7/7: Anger or twisted extremist ideology ?
BY Foster Asamani
As the death toll in the 7/7 atrocities in London continue to rise, so also have the arguments and opinions over what really motivated these young British Moslems to take their lives and that of so many innocent ones.
As an immigrant in Britain, I feel a deep sense of frustration about the emerging discourse which has informed this debate; the patronising and flawed proposition that British foreign policy was entirely to blame, and I am particularly keen to address the issues of anger and esteem which featured prominently in the article written by Imram Khan in the Evening Standard of Friday the 15 July 2005. In this article, Mr Khan used the profile of a 26 year old Pakistani Moslem computer science graduate, Faisal to depict the mood of Pakistani immigrants and how some of them have expressed glowing admiration for the suicide bombers.
First of all I find it rather difficult to sustain the assertion that immigrants of Pakistani descent are “the lowest of all social indicators’’ and are looked down on by others, in spite of their contribution to the British economy. The truth is that most of us can hardly differentiate between a Pakistani, Indian and those of Bangladesh backgrounds. For much the generic identity, which may be attributed to people of that origin, is that they are Asians and among immigrant communities especially those, of sub-Saharan African descent, Asians (Pakistanis inclusive) are a huge success, which we can only look on with, envy.
When Asian immigrants arrived here mainly from East Africa, they had a lot of support to set up businesses, and as a result bought their own homes thereafter. They have worked hard, running corner shops as satirised in the BBC sitcom, ‘Open all hours’. Their children were sent to public schools and made it to top British universities. Today no other ethnic group in Britain can boast of more doctors, accountants, and computer scientists and those in City jobs than those of Asian origin.
On the other hand when compared with those of African descent, the pictures get murky. Most live in predominantly inner city London, typically in council accommodation and supporting a colony of dependants in their native counties. African immigrants are also less likely to land a city job, find themselves in government, or running their own businesses. Go to tube stations, sorting offices, early morning and late evening office cleaning contracts and you will find African immigrants: engineers, chartered accountants, PhD holders (some from British universities) with no opportunity to work in their areas of training and expertise. I know many colleagues from Ghanaian /Nigerian universities and from my days at the university of London who had studied law, have qualified as accountants, engineers etc but turning into areas such as nursing, social work etc to just to make a livelihood. Who deserves to be angrier?
Furthermore, Asians immigrants who are apparently angry with the system, have had unfettered rights to free speech and to freedom of worship than they can ever dream of in their native countries. Most children in this country may never know that their great grand fathers pioneered missionary work in African because mosques appear to out number church buildings in East and West London.
Talk about anger? Africans have the right to vent their spleen at many things. In the UK those from Afro- Caribbean origin have endured years of torment from stop and search procedures from the police. It’s only after 9/11 that some Asian looking residents became targets to this policy. Our continent had long served as the play ground of western imperialism and capitalist exploitation; and for many decades we have been cogs in the capitalists’ machine. Hunger, disease and war, which have ravaged the continent have some root causes in the scramble for and partition of Africa.
Western trade and foreign policy has led to the demise of local industries, and over dependence on the consumption of imports from the West has killed the incentive to industrialise. 30,0000 children die a day from effects of preventable diseases and there has never been a real momentum from tackling diseases like malaria apparently due to the lobby of some drug companies. Many corrupt African leaders were empowered and armed by some Western governments and as a result had the audacity to steal money which found its way into Swiss bank accounts.
Ironically, the bombers chose the day when the most significant forum ever was being held to genuinely discuss Africa and world poverty to take the issues off the media spotlight.
Africa endured the dehumanising effects of slave trade and apartheid and for generations the slave /master relationship still dominates our mentality. But we have never channelled our anger in the destruction and killing of innocent lives. Muslims in Britain are not the only ethnic /religious group that constitute the British multicultural project. I daresay they, like others, may have genuine issues which affect their communities but if all other constituencies feel that their voices can only be heard through violence, this country will descend into a state of anarchy, and we’ll lose the peaceful and stable sanctuary which this island has offered us since the Windrush.
As a student growing up in Ghana, we continually debated the changing nature of religion and its relevance to Africa, with the topic: Should Africa be Christianised or Christianity be Africanised? Although we never found answers to this searching question, it helped dispel some of the myths about Traditional African religious practices which were jettisoned in favour of Christianity. Even now as I write there are certain elements in African society who reminisce with nostalgia the purity of African religion before the arrival of the western religions. The feeling is that Asian countries like Japan and China who resisted the influx and dominance of Western religion have developed faster. There is no empirical evidence to sustain this folklore.
British Muslims need to begin some of these debates with their youth in the changing cultural setting they find themselves and embrace the principles enshrined in the Covenant of security-never harming those who provide you with sanctuary. The delusion that you can practice extreme radical Islamic ideology (pure Islam) in multi ethnic, multicultural Britain is light years away from reality. This ideology is a recipe for violence, death and destruction. The examples of the Taliban, violence in Indonesia and in Pakistan and northern Nigeria where churches have been burnt down and many lives were lost, shows that theology which is driven by hatred is false religion and goes against the grain of mainstream Islamic teaching. It makes no sense to use Iraq as a catalyst for killing others in Britain when Moslem insurgents continue to kill an average 800 other Moslems a month.
As immigrants in Britain, we cannot, in the name of anger use violence to influence government policy. We need to channel all our energies in addressing the issues which face us. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be in prison, less likely to be in employment, our children are more likely to be excluded from school and leave school without qualification. We are victims of social exclusion, discrimination at work and inferiority complex. We need to start engaging with the political process by forming little pressure groups which can give us a voice. The sort of thing that happened on 7/7 leaves us less empowered, more vulnerable and gives extreme right wing ideologues the chance to scupper the unity and cohesion that binds us in Britain.
Another theme which has been repeatedly explored is the issue of integrating Muslims into British community. The patronising idea that someone somewhere should single out young British Muslims for a hug and cuddle to show interest in their affairs makes my blood boil.
Evidently, immigrating into Britain from Asia or Africa can sometimes create disaffection, alienation and frustration. For us who grew up in commonwealth countries, our education, and curriculum was a mirror of the British system. We studied Shakespeare, read Chaucer, the metaphysical poets, Milton’s Paradise Lost and various classical novels in our English literature syllabuses. We were confident about our usage of English after many years of being taught in it. But the typical immigrant into Britain, risks being mocked and misunderstood. The English are particularly unforgiving about the way others speak their language.
This can knock the confidence of many and encourage them to recoil into their own circles with little chance of ever learning about others’ way of life.
For Asian muslins, it could be more complicated. Their religion forbids them to go into pubs which are the hub around which most British community lives revolve. Those who attempt to break away from family rules and idiosyncrasies and intermarriages are ostracised. How then can integration take place with such widening gulfs in values?
For those born here however, the opportunities to overcome some of these barriers abound. From play grounds to universities, there are ample opportunities to make friends across cultures without necessarily suffering from the identity crisis which currently torments Faisal in Mr Khan’s article. It is clear that most Moslem youth, even those who carried out the bombing have embraced contemporary western fashion. They don’t go about in long white gowns. It is those who seek to distort their mental and ideological psyche that are a menace to their integration and thus have led them to a path of violence and confusion. Here the Imams, clerics, Islamic scholars and community leaders need to take steps to sanitise the subtle political messages which corrupt the otherwise peaceful message of Islam.
I make no apologies to suggest that like me, most Pakistanis in Britain are economic migrants. Their county is not at war and endowed with talent, resource and economic clout which make them a Nuclear power. Those who fantasise pure Islam, untainted by Western “immorality”, can head for the Thorabora Mountains which are awash with many with like minds. I also have a simple message for them: leave our hosts and their children alone and give us peace to enjoy this haven of relative tranquillity.
For us immigrants in Britain, let not anger and hatred destroy the unity and beauty of our diversity. This is what makes us the most successful in Europe. I have been to Germany and seen the turbulent German- Turkish immigrant relationship and in France the North Africans and their Colonial masters at each others throat.
In Christian religion, the bible encourages us to be angry (even God did) but not to sin. LET NOT THE SUN GO DOWN ON OUR ANGER.
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