Along the way, there will be joys, happiness, tears, pain and many doubts about the meaning of life, signs, absences and death. When we begin to look around us, to observe individuals and societies, and to study philosophies and religions, we realize that our loneliness is shared. Our solitude is plural, and our singularity is the similarity between us. And yet, from the earliest times down to our own day, there have always been many ways and an infinite number of paths through our cities, streets and neighborhood: the distinguishing feature of this one humanity is its diversity and differences. Ultimately, we have no choice.
And yet, is this intellectual disposition all it takes to make us accept the real and its diversity? Is observing and knowing that our quests and hopes are the same all it takes for us to come to terms with our differences, actually recognize our similarities and manage our differences in a positive way? Sitting at a desk, at a café, over a meal, in our classrooms, our lounges, our living rooms, our lecture halls or conference centres … all that is possible has been said over and over again with all the conviction and wisdom of our intellects and our humanities. In theory, or when our day to day life or wealth exposes us to the other’s difference to only a very marginal extent, the magnanimity of human beings is certainly welcome, but it tells us nothing about life and does nothing to resolve the difficulties of diversity. When our ways of life trap us into a closed world of friends who look, look, or believe like us, elaborating great and beautiful philosophies of tolerance and pluralism is a highly virtual petition of generosity, an extremely subtle way of avoiding the need to be open-minded. Those are but good intentions that amounts to making a show of being anti-racist in intellectual terms, even though we come across no –or almost no—Blacks, Arabs or Asians (or White, or others, if you are Black, Arab or Asian) in our day to day lives. Being opposed to anti-Semitism or Islamophobia whilst living, deliberately or otherwise, at a respectable distance from Jews and Muslims is certainly an honourable intellectual stance, but basically it tells us nothing about the real personal attitudes of the human being who theorizes in that way. Ghettoes have their own characteristics and consequences: be they physical, social, intellectual or mental, those who live in them always nurture projections of themselves or the world around them that are more imaginary than true. In the ghettoes of the intellect and idealistic theories, there are a lot of intolerant and racist people who do not realize that they are. There are quite a few indeed.
Observing the horizon and apprehending, consciously and intellectually, the necessary diversity of human beings, and of ways and paths, is merely the beginning of the challenge. It is not enough; it never is. Facing up to and handling diversity requires us to abandon our high-minded theoretical and idealistic notions and to plunge into real life; it requires us to free ourselves from the ghetto of our noble, secure mind in order to enter the world of raw, tenacious, and sometimes mad and dangerous emotions. It requires us to move from the controlled order of the mind to the chaotic tensions and disorders of the heart and entrails –of ‘the guts’, to use an ordinary but a far more expressive phrase. Living with and meeting the other, with his differences in terms of skin-colour, dress, beliefs, customs, habits, psychology and intellectual logic, refers us back to ourselves, to our inner horizons and to our subjectivity. Our minds do not control everything: our certainties and habits may be merely unsettled, but our emotions too react and express themselves. Away from our lounges and lecture halls, they can easily take possession of us. The other, all ‘the others’ and all their visible and/or supposed differences, reveal both the light and the dark dimensions of our humanity. When ‘the others’ seem to be confident and serene when we ourselves are unsure of our truths; when their visibility disturbs our living space and their presence upsets our habits; when whey seem to steal the few jobs available; when their prosperity reminds us of our difficulties or even poverty .. then they stir up within us emotions that are to human beings what the survival instinct is to animals. The reaction is almost uncontrollable: all our fine words become meaningless, and we are back to our raw humanity. We have to come to terms with emotions, dispositions of the heart and our ‘gut’ reactions that colonize our minds with fear, suspicion, rejection and prejudices. Purely intellectual racism is a minority, and often, marginal phenomenon. The rejection –conscious or otherwise—of the other always feeds on a mixture of doubts, fear, insecurity and habits that have been upset, combined with real or fantasized rivalry for wealth, numbers or strength: the day to day problems of immigration, unemployment, poverty, of the feeling of being dispossessed, invaded and so on. We are indeed at the heart of humanity and of life: we may well despise and denounce the dogmatists and the racists in our cosy spaces but it is most unfair not to take full account of the often highly instinctive fears and doubts which, in concrete situations, produce the worst rejections of the other. This is not a matter of justifying or minimizing racism, intolerance and xenophobia, but rather a matter of understanding where they come from, how they develop and how, finally, they can be fuelled and instrumentalized. The strength of the populist discourses that reject the other lies precisely in their ability to arouse and touch upon raw emotions, fears and ‘the guts’, and to provide them with simplistic reasons and explanations. Idealistic theoretical discourses must reconcile themselves to life and must not scorn the realist dimensions of the human in any sense.
British children are being born with the virus of racism. All of them show racism even at nursery level. Muslim children are victim of racism in every walk of life. They are unable to develop self-confidence and self-esteem.. They need state funded Muslim schools right from nursery level. Since they are bilingual, they need bilingual Muslim teachrs as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place foir a non-Muslim child and a teacher in a Muslim school.
There are hundreds of state and church schools, where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools.
Bilingual Muslim children need to learn and be well versed in standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. At the same time, they need to learn and be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.
A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit
I agree with you that muslimchildren (children of immigrants) grow up with low self-esteem. But I disagree that this is only because they face racism (which they do!). They are just as much a victim of their crippled upbringing, which tells them society doesn’t want them but doesn’t guide them in facing that ‘hostile’ society. Before we talk about muslimschools maybe we must start talking about the way our children are being raised in their own homes; what do we have to offer them? And will the education they get in the muslimschools be as the one they receive at home, one that tells hem they are strangers in heir own country and doesn’t do enough to cultivate self-esteem and skills to face that reality?
Vote for our Professor who has been chosen as a nominee on islamonline website. He deserves it! Go and vote for our beloved shaykh Tareq Ramadan :
http://interact.islamonline.net/English/interact/stars/2009/12/21/tariq-ramadan-remarkable-roles-in-serving-muslim-communities-nominee/
My wife,a non Muslim,I am aconvert,is a secondary teacher.At the beginning of 2009 at my urging taught English at alocal Islamic college.She was appalled at the way teachers and students were treated who were not Saudi.One of the Malaysian teachers of English as a second language said she felt she was treated as a slave. I myself was so dissapointed with the ethics of the Board of Directors,especially in regard to honouring contracts,that I got her to leave.This a college where the girls wear hijab,daily salat is observed,Quran is taught,2 Imman and the yet the children can see,and comment on ,the lack of faith in the committee running the college.Unfortunately girls are the ones missing a future,because of the cultural backgrounds of the parents they are deemed not worth sending to school longer than the legal min. age.This is supported by the college ,instead of bringing the disparate cultures to realise they are no longer bound by the constraints of their previous land,which the majority fled ,and the world is open to all,they keep to the old ways,rumours of female circumcison are now prevalent in the Muslim community. We cannot continue to have this happen,I feel to close our communities off and allow this type of behaviour is haram.The children need input from all,not just the past.Salaam
I don’t think I made my point clearly. I wasn’t only talking about Muslim schools, infact I was talking more about the Muslim ‘practising’ community. Even some Islamic organisations who we wanted to be involved with and part of were too judgemental and expected perfection. Ethnic non-islamic culturul attitudes played a significant part in forming these attitudes. Infact, at most times, the individuals with these attitudes suffered rejection, pressure themselves but didn’t realise the cause to prevent it from happening to their children.
I agree that we should have more state-funded Muslim schools whereby systems and curriculum are based on the long British history (experience) of schooling in this country.
To be honest, Tariq’s (perhaps marginal) note on raw human instincts and that we should learn about them and deal with them really touched me. What I’ve experienced and seen around me: (the opposite) has had detrimental effects.
But he same ones you refer to as causing the damage will be the ones who run the state funded muslimschools. So until muslims understand what it means to have a pedadogogy that doesn´t only involve the islamic principles but takes into account the nature of the child and the surrounding it lives in, islamic education will not succeed in it´s goal to shape functioning muslim personalities.
It seems almost impossible in todays world to bring up children islamically. There are too many temptations for muslimyouth and too few well thought out ideas on how to help them resist. Islamic education is not the answer, because all it does is breed schizophrenia, children that are ´muslim´during schoolhours, but loose their way after. We need to get them deeply rooted in islamic thought. But the question is: do muslimparents have what it takes to provide this to their children. Let’s all think about it, it is important for our future.
Very deep article. As a muslim growing up in a ‘practising’ family and being around ‘practising’ people I feel the expectations of children, youth and even adults are too high, unrealistic. Our extremely powerful natural instincts were and still are marginalised, ignored and sometimes even ridiculed. The intentended outcome of our upbringing: pious, strong and thus successful Muslims wasn’t achieved. How could it be when our education (personal, social, religious)didn’t involve us? Educationalists all agree that education must involve the learner to be effective.
I sometimes wonder if being bombarded with ‘Islamic knowledge’ does more harm than good. I think Allah tests our (‘practising Muslims’) patience. We (naturally) want to improve ourselves and people around us quickly and easily. We endure a (personally) difficult, modern life while simultaneously facing the challenge of improving our own and others’ beliefs and actions. I’m a primary school teacher and was once taught to ‘mind the gap’ when teaching: have realistic expectations. We are students who were given unrealistic expectations that cannot be wiped from our minds. We need to be outstandingly determined students to keep going despite the enormous gap. Indeed, God is capable of everything.
The perception that British children are born with racism is interesting, because the exact opposite has been noted for decades in America. Children do not come by racial prejudice (mostly based on skin color) naturally. Someone older has to instil it in them. Religious prejudices are a bit different, but we’ve had our Catholic ghettoes, our public vs. parochial schools, the exclusion of Jews from the best social clubs, and all that. Most of it is fading.
For Muslim immigrants in Britain, there are differences of religion, language and ethnicity, and as many have noted, Saudis do not always practice brotherhood with Indonesians, certainly not with darker-skinned central African Muslims. If people don’t want to become British at all, perhaps they have settled in the wrong place. But, becoming British does not mean ceasing to be Muslim.
The basic point of the original article is that we don’t really know what we are dealing with until we come out of our isolated ghettoes and meet each other in daily life. That means no shoving Muslims into “their neighborhood,’ but it also means Muslims not congregating in “our neighborhood.” It means living next door to each other, understanding that this is my faith, that is your faith, and we are both free to offer what we have to those with no faith.
The cultural attributes that cause friction are generally the little things in life, not the big issues of meaning and principle. When to smile, how close to stand when talking to someone, how loud to laugh, where to cross the street… But those are not the essence of “who we are.” They are just habits. We can all bend a little on the little things, giving up what genuinely causes offense or confusion, accepting from others what seems strange, but does us no harm.
This is refreshing! There is too much “reasonable” and “rational” discourse out there that is neglecting the reality of being human. Western philosophy has an issue with incorporating “guts” into its discourse, but it is essential to take it into mind. Moreover, Muslims are still caught up with trying to modernize their practice of Islam to fit into a Modern world, but what I feel is special about this article is that it goes a step further to post-modernize our being Muslim by acknowledging the subjective and the personal.
This is fertile ground for much more research!