not to b rabidly “anti-Western” as the fundamentalist Right and their Islamophobic cohorts have claimed. The survey showed that 67% of Muslim youths were mainly or very favourable to the UK citing its economic strength, education, technology and what appeared to be a successful multi-cultural society as their reasons. The acknowledgement by The Guardian - that the Muslims have been harshly judged and the European-Islamic relationship was more complex and not as reducible as has been presented in the past - must be seen as a significant step forward. This is especially so since there is implicit validation of the case that young Muslims - that is second or third generation, British-educated, English-speaking young people - are increasingly being made to feel more separate than ever due to white hostility. This disaffection, in part, has been generated by intemperate comments by senior members of the Government and echoed and sensationalised by irresponsible sections of the media. We therefore applaud The Guardian's editorial at the start of its Islam week which concluded with the comment that it is clear “there is a real will amongst Muslims to make a success of integrated modern societies, and it must now be matched with equivalent will elsewhere." |