| Subject: Re: Muslim Identity in Contemporary Britain |
Author:
Alya Shakir
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Date Posted: Thursday, June 16, 16:44:23
In reply to:
Salma
's message, "Muslim Identity in Contemporary Britain" on Wednesday, December 01, 9:02:26
Great that you're covering this issue. I am not a translator, but that's fine! Conferences like that run by the Guardian only emphasise differences and push Muslims in Britain to consider assimilation, rather than integration, which I think, we have achieved rather well. Alya Shakir.
>How would you describe your identity?
>
>Tuesday November 30, 2004
>
>The Guardian
>
>"It is not about what people feel but what they are
>allowed to feel," said Alya Shakir, a translator, who
>believes a public declaration of being a "British
>Muslim" is impossible because of stereotypes
>surrounding Britishness.
>"We are restricted by how people perceive us and what
>they allow us to be. You can say to people you are
>British and they will push you for another explanation
>because we do not fit their idea of what 'British' is."
>
>Such signifiers as an Islamic name or a non-western
>looking face provide a ready-made barrier to one's
>citizenry entitlement, according to Iman Naji, a
>student at Surrey University. "I was born and brought
>up here, all I know is a British life, but we have to
>accept the fact we will never be 100% British."
>
>Raihana Nasreen, a medical student at King's College
>London, said: "I am Muslim first because I measure
>everything against that."
>
>Being a British Muslim is an easier space to inhabit
>in multicultural hotspots such as London and
>Manchester than the backstreets of Bradford,
>participants agreed. But what is clear for these
>second- and third-generation Muslims is that the
>question of passing the "cricket test", as coined by
>the former Tory minister Norman Tebbit, has had its
>day.
>
>Being British can no longer be determined by which
>team you support in an international game. "That's the
>politics of empire, the legacy of partition," said
>Navid Ahkter, a television producer. "It's a very
>outdated notion to feel we have to go through these
>tests at all. There are many ways of being British."
>
>Multiple identities for those whose family roots reach
>abroad can be "comfortably" negotiated, Mr Ahkter
>added, explaining: "I am absolutely British. I am
>absolutely Pakistani. I am absolutely Muslim. I am all
>of those."
>
>"'British Muslim' is a title with an empty page, we
>have a good opportunity to start defining it," he
>concluded.
>
>Consensus was more easily reached on a question about
>whether Muslims should participate in British
>political life. Speakers revealed clear frustration at
>the way the country's 1.5 million Muslims are
>perceived as having different "needs" from their
>non-Muslim neighbours. Their interests are often
>presumed to be about foreign policy rather than
>domestic issues.
>
>Yet Muslims were no more or less likely to be
>concerned by the government's decision to invade Iraq,
>for example, than other citizens of Britain. While
>first-generation Muslims in Britain may have focused
>their sights on politics "back home", the younger
>generations are engaged by social issues here in
>Britain. "I don't know why they think we need
>amazingly different things," said Lorraine Hamid, a
>Whitehall civil servant. There was a strong awareness
>that voter apathy was a malaise affecting young people
>everywhere, not just in Muslim homes. May al Timmini,
>a locum pharmacist, rejected the idea that Muslims
>vote on faith issues. "I would not be thinking from
>the point of view of how [politicians] are going to
>serve the Muslim community, but how are they going to
>serve the community I live in? Are they going to
>provide better roads, more jobs? Those are my
>priorities."
>
>Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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