As a child of immigrants, I’m screwed by the community I’m associated with (Muslims). And I’m screwed by the community I live in (the UK).
The double whammy of disadvantage one faces for being a secular minded individual from a Muslim community living in the UK is really quite astounding. It’s bad enough that I have to battle with tiresome conservative values within my own immediate community, then on top of that, I have to contend with the whims of UK public policy makers who are more eager to have tea with fundamentalists than with secular minded individuals such as myself.
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone hugging Yusuf-al-Qaradawi upon inviting him to the UK (2004). Qaradawi was and is known for his attacks on human rights including supporting the killing of apostates, homosexuals and Israeli civilians. Livingstone defended Qaradawi as a supporter of women’s rights. Activist Peter Tatchell was criticised by Saba Ahmed for pointing out (among other things) that Qaradawi believed in female genital mutilation (FGM) and compelling the wearing of hijab. Neither Tatchell’s facts nor his interpretation were challenged. Instead, we were treated to a textbook example of contemporary, patronising communal discourse. SOURCE: Life Magazine
Identity anti-racists such as the Stop the War Coalition have dismissed and continue to dismiss secular activist voices like those of Gita Sahgal or secular organisations such as Just Peace (a young organisation founded by progressive and secular Muslim activists) and Women Against Fundamentalism. Instead they befriend the likes of Muslim Association of Britain which is an offshoot of the Arab Muslim Brotherhood. It makes my blood boil. It’s a form of racism masquerading as cultural cohesion and tolerance. In reality, such high tolerance for fundamentalists in the UK just exacerbates some of the inaccurate national (and global) perceptions of what all British Muslims are like. Such alliances completely ignore the fact that people like me do exist. There are secular, non-religious Agnostic (or Atheist) cultural Muslims who have needs that can not be served by Muslim fundamentalists, conservative Muslim values, nor by the Ken Livingstones of the world.
The contradictions in the UK’s approach to fundamentalism is encapsulated in the following scenario. Salman Rushdie was knighted after coming out of hiding after 10 years thanks to a fatwa against him. So was the man who stated “Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for [Salman Rushdie].” Iqbal Sacranie. Who by the way believes that homosexuality is “not acceptable” and served as the Secretary General of the “Muslim Council of Britain”. Just wonderful.
Being culturally Muslim does not mean that you are automatically an anti-semitic, anti-women’s rights, homophobic, pro-gender segration halali. I’ve met several people like myself through social networking sites. It is a mark of cynical politics that caricatures such as Iqbal Sacranie have in the past been chosen to represent “British Muslims”. Such individuals eventually end up having an influence over communities that were more progressive before politicians gave these individuals their stamp of approval.
On the one side, I am discriminated against by the society that I live in by getting racist chants thrown at me by football hooligans on a sunny afternoon, in the town that I grew up in. I am racially profiled at the airport causing me to be held longer than other passengers almost every time I fly. Simultaneously, I am discriminated against by the conservative (but not necessarily fundamentalist) Muslim communities which exist in Britain that cannot understand why I am not a misogynistic, homophobe whose sole mission in life is to fit every patriarchal stereotype of a “Muslim woman” that there is. As if things weren’t hard enough, on top of all this I then have to deal with politically correct non-Muslim Brits who don’t have the moral courage to say “You know what? This is bullsh*t!” Instead, cultural relativist pus festers in every corner of British society where I am told by non Muslims to accept the “free choice” of a 12 year old Muslim school girl that attempts to (unsuccessfully) challenge her school in court for not allowing her to wear a face veil (niqab) to school. It’s enough to make me nauseous.
Where do I fit in British society? Oh yeah. That’s right. Nowhere.
Anyway, that’s enough ranting for now. I will write more on this subject (perhaps in a less clumsy manner) at a later date. At that point I will also clarify why I see a contrast between characters such as Qaradawi and the diversity of Muslims in Britain (despite the largely conservative values that run through British Muslim communities). For now, allow me to direct you to Gita Sahgal’s BRILLIANT article on the shrinking secular spaces in the UK. Click on the abstract of the article below to go to the link. Thanks for reading.
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Further reading
“Cohesion, Multi-Faithism and the Erosion of Secular Spaces in the UK” Implications for the human rights of minority women by Pragna Patel. Excerpt: “This approach is being repeated throughout the UK and the organisations that have so far been closed or threatened with closure are secular organisations for black and ethnic migrants, secular women’s refuges for black and minority women, disability groups and rape crisis centres. Following SBS’s[Southall Black Sisters] lead, organisations confronting similar funding problems with their local authorities have mounted legal challenges against their councils using the equality legislation but while some have been successful, others have not. Paradoxically, the emphasis on funding faith-based groups have led some previously secular black and minority organisations to re-fashion themselves as faith-based groups – this has the effect of reinforcing the view that questions of identity within minority communities can be reduced to questions of religious values only. Discussions with a number of antiracist activists in the north of England have suggested that minority groups have recently adopted a faith-based identity in order to attract local authority funding that has been diverted from anti-racist projects to cohesion and preventing violent extremism work.”
“How to be a Real Muslim” by Kenan Malik. Excerpt: “Liberal multicultural policies have not created radical Islam, but they have helped created a space for it in Western societies that previously had not existed.”
why so negative…you be the change you want to see…these men are doing what they believe in…stop complaining and do you!!!
Hello Welda. Which men are doing what they believe in? Politicians? “Religious leaders”? Why does “believing in something” make it acceptable? Surely actions must be in the interests of the greater good? Did you read Gita Sahgal’s article that readers are directed to at the bottom of the post?
Excellent piece, thank you. As someone of Irish descent with an Irish name, I found myself being stopped and searched a lot at airports and ports, especially as I had the high forehead/ curly hair/ dark, full beard of a typical Republican and my wife (actually Scottish background) has curly red hair. That was not stupid at the time as the IRA was bombing Britain. Now the main threat comes from muslim extremists and the far right so I get left alone and people who look like they may come from those communities will get targetted. Livingstone, on the other hand, was just looking for votes. We hear Al Queda described as as muslim terrorists but never hear the Oklahoma City bomber or the Lord’s Resistance Army described as christian terrorists even though they act in the name of the christian god. By coupling the words muslim and terrorist or muslim and extremist, people learn to associate them, the same way as the IRA were called terrorists far more often than the extremist protestant groups, even though the protestants actually killed more people in Northern Ireland.
Great article.
Not quite “nowhere” though – there are other people like you. You mentioned some of them yourself.
Thank you. True, but meeting people online doesn’t fully satisfy the need for maintaining a complete social life. Face to face interactions are important yet we are all scattered and many have in fact left the UK. Some of us are restricted due to family, spouses and so on. Luckily I do not face such restrictions. But indeed, it does feel like one belongs nowhere in popular UK culture and politics.
Oh real life; that’s true! I’m a nerd so I tend to forget.
I tweeted your post and got a lot of good feedback. You’re appreciated, at least.
Thank you for tweeting it! I’m really looking forward to getting hold of a copy of your book “Does God Hate Women” in the not so distant future!
Thanks for the linked essay, too – I hadn’t seen that before, reading over the next couple of days.
I’m glad to not be the only person reacting to the fundamentalist-hugging of people like Livingstone – embracing illiberalism for political advantage? authoritarian fellow-travellers? I don’t know for sure – but it drives me away from that political tribe.
What’s your feeling for the growth in numbers (or not) of secular people in Muslim communities? From people I meet in the Midlands, it feels still-exceptional, but maybe not so much as 10 years ago?
Thanks for your comments. I do hope you enjoy Gita Sahgal’s article. I think it’s useful to anyone who’s disturbed by the upsurge of fundamentalism and government tolerance for it. There’s also a great one by Pragna Patel that kind of complements that article. I’ll put the link for that up there too.
I really couldn’t say for sure what the growth of secular minded individuals has been within British Muslim communities but the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain has 838 members and I come across a few atheists/agnostics who are ex British Muslims occasionally via social networking but apart from that and the famous writer Tariq Ali (and Rushdie of course), I know of few. Most of the secular Muslims or ex Muslims that I interact with regularly are actually based in Pakistan, the US and Canada.
I’m also not sure about whether it’s more common for people to be secular minded British Muslims or ex-Muslims today than it was before or whether we just get to hear about it a [little] bit more than before due to the internet facilitating better information dispersion. Both very interesting questions though. I’d have to check out the PEW and Gallup polls to confirm (if the information is indeed there).
Great to have discovered this blog. I have written again and again and again about the way that a combination of identity politics and state policy has led to religious conservatives being seen as the ‘authentic’ voice of Muslim communities and secular Muslims (and Hindus and Sikhs…) being dismissed as being too ‘Westernized’ or progressive to be truly of their communities. It can feel frustrating and isolating, especially these days. So, do get in touch if you want to.
Mr. Malik, it is a pleasure to have your feedback. I am actually somewhat familiar with your work and it is wonderful to hear from an expert in the field. I have referred individuals to your piece on Islamophobia again and again and received excellent feedback on it from secular minded individuals. I shall most definitely be in touch. Best wishes.
Hi there, Mr malik.
Thanks for the article. It articulates well the position many of us find ourselves in at the moment.
I have been allocated The G ‘tag’ and I belong to the GLBT ‘community’… apparently.
I am very much pro-speech and obviously pro-freedom, and as an humanist I have been alarmed at the growing rate of activists, humanists and feminists who have been labelled racist when speaking out against fundamentalism, whether religious or political.
What is equally alarming is the number of individuals [from the GLBT community] who shout down pro-speech defenders as racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic bigots!
Arrgh. I swear, I despair. So trust me, I understand yours
The political left and those who are usually secularists have lost the plot at the moment, so I can’t wait to read Miss Sighal’s piece to help me make more sense of it all.
Thanks again,
Martyn
Hello Martyn,
Thank you for your constructive feedback regarding the blog. It is a pleasure to have you here. I’m glad that the post resonates with some of your experiences though I do wish that this would change. Do let me know what you thought of Gita Sahgal’s article once you’ve had the opportunity to read it. I also highly recommend Mr. Malik’s work.
Best wishes.
Hi there ‘opinionista’.
That’s how I should have addressed you earlier
My apologies.
Mr Malik, thanks for a great talk at Conway Hall.
theopinionista: Don’t moan! Remember, it’s your culture. You’re just different to us – so different you even have different human rights! Embrace diversity.
Unfunny jokes aside, excellent article and I look forward to reading your other blog entries.
I wish the NSS was open to people who identify with a certain religion (either in a loose cultural sense or even a religious sense). The only criteria should be that someone is a secularist. I think that would be the ideal home.
http://enlightenmentlover.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/religious-and-cultural-sensitivity/
http://enlightenmentlover.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/muslim-women-and-children-are-chattels-not-human-beings-discuss/
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Told you not quite “nowhere.” :- )
Thank you very much Paul. You’re very kind.
Another fan of Ophelia enjoying your blog here, and hoping that we in the states manage to rejuvenate secular government against the attacks of Christian fundamentalists before we have to take on the Muslim version.
More power to you, and all who uncompromisingly point out that cultural diversity must never include letting cultures own people.
Hello, Opinionista.
I’m here because Ophelia linked to your article. Excellent piece.
Hello Chris. Thank you very much for your feedback. Are you by any chance the Australian fiction writer?
From Pharyngula to freethoughtblogs to Ophelia to here
– just wanted to thank you wholeheartedly for the chance to read this!
Thank you very much opposablethumbs
Again, a pleasure to have so much constructive feedback from individuals such as yourself.
Another Ophelia fan who’s now an Opinionista fan. Keep speaking out, please.
Thank you very much Rieux. Pleasure to have your feedback!
HI Opinionista,
what a great article. So true. I’d love to interview you for my series “The Future of Western Civilisation.” at http://www.nicholasbeecroft.com
Dear Opinionista,
I finally got round to reading your piece. It is great and thank you so much for the plug. It is so nice to know that someone is reading my work and finding it useful.
I want to say – don’t despair. I founded the Centre for Secular Space, to have a different kind of dialogue about secularism/fundamentalism and universality of rights than the dominant discourses that we have in Britain. We will work with the older secular organisations, but we bring a different perspective.
There are many secular Muslims ( I don’t think the word is an oxymoron) in Britain. Many who would not count themselves as ex-Muslims ( a very brave group). They are not particularly religious but still feel Muslim in various ways, perhaps just culturally. In Britain, the Asian/black women’s movement was an important secular space and a way of women thinking differently about themselves. Many Muslim women were active in it. For instance Hannana Siddiqui in Southall Black Sisters.
I was fortunate to grow up in India and know so many people right across the sub-continent, who are public intellectuals and very secular ; as well as many people who just get on with their lives. These people are not famous as ‘professional Muslims’ but for what they do – such as the lawyers Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani, the journalist Beena Sarwar, – follow her on twitter – she has been battling with the terrorist front Jamaat ud Dawa, one of the leaders of the lawyers movement Aitazaz Ahsan. All Pakistanis, all standing up for what they believe. In India, they are too numerous to count – but there is the group Sahmat, which does a lot of cultural and political work, the Prof Mushirul Hasan, Prof Aijaz Ahmad and many many others. Oh– Shabana Azmi daughter of radical intellectuals involved with the artists movements , pre independence. The great actress Zohra Sehgal…..
In Bangladesh, the liberation war of 71 was fought to leave a Muslim state and many people are struggling to restore secularism to the constitution. it was removed by military rulers. There are young people working on the issue of crimes committed by the Jamaat e Islami during the liberation war and many names on the Open Letter to Kenneth Roth and the petition attached to it. We have reissued the petition because the first site was problematic.
Please everyone read the letter and sign the petition.
http://www.centreforsecularspace.org/?q=news/open-letter-kenneth-roth-human-rights-watch
Petition at: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/tohrw
Keep writing,
Gita
Gita Sahgal