Marie Bydžovská

IMS IV.

Multiculturalism in Western Europe and North America

Summer term 2001/2002

Lecturer Laura Laubeová

This essay is written on the basis of the report made by Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia established by an independent research and social policy agency The Runnymede Trust in the year 1996. The name of the report is : "Islamophobia a challenge for us all".

There are some reasons why I decided to write about Islamophobia and why I think it is useful to deal with Islamophobia. It's true that not many Muslims live in the Czech Republic and the word Islamophobia is for the majority of czech population unknown. But on the other hand there are some Muslims living in the Czech republic and their number needn't but can be in future increasing. Some problems already appeared in Brno because of the building of mosque. Some people didn't like it and protested against it. And in our global society what is a problem of a distant region today can be also our problem tomorow.

The second reason why I find useful to deal with Islamophobia in Britain is the fact that the situation in Britain can be in some aspects compared with our situation and we can use their experiences with combating xenofobia and creating an inclusive society. The proposals of members of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia how to wrestle with and how to stifle Islamophobia are very interesting. I mention some of them at the end of this essay.

And the third aspect that led me to write about Islamophobia was the hysteria that broke out after the 11th September terrorist attacks in New York. The fear of Muslim terrorists and fundamentalists spread probably over the whole world. Almost everybody was afraid of Muslim terrorists (somebody even of Islam and Muslims) but almost nobody knows anything about Muslims and Islam. Islam is the second most extended religion in the world, but people usually know just a few incomplete and often distorted information about it.

The origins of this word are in the late 1980s, it appeared for the first time in print in February 1991 in a periodical in the United States.

According to the report it "is reffering to dread or hatred of Islam- and therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims. Such dread and dislike have existed in western countries and cultures for several centuries in the last twenty years, however, the dislike has become more explicit, more extreme and more dangerous. It's an ingredient of all sections of our media (it means British), and is prevalent in all sections of our society. Within Britain it means that Muslims are frequently excluded from the economic, social and public life of the nation, and are frequently victims of discrimination and harassment."

Emergence of this new word is compared with emergence of the word antisemitism in the19th century. As in the19th century society needed to name a new fact that emerged, so also now society needs to name this new fact of growing hostility and prejudice towards Muslims.

A brief survey of the history of Muslims in the UK

The first groups of Muslims who came to Britain were the seamen from Yemen, Guajarat, Sind, Assam and Bengal recruited by East India Company. They created a small settlements in port towns and cities in Britain, particulary London. They were known by the British as lascars.

Also there were a number of Muslim businesses in the 19th century, of which one of the best known was the fashionable "Mahomed's Baths" in Brighton.

Folowing the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, seamen originally from Yemen settled in small comunities in Cardiff, Liverpool, London, South Shield and Tyneside and set up zawiyahs (small mosques or prayer rooms ). In the 1920s and 1930s large proportion of the South Asian seamen in the merchant navy were Muslims and a number of them stayed on in Britain after the Second World War. Many of these were the pioneers who, ten or so years later, acted as initial points of contact and sources of assistance for the substantial chain migration from East (former Bangladesh) and West Pakistan that took place in the 1950s.

Migration of Muslims (from E. and W. Pakistan and from India) to Britain on a large scale began in the 1950s. In 1951 the probable Muslim population of Britain was about 23,000. In the year 1961 it was already about 82,000 and by 1971 it was 369,000. Migration was encouraged because there were major labour shortages in Britain, particulary in the steel and textiles industries of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and particulary for night shifts. The workers who came were needed by the economy and they were actually or in effect invited by employers, and as Commonwealth citizens had full rights of entry and residence, and full civic rights. The migration to Britain was from rural setting to an urban one as well as to a different country and culture, and involved an increase in wealth and income as well as change of occupation.

Originally most Pakistani migrants to Britain saw themselves as temporary visitors who would one day return to their country and they were mainly men. But the situation has changed in 1960s. A major spur to permanent settlement was the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962, for it was a direct result of this that families had to choose, in effect between being together in Britain or divided for lengthy period between Britain and Pakistan. In 5 years between 1961 and 1966 the Pakistani population grew from about 25,000 to 120,000. Between 1973 and 1981 a further 82,000 people came as settlers, almost all of them being the dependants of men already there.

It was in the 1970s that substantial communities from Turkey and Middle Eastern and North African countries began to be established. Later substantial Somali, Iranian, Arab, and Bosnian communities have been established in many cities , and there are also a considerable numbers of students from Malaysia now.

The present Muslim population in Britain is estemated to be somewhere between 1.2 and 1.4 million. More than half of the British Muslims have their roots in Pakistan. Today an increasing proportion are British-born. About 70% of all British Muslims are under the age of 25. They are mainly the children of immigrant parents, but also include a number of converts from non-immigrant background. These young Muslims are under pressure of many influences and they have to find their own identity.

Folowers of diferent strands of Islam live in Britain and they have established different Muslim organizations. There are also Muslim women's organizations concerned with health, social welfare and education (for example An Nisa organization in the London Borough of Brent).

They live mainly in urban areas. The majority are to be found in London.

They are involved in almost all areas of British economy and have made a big contribution to it. Some British Muslims established very succesful buisnesses. Like for example Shami Ahmed who has built up one of the top ten companies manufacturing fashion jeans. His firm has a turnover of over 30 million pounds a year and employs 1,100 people. Or Michael Bakht who is the founder and Chief Executive of the commercial radio station Classic FM.

This chart can be use in some aspects for xenofobia and racism in general. The xenofobia and racism is represented by the closed views that are often caused of lack of knowledge of the another group or having distorted information about the other group. ( But the lack of knowledge is not the only reason for xenofobia and racism).

The Islamofobia is expressed not only in prejudice, but also in exclusion from the society and violence against Muslims. Anti-Muslim prejudices frequently feature in other religion, but there are also some links and cooperation between Muslim and non-Muslim faith communities like relations between Jewish and Muslim community.

The Islamophobia and prejudice towards Islam is often reinforced by media. It can be good seen at the example of cartoons that appeared in British newspapers (both tabloids and broadsheets- it means that also serious newspapers show prejudice towards Muslims) since the oil crisis in 1973. They show Arabs and also Muslims as primitive, sensual,unsophisticated, ridiculous, not very bright, but scheming and plotting.

Also violent acts are being commited against Muslims. Some of them are motivated by anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred but some actors of this violence are not aware of the religion of the victims. There is frequently amongst racists a seamless convergence of anti-Muslim, anti-foreigner, anti-Asian, anti-emmigrant and anti-black hostilities. Because these hostilities hang together and merge with each other, they can reinforce each other. The racist violence within Britain increases at times of international tensions (for example the Gulf War). There is widespread anecdotal evidence in Muslim communities that an individual Muslim is more likely to be a victim of racist violence when he or she is wearing Islamic dress or symbols. This applies to white Muslims as well as to South Asians.

Islamophobia according to the authors of the report:

Picture 3

This summary shows 4 aspects of Islamophobia that make Muslims their lives hard. Again we can use it for xenofobia and racism in general and compare it with the situation of Roma in the Czech Republic and we would find many similarities. Exclusion, discrimination, violence and prejudice are basis and manifestations of probably all kinds of xenofobia and racism.

At the end still remains the question " Is Islamophobia a chalenge for us?" Certainly it is a challenge in Britain. It's an issue that many experts, organizations and also state organizations have been dealing with. Sometimes succesfully and sometimes less succesfully. Also the Commission that worked out this Report about Islamophobia suggests many solutions and attempts how to solve this problem.

Runnymede Trust report: Islamhophobia, a chalenge for us all, 1997

Alex Praill: Muslims in Britain, Foreign & Commonwealth office London,1994

The Institute of Contemporary British History: Religion in Britain, Foreign & Commonwealth office London, 1994

Brenda Kirsch: Ethnic diversity in Britain, Foreign & Commonwealth office London, 1999