21 November 2005 Blog Home : November 2005 : Permalink
The group was not reflective of young British Muslims. This was a middle-class, socially conservative group that was passionate about political Islam. And it was full of Pakistanis, with only a few African Muslims and Bangladeshis. Ordinary Muslims not too obsessed by religion were not to be found either. In other words treat these words as those of a significant, but vocal (and educated) minority.
This is, I think, important because it puts some of the griping into focus. There is nothing more frustrating for a bunch of would be "community leaders" to discover that their community doesn't really exist and to the extent that it does, doesn't want any leaders.The mood of the forum, held last week, had shifted in unexpected ways; there was less anger from the 60-odd participants from across the UK, but what had replaced it was, perhaps, even more worrying - a pervasive sense of frustration. Much of it is targeted at the government, but some is also directed at the Muslim community itself - why can't it make itself heard? Why can't it address its problems of poverty and educational underachievement? And the persistent questions about representation: who claims to speak for "the community" and why? The self-criticism among this group of largely university-educated Muslims is never far from the surface.
This is I think key. Could it be perhaps that the "muslim community" doesn't actually exist? There may be some commonalities between Muslims but are they different to the commonalities to other immigrants. There are, no doubt problems in some towns but can one generalise? do the Pakistani shopkeepers in Birmingahm (for example) have much in common with the unemployed Pakistanis of Nelson, Lancashire? or do the Nelsonites have more in common with the unemployed whites who live nearby?All us Asians as Asians need to move away from a victim mentality because it is de-moralising. Blaming someone else for your problems, or allowing people like Bunting and Lee Jasper to blame others, means you don’t gather the courage to deal with the problem. It is not empowering.
Then there is the "alcohol problem" (Sunny says WTF? but since Ma Bunting devotes a paragraph to it I think it is worth arguing). Apparently (devout) muslims find it hard to get ahead because they can't go down the pub and network with their colleagues.As ever, eavesdropping on a community talking to itself, as we did last week, throws up new insights: for example, non-Muslim Britain hasn't begun to grasp how big an obstacle alcohol is to Muslims' participation. As alcohol consumption has soared in the past two decades, Muslims have been left to negotiate its centrality in British social life - at work, school or university, or as neighbours - with great difficulty. Alcohol is probably now one of the most effective and unquestioned forms of exclusion practised in the UK, affecting every kind of social network.
This is, I regret to say, utter tosh. Firstly the prophet's strictures on alcohol consumption must be about as strictly obeyed by his followers as the Pope's ones on birth control and it's not like not drinking means you mustn't be in the same room as alcohol. Secondly I know many people, Muslims, mormons, former alcoholics and others who don't drink but who manage to be successful in Britian and/or the USA. All of them go to the pub / dinner / social event and drink water, fruit juice or what ever and manage to socialise just fine. Indeed I know a Muslim chap in the IT industry near London who is (was? its a few years since we last met) remarkably popular as an evening drinking buddy because he was the default designated driver. This is the sort of feeble whining excuse trotted out by losers to justify why they don't succeed. If you are willing to tolerate seeing your networking buddies get plastered and not look all disapproving at them or lecture them about the evils of alcohol they won't mind that you don't get drunk. On the other hand if you must eschew places that serve alcohol and public consumption thereof might I suggest buggering off to somewhere where they agree such as Saudi Arabia?