Speakers Corner: PhD student Farrah Sheikh responds to Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily telegraph, on “anxieties” related Muslim immigration
SOAS Nohoudh scholar Farrah Sheikh responds to Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily Telegraph’s recent article in which he wrote: “One of the biggest anxieties about the current immigration is its high Muslim element. Is it wrong to have such an anxiety, let alone to express it publicly, let alone to want to have a system of immigration based on it?”
“One of the biggest anxieties about the current immigration is its high Muslim element. Is it wrong to have such an anxiety, let alone to express it publicly, let alone to want to have a system of immigration based on it?” writes Charles Moore in a recent article for the Telegraph with the headline “Nothing has changed in 25 years to ease my concerns about Islam”
Let’s start by answering this question simply, and head on. Yes it’s wrong to express anxiety, when that ‘anxiety’ is a euphemism for bigotry about a specific group of people who are turning to Europe for shelter and refuge from violence and war. It is especially problematic when the international community has not stepped in to assist a ceasefire and peace process, and where the United Nations has been unable to achieve enough consensus to pass and enforce resolutions that could stop the war and bring peace. Furthermore, calls for an international arms embargo to drain the various factions in said group’s home country of weaponry including chemical warfare seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Then there are the dramatic food shortages, rape, violence against women and children, forced ‘conscription’ into ISIS ‘armies’, a lack of water, medical care, loss of home, property and livelihood.
How can we ask anyone to remain in conditions where life itself hangs in the balance every moment of every day?
Let’s be clear, there is no system of immigration based on Muslims entering Europe, and as far as I am aware, nor are there plans to implement one. Can you imagine an article like this passing an editor’s critical eye if the headline read something like this?
“Nothing has changed in 25 years to ease my concerns about Christianity”
“Nothing has changed in 25 years to ease my concerns about Judaism”
“Nothing has changed in 25 years to ease my concerns about Blacks”
“Nothing has changed in 25 years to ease my concerns about Indians”
Of course not! It is ridiculous, racist, discriminatory and completely wrong to frame public discourse in any of these forms. So why is it acceptable when it comes to Muslims and Islam? It is of interest that many of the ‘Muslims’ attempting to seek refuge in Europe actually identify themselves as ‘Syrian.’ The fact that Syrian and other refugees from Muslim-majority countries are repeatedly labelled ‘Muslims’ in public discourse reveals more about western biases related to Islam, feeding into existing fears of an alleged ‘Muslim takeover’ of Europe. The fact that Parliament has decided to hold a debate on a petition claiming Muslims are taking over Britain on the 19th October displays the extent of the bigotry is slowly becoming increasingly mainstream opinion.
A cursory glance at a map shows us why so many refugees are choosing to make the perilous journey to European countries, and it isn’t about money or benefits. Many of the refugees able to make the journey to Europe are from professional, middle class if not affluent backgrounds themselves. Much of the journey can be made overland and once they reach the Schengen Area, will be able to claim asylum (from war) and have freedom of movement.
Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have been taking refugees since the war started but that does not necessarily mean the refugees have been able to move on with their lives. It has kept them alive for sure, but there are inadequate provisions for food, access to work, education or healthcare in many of the camps hosted in these generous countries which would make anyone want to move on for a better and more secure future. To stop people from building a safe, secure life based on the fact that they are or might be Muslim is discriminatory, cruel and probably illegal.
Charles Moore writes admirably of Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban’s approach to ‘unwanted’ Muslim immigration. Initially claiming that he was protecting Europe’s Christian values, This is the same Viktor Orban who has declared a state of emergency in peacetime Europe, and has deployed armed forces to ‘protect’ Hungary’s borders from the thousands of families trying to seek refuge from the violence at home. Water cannons and tear gas have been blasted at refugees including children. We assume that the majority of refugees are Muslim based on their country of origin, and it seems that any possibility of Syrians being of Christian, Asyyrian, Yazidi, Druze or any of the other ethno-religious groups that make up Syria’s deeply diverse and once harmonious population could also be fleeing for their lives have largely been ignored or dismissed. That isn’t exactly the embodiment of Christian or even European values that Orban seeks to protect. I wonder what Mr Moore makes of Orban now, and whether he stands by his comments?
I’d politely like to remind both gentlemen that the notion of Europe being a ‘Christian’ entity is a myth, which is perpetuated by the constant attempts to erase any historical presence of Islam on these shores. You don’t have to look that far into European history to find evidence of Islam in Spain, Italy, or even in the more modern context of Eastern Europe in Bosnia which has a majority-Muslim population. Muslims have a claim to Europe as much as Christians do and historically speaking, neither can claim to have a blemish-free record when it comes to dealing with the ‘Other.’
Moore also seems to be very concerned about the apparent lack of Muslim women in leadership roles. He might find the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) lists documenting influential Muslim women throughout the ages to be of interest. They note at least 28 heads of state,38 religious and spiritual leaders 33 members of the global, all-female Shura Council all of whom are Muslim women. For the UK, they have recorded 30 Muslim women influential in their fields varying from the religious to arts sphere not to mention the Muslim Women’s Council in the UK who are working towards building the first female-run mosque in the country.
Muslim women, like other women, have their struggles, individual and collective. We should recognise their efforts to tackle issues head on and give them the space they need to challenge patriarchy, specific cultural practices and attitudes which hinder their progress in their own way. Charles Moore can rest easy knowing that Muslim women are able to fight their own battles without his help.
“An assimilated Muslim is not a contradiction in terms, but neither is he or she the norm in Britain today.”
This is a particularly worrying statement. What is the assimilation that we are talking about here? A system of multiculturalism and a legal system enshrining the right to practice freedom of religion and belief should safeguard against what Charles Moore is describing as ‘assimilation’ or put it another way, cultural and religious violence on people of non-White, non-Anglican heritage. If Moore’s ‘assimilation’ means that non-White Muslims are to lose their culture, heritage, language, then we have a problem. Do we really want to turn back the clock? Roy Jenkins in 1966 threw out these ideas when he said:
“I do not think that we need in this country a ‘melting pot’, which will turn everybody out in a common mould, as one of a series of carbon copies of someone’s misplaced vision of the stereotyped Englishman… I define integration, therefore, not as a flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance”
Despite the Anglocentric tone of Jenkins’ comments, it is far more palatable than previous attempts at ‘assimilation’ by British powers. For example, in colonial India, Macaulay sought to create “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”.
Fast- forward to the present, polling data paints a very different picture of Muslims across the country. For example, 82% of Muslims want to live in diverse and mixed neighbourhoods compared to 63% of non-Muslim Britons. 83% of Muslims are proud to be a British citizen, compared to 79% of the general public. 86.4% of Muslims feel they belong in Britain, slightly more than the 85.9% of Christians.
Other concerns around Muslims usually centre on the ability to speak English, education and work. Based on data from the 2011 Census, the MCB suggests that only 6% Muslims ‘struggle with English’ which could be attributed to Muslims new to Britain and in the stages of learning the language as well as older communities who were not asked to learn English in the past. In terms of education, only 26% of Muslims have no qualifications whatsoever and around a quarter are educated at Level 4 and above qualifications (degree and higher). At the same time, 46% (1.22 million) of the Muslim population resides in the 10% most deprived areas of the country. There is a lot of work left to do, and many are already rolling up their sleeves to meet the challenge. Instead of vilifying Muslims for their lack of ‘assimilation’ we should be encouraging the growth, education and aspirations of a group of people where 33% are aged under 15 so that they can go on to great things in the future.*
Overall, Charles Moore has written a discriminatory, Ahistorical (and in some cases, incorrect) account of Muslims in Britain without taking into account the diversity and complexities of groups of people who are linked by a shared religion but are by no means homogenous. Moore’s views on Islam and Muslims are his own, and he is entitled to them. I would argue, however, that such irresponsible journalism encourages cruelty towards men, women and children fleeing desperate circumstances, and fuels suspicions of the Muslim in our midst here at home. I wonder if that is a position that we really want to be in as a society?
*Statistics on Muslims in Britain have been taken from the MCB report: British Muslims in Numbers