So, what exactly do Muslims want?

TV Review: Dispatches: What Muslims Want, Channel 4

Following one of the 'most comprehensive surveys of British Muslims ever conducted', Jon Snow toured the country looking for Muslim opinion to answer the pressing question: what do the Muslims of Britain want? Snow has a (deserved) reputation for being a thoughtful presenter, especially on his slot as the anchor for Channel 4's flagship news programme every weekday evening. But I was disappointed by this programme and thought it rested on the ridiculous premise of a 'one British culture'; mono-cultures do not last very long.

The programme revolved around major themes of the NOP survey: Religiousness, Britishness, integration, the shari'ah, freedom of speech, conspiracies and Islamophobia, and terrorism. Snow interviewed British Muslims on these themes, whether those born in the country or born abroad and having gained citizenship.

In the usual daily flurry of emails between myself and my friends this morning, all the Muslims agreed that the poll and programme were probably fair reflections of the general views held by a good number within the community. We all agreed that, for example, that the conspiracy theory on the attacks on the World Trade Centre is a widely held belief (the poll said 45% of Muslims hold this view, with the number rising amongst the 18-24 category). This morning, on the way to work, I also met an old school friend  who also saw the programme; he also, rather enthusiastically, expressed the view that the attacks on the WTC were a conspiracy (I told him he shouldn't confuse political opportunism or incompetence for a conspiracy). Conspiracy theories amongst Muslims are not new, and I am sure many Muslims reading this blog will have received those (in)famous emails on anti-Islamic Coca-Cola, Zionist Pepsi, Zion and The Matrix (notice a common theme?). The worse thing is that these conspiracies can be held by highly-educated people, who forget their critical thinking at the drop of a topi when it comes to political events involving Islam and Muslims. What is shocking, and also disappointing, is the survey revealed that only a third of Muslims surveyed thought the Holocaust was an historical incident as accepted by an overwhelming number of people. Do too many Muslims confuse, deliberately or otherwise, the question of Israel with Judaism and the Holocaust? Probably, although some if it might be driven by antisemitism; the question of the Holocaust's exploitation for current political purposes is a different question altogether.

A good portion of the programme looked at views on sex, marriage and drinking alcohol, as a means of identifying the 'Britishness' felt by Muslims (around half thought Britain was 'their country' and 38% thought both Britain and Islam were not mutually exclusive). This was an attempt to gauge how Muslims viewed the moral level of the country as a whole. There is also no doubt that most Muslims are, or would like to see themselves, as 'conservative' on some social issues such as marriage. It is a stricture of faith, held without almost any question by Muslims, that marriage proceeds sex. As with the prohibition of alcohol, the use of which is hardly novel amongst Muslims, it doesn't follow that Muslims do not ignore such limits. But the traditional family has a strong place amongst Muslims, even those who might be promiscuous, which is reinforced by both religion and their cultural backgrounds. Homosexual relations are, for example, a strict no-no even for the most 'Westernised' Muslim.

What was false in this moral test, was the relationship Snow drew between 'integration' and the amount of alcohol one consumed or how many sexual partners one had been with. Equally odd was his belief that engaging in both practices made you more 'liberal'; Stalin enjoyed more than his fair share of the good stuff and Chairman Mao was no monk, yet no-one would consider them as paragons of liberalism and tolerance. I know bigots who enjoy drinking and who regularly cheat, or aim to cheat, on their spouses (I've worked in the offshore oil/gas industry). Snow's remarks sound much like the 'our way of life' trope we read in the Daily Wail, or the liberal bigotry of secularists who moan if a woman wants to wear a headscarf. Surely, the very 'liberal society' Snow is looking to promote gives individuals the choice and responsibility to act according to their beliefs, in return for giving the same tolerance to others. (Incidentally, my friend emailed me to say I told you so.) However, despite attempting to gauge the moral views of Muslims with the rest of the country, no data was provided in the programme or the survey on how other Britons, religious and secular, viewed these same issues. We weren't for example, shown what other women might think of the views expressed by two young Muslim women about the emergence of a very degraded sexuality.What do the Methodists and Anglicans who live across my street think of these issues? What are the views of observant Jews, Hindus and Sikhs for that matter? No doubt there are moral concerns in Britain; I, for example, find our treatment of old people quite repulsive. Binge-drinking is a huge social and financial burden and raises its own ethical dilemmas (e.g. should an alcoholic be required to pay for operations due to his excessive drinking?) Why should Muslims not discuss these issues and raise them as concerns? I'm not evangelical (it's not in my nature), but moralising in Britain is hardly a new activity, be it religious or from the secular pulpit. Why should religious people (in general, Muslims specifically) not speak up about the break down of social and family bonds; the crassness of a consumerist throwaway culture; and the degredation of learning and ethical values in our schools, where it is no longer important to learn to be 'better people' but unthinking morons who must simply be 'fit for purpose' in a capitalist society. Indeed such criticisms of contemporary popular cultures and practices are not restricted to religious conservatives, but engaged in by all people, secularists included.

We were also shown a young Muslim who gave up his 'Western' ways and become more religious; at the same time, he had isolated himself from his friends. The brother said that he had not 'made new Muslim friends, but simply felt easier at home now'. In other words, his time was dedicated to his family. This is the opposite of what a lot of first generation Indians and Pakistanis experience when their children suddenly become more religious or active in Islamic politics -- the common complaint is that the son or daughter is away from home a lot, neglecting the 'duties of the house' in the pursuit of their new found religiosity. The brother had stopped wearing 'Western' clothes and I did wonder what that meant; afterall, pantaloons were poularised by the Ottomans. I am not an Arab, so why must I feel the need to dress like one? More pressing was the suggestion that by becoming more religious, he had become a 'separatist'. This is what Snow suggested some of the Muslims he'd met were; not extremists, but separatists. Now there are Muslims who promote a segregation between Muslims and non-Muslims, and segregation is an issue that is being addressed (and which does not concern only Muslims). I knew of a brother, an English convert, who had stopped seeing his own family because they were not Muslims (thankfully, he managed to mix with some other people and saw the folly of this belief). This is plainly silly as one must interact with all sorts of people on a daily basis. From my own experiences, Muslims who might have held these viewes during their university days have mellowed out later in life and given up some of these beliefs, recognising them as either impractical or wrong. The other two people Snow interviewed were quite obviously Hizb al-Tahrir members given the rhetoric they were using (whenever you hear anything about "man-made systems" and Islam being "the solution" to all of "man's problems" from an English-speaking Muslim, you can be 99% certain he is a member of the Party of Liberation (from reason)). But I've even heard Hizb al-Tahrir members, who have now changed their views, urge Muslims to 'contribute to society'. And that is the better question Snow should have raised: the one related to participation as opposed to integration. Participation requires people recognise they have something invested in society around them, as the society has invested something in them; it is a two-way relationship (which requires Muslims to be involved too). Integration appears to be a stick with which some critics beat minorities with, forcing them to accept 'values' that even most people in Britain might not agree with. Snow did speak to a Muslim community activist and the founders of MPAC UK, both of whom try and instill some sense of civic and democratic responsibility in young Muslims; the community worker complained that their work had not been recognised. MPACUK's major problem is that they tend to reduce every single problem to a Zionist conspiracy and insult the very people they wish to engage with, even if I find their aims laudable. Snow spoke to a young Turkish father who criticised democracy and thought 'man-made laws were not the answer'; as if no-one ever made criticisms of democracy before! What do white urban youth, for example, think about our political structure? I doubt it's very favourable.

There was also the shari'ah meme, which rears it head in popular disucussion on Muslim Britain. I don't blame Snow, or others, for reducing shari'ah to a few punishments, since this view has widespread support amongst Muslims. We tend to suggest that the shari'ah' amounts to how many adulterers can be stoned or how many apostates can be killed, when the situation is not that simple. The shari'ah is a continuously evolving corpus, since Muslims constantly refer new situations to the shari'ah and derive answers (the battle between different religious/moral trends amongst Muslims is the scope of this interaction with the shari'ah in deriving answers). In fact, though a lot of commentators and critics constantly talk of the ''fear of shari'ah law" in Britain, it is observed when ever a Muslim observes one of its moral or ethical directives and is much more than the penal code which some states derive from it.

There was also the warning from one of the founders of MPAC UK that another attack might occur in Britain. Is this surprising? Perhaps not. But on this issue I do believe that Muslims should, with or without community leaders and government intervention, step up and take hold of their own religious discourse in the UK. It is the only way to stop hijacking of religious terminology (like shari'ah, jihad etc.) by extremist Muslim elements or those hostile to Muslims.

I think 'Islamising' every single issue facing Muslims does not help. Being 'religious' is not restricted to Muslims; Christian Africans I meet are quite 'religious' too. Other beliefs (e.g. ethnicity) are also important and also inform Muslims of how they might engage with and interpret their religious beliefs and not all such issues are particularly 'Muslim' in nature.

Read other reviews of the programme: 1, 2, 3.

Comments

[Yakoub/Julaybib]

Excellent post.

Wasalaam

TMA

[Tahir Abbas]

I also thought that the programme was essentialist, sensationalist, and quite one-sided – with the same people and the comments they made it would be just as easy to stress how pious people cope with decadence, excessive consumerism, alcoholism, the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe, Islamophobia in society, and how foreign policy has alienated Muslims further… and so on

What we have is a debate about values – and it’s effectively one that focuses on Muslims in general, without qualification of the many differences within that body of people and that somehow Muslims are outside of a set of acceptable norms, codes, etc…

These are important times for Muslims – if we can turn the corner, and I am sure we will, because the British state has managed to incorporate all its minorities, and at least over the last 2,000 years, all will be well. I will always remain optimistic, but it is hard sometimes…

http://www.muslim-minorities.blogspot.com/