For people who can’t stand the sight of a Muslim, things have just got a lot worse. During the last few weeks, it seems every channel has been full of programmes about Islam and Muslims. We’ve had the most paradoxical of descriptions as the Government struggles to find suitable role models for the Muslim Community. Do you remember the “devoutly” practicing Muslim who isn’t too extreme to have a beer with his mates and buy a house on a mortgage? Or the “success” story of the Muslim Nightclub owner who was able to get the most punters in one night?
It seems the recurring message being pushed in the media is for Muslims to be more “British”. I’ve even had the pseudo-intellectual waggling his finger at me with a foretelling of severe consequences if I don’t comply.
Out of all of these programmes not a single one actually defined what I had to do to prove my Britishness without compromising Islam. Until now, I was under the impression I was British - born in West London, lived here all my life - I even have a red passport. If that’s not enough, I wonder what I have to do or what I have to give up? And who I’m doing this for anyway?
Whatever being British is, one thing is for certain - it cannot be forced. If it’s a question of pride, it needs to be earned and that’s what makes integration in the UK such a problem for intelligent Muslims.
The Americans are proud of their struggle for independence and their “land of opportunity”. The French remind themselves that they were the leaders of Secularism during the Enlightenment. Conversely, the Union Jack reminds the entire world of Britain’s colonialist history, filled with oppression and imperialism. The only things the Britons can be proud of are their liberalism and tolerance.
Tony Blair being just as confused as everybody else could only define what “NOT being British” is. For the first time ever, we have a definitive list of what is NOT British!
You’re NOT British if you believe in Shariah, wish to see an Islamic State in the Muslim lands, or believe Israel is an illegal state (to mention just a few on Blair’s list).
By that cop-out definition, I think we’re going to have a lot of non-British, non-Muslims feeling more British than they want to. Also, on a serious note, any form of restriction of ideas or thought-policing is by definition non-liberal and intolerant.
If Tony Blair destroys the only two things Britain is proud of and gave up blood for, for the sake of national security, what is there left to defend?
August 31st, 2005 at 4:36 pm
The secular governments discuss this topic in the context of values and allegiances. Then you get people saying you can be British and Muslim at the same time. Sure, if you’re saying it in a literal sense, that’s fine. However, you’ve got to realise when someone in the media asks you how British you are, they don’t mean which passport you hold or where you were born.
For me the answer is easy! Allah (swt) tells me in the Qur’an:
And who is better in speech than he who invites to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says: ‘I am one of the Muslims.’” [TMQ 41:33]
So whether I was born in Britain or Jamaica, my values and allegiances would be the same. That’s because my understanding of what is right or wrong comes from Islam. The only reason I eat fish and chips, play cricket or wear a suit is because Islam allows it. But when there’s a clash – usually in societal issues – I’m a Muslim, that’s it.
September 1st, 2005 at 11:27 am
Anyway, being a British citizen for a Muslim born and/or living in Britain is merely an administrative fatality. Without a citizenship from a internationally recognized state, you cannot do almost anything from travelling to earning your Rizk.