UK far right trouble July/August 24

johnnytapia said:
Given the huge numbers of Chinese immigrants in Manchester, I wonder why they don’t evoke anything like the same visceral hatred we see towards the Pakistani / Muslim population.

The same is true for the Indian, Hindu, East European and Jewish communities that all seem to have integrated relatively peacefully (granted there have been the odd occasion where tensions have arisen).

It seems a particularly Islamist/ Pakistani problem.
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There is certainly a problem with Islamism (as represented by, for example, Hizb ut-Tahrir), and Salafi-Jihadism (promoted by the likes of Anjem Choudary).

The reason we know this is because liberal British Muslims, like Ed Husain, Sara Khan, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and Ziauddin Sardar, have all been saying this for quite some time now (I should probably add Baroness Warsi to that list but I haven’t read her book).

But in actual fact, Muslims around the world, including in the UK, have largely remained impervious to the blandishments of the jihadists. While that may sound like a counterintuitive assertion in the light of incidents like the Manchester Arena bombing, or what happened at London Bridge, it is nevertheless not without traction, though to find out why you would need to read this book:

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Kurtzman looks at the situation globally, but many of his observations are also applicable to the UK. He was also almost caught up in a terrorist attack himself. So he is a long way from being an ivory tower academic.

Closer to home, I would also refer interested readers of this post to these books if they want to take the temperature of Islam in the UK:

Ed Husain, The Islamist, Among the Mosques
Ziauddin Sardar, Islam Beyond the Violent Jihadis
Sara Khan, The Battle for British Islam
Maajid Nawaz, Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism (Nawaz has subsequently fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole but this book is excellent)
John Bowen Blaming Islam
Innes Bowen Medina in Birmingham, Najaf in Brent: Inside British Islam
James Fergusson Al-Britannia: A Journey Through Muslim Britain

Also, there’s Peter Osborne’s The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong About Islam

Have only dipped into Oborne and he comes across as being overly sympathetic to the faith (Fergusson is too) but I’ll probably pick up a copy before long.

Am mentioning a lot of titles as I have seen many of them in charity shops with a book section and just reading one, especially Husain, should make a difference.

Moving on, I think a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment has been provoked on social media by GB News presenters and guests, and Reform politicians, who, until recently (some have started to moderate their tone), have consistently and falsely conflated Islamism with Islam, and provoked an animus against asylum seekers by suggesting that most are wannabe jihadists, muggers and rapists.

To see pretty much every standard trope of theirs against migrants comprehensively debunked, here’s another reading list:

Sally Hayden, The Fourth Time We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee:What Immigrants Never Tell You , Who Gets Believed: When the Truth isn’t Enough

Again, I have only dipped into Nayeri’s books. But I have seen enough to know that they are seminal and will reading them both shortly.

As for Hinduism, I am not well up on this but have wondered how much of the unrest we saw in Leicester not so long ago might have been inspired by the long reach of Modi’s far-right BJP, and Hindutva. Am happy to be corrected on that, though.

Lastly, although the plural of anecdote is not fact, you are a teacher, aren’t you?

My career was bookended by two experiences. In my very first year the school play was Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. This was an all-girls school and the parts of Leontes and Hermione were played by two Muslims. The play requires the paranoid Leontes to tear Hermione apart on stage. Both were close friends in real life (one was Pakistani, the other Turkish), so they were in tears by the end of each performance. The Pakistani girl played the part of Leontes like Dennis Hopper would. She was awesome.

So much for lack of integration, eh?

Then, in my final year of teaching, I was given this book by a parent of a Muslim Year 11 student:

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Observant readers will have noted that two Islamic taboos (against figurative representation and the drinking of alcohol) are broken on the cover.

Ahmed’s book is regarded as the most significant academic work on Islam in recent years.

In closing, will just add that I have been wondering how those former students and that parent must be feeling after recent events. I only wish I knew where they were now so that I could express solidarity with them.

So there you go, Johnny. Hope I have provided yourself and others with a few pointers.

One last thing: this post is not intended to be critical of you. Just thought I might be able to help a bit with answering the question you posed.
 
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