“If a person doesn’t know how to drive properly and crashes his car, it’s not the car’s fault. If people are practising religion in the incorrect way, that’s not the fault of the religion.”
So says Viqas Sheikh, a global treasury senior business analyst who has been working at Citi for five-and-a-half years. For him there is familiar ring to the words spoken by David Cameron in Munich recently.
“It’s simply a regurgitation of what Tony Blair and others have said – it’s nothing new,” he says. “The dangerous thing is the debate that he made about multiculturalism and the relationship he’s drawing to extremist ideology. It is a show of confusion on behalf of the government. They blame it on multiculturalism, but the deep-rooted problem is something else.”
Viqas, 29, was born in the UK and lived in Pakistan between the ages of 10 and 18, before returning here to complete university. He considers himself a British Muslim.
“I don’t think the two [British and Muslim] are incompatible. Then there’s the terms moderate or extremist – I’m neither, I’m a Muslim.”
Author, journalist and former Docklands columnist Kia Abdullah also falls outside this simple binary split of Islam.
“I’m what I call a liberal Muslim,” says Kia. “I don’t wear a headscarf or pray five times a day but at the same time I dress relatively modestly, I don’t drink alcohol or eat haram (forbidden) food and I’m quite conservative when it comes to things like promiscuity.”
She shares Viqas’ sense of concern about the Prime Minister’s sentiments.
“It made me feel deeply uncomfortable,” she adds. “He made some valid points about integration, but criticising multiculturalism as a root cause of forced marriage and radicalisation was ignorant and fatuous.
“Britain is known for respecting private freedoms – freedom to wear what you want, say what you want, live where you want, be who you want. Hindering these freedoms to create a nation of ‘vanilla flavoured’ people is not going to solve our problems. We need better integration, yes, but vilifying multiculturalism will not achieve it.”
Viqas, who did not want to be photographed, says there are no such tensions in his Canary Wharf workplace.
“A lot of companies have a facility for prayer [multi-faith rooms] or provision for halal food. And when you have that facility to be able to fulfil the obligations to be a Muslim – beyond that there shouldn’t be any other hardship in one’s day-to-day life. We make sure there is communication between the faiths and there isn’t that gap, which can give rise to animosity.”
While Viqas’ workplace may be harmonious, he’s aware that things don’t always run so cohesively.
“We don’t have it at Citi, but I do mix with a wide range of people throughout the City who feel that, on the basis of their faith, they have been discriminated against. It may well be that are considered high maintenance or their belief system is considered contrary.”
In the workplace Kia says she has not faced discrimination head-on either.
“I think ‘discrimination’ is too strong a word,” she says. “It’s far more subtle than that. When I worked in a management consultancy, I made most of my contacts by networking at after-work drinks at the local watering hole.
“If I didn’t feel comfortable in this type of environment – and many of my Muslim friends don’t – then my career would certainly have been hindered. I would not suggest that these meetings take place elsewhere, because they are part of British work culture, but I think that companies need to recognise that people from certain demographics are at a disadvantage.”
Viqas does not attend after-work drinks because of his beliefs, but he doesn’t consider this puts him at a disadvantage compared with colleagues.
“I don’t go to bars, and my colleagues respect that – you don’t have to take that extra step,” he says. “There are a number of Muslims in the UK who don’t think the way they live their lives is contrary to anything in the British value system. You won’t necessarily go to the pub on the weekend, but is that absolutely essential to being British?”
Kia believes the majority or Brits are tolerant of these differences and questions Baroness Warsi’s assertion that prejudice against Muslims has passed the ‘dinner-table test’.
“I’m not sure I agree with Baroness Warsi,” she says. “I think there are two main groups that carry prejudice against Muslims: those that identify with the EDL and BNP, and those at the other end of the spectrum who are very privileged and super-educated but who may not have any daily contact with Muslims and hence view them as a frightening entity of ‘other’. I don’t think these groups constitute the majority in this country – or at least I hope they don’t.”
Viqas asserts that problems can stem from a tendency for people to want to “formulate a genre of Muslim”.
“There’s a standard I have to follow in Islam; and I’m not going to change that for the convenience of other people. I don’t want to have impressed on me what I have to believe in – and that’s what David Cameron also did in the speech. It’s patronising.”
The Docklands
Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up
Showing posts with label Baroness Warsi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baroness Warsi. Show all posts
February 26, 2011
February 14, 2011
Q: When does a tabloid become crude propaganda? A: When it starts printing it
The Daily Star patronises its readers by repeatedly publishing lies
Tory chairman Baroness Warsi recently complained that Islamophobic chatter had become acceptable at dinner parties. I hate to break it to you, Baroness, but if they're saying anti-Islamic stuff while you're sitting at the table, imagine what they come out with when you nip off to the loo.
A few weeks later, David Cameron delivered his speech on multiculturalism, and Warsi's notional dinner-mates doubtless nodded in agreement, even though the very word "multiculturalism" has so many definitions it almost requires translation. It's not black and white. Which is ironic.
As a result it was possible to draw almost any conclusion from Cameron's speech, from "segregation is unhelpful" to "send 'em back". Cameron is many things – including an android, probably – but a racist he is not.
So he was doubtless dismayed that his speech went down well with the BNP's Nick Griffin, who interpreted it as a "huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream". When I read that, my sense of hope took a huge leap into a shit-filled dustbin.
The speech was also welcomed by Tommy Robinson of the English Defence League – and Stephen Lennon of the English Defence League. Who are both the same person, Robinson being Lennon's pseudonym. Mr Robinson-Lennon claims he's opposed only to extremist Muslims, not moderate ones, although how he hopes to tell them apart when he seems unsure of his own name is anyone's guess.
But then certain elements of the EDL seem confused by names in general. Several of them have been heard chanting "Allah, Allah, who the fuck is Allah?" If they don't know who he is, perhaps they ought to read that book they want to ban.
Robinson-Lennon recently appeared on Newsnight, up against Paxman. Not a classic battle of wits, but nonetheless the EDL's man came out on top: while middle-class viewers may have chortled at Robinson-Lennon's relative inarticulacy, others may have seen a member of the establishment sneering at a working-class white guy. Admittedly, Paxman sneers at everybody; he can't catch sight of his own reflection in the back of a spoon without asking who the fuck he thinks he is. But it reinforces the view that the white working classes are marginalised and looked down on by the media.
Not the entire media, mind. Some tabloids do little more but speak up for the white working classes – the Daily Star in particular. Which would be great, if the Daily Star didn't patronise its readers by repeatedly publishing lies.
Sometimes they're daft lies. Take the lie about the company behind Grand Theft Auto planning a game called Grand Theft Rothbury, inspired by the Raoul Moat saga. "We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication . . . We apologise for publishing a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member," read part of the paper's subsequent grovelling apology.
Sometimes they're visual lies. Take the time it Photoshopped a bald scalp and headscarf on to an image of Jade Goody in a wedding dress, to make it look as though she'd posed for the picture during chemotherapy.
Sometimes the lies appear on its front page, in a way that might alter a reader's view of Muslims. When not furiously recounting whichever grotesquely offensive stunt professional button-pushing irritant Anjem Choudary's come up with this week – stories which are not lies – it gets worked up over other "Muslim outrages" with little or no basis in fact. Take the story "MUSLIM-ONLY PUBLIC LOOS: Council wastes YOUR money on hole-in-the-ground toilets". Weeks after that appeared, the Star admitted that "the loos may be used by non-Muslims and were paid for by the developer".
And sometimes it doesn't quite lie, but misrepresents by omission. Take the story on 8 February "WE'LL STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR BRITAIN'S BRAVE WAR HEROES", in which it is reported that "The English Defence League is planning a huge march after two Muslim councillors snubbed a British war hero given the George Cross". It refers to an incident in Birmingham where two Respect party councillors remained seated while more than 100 other politicians gave a soldier a standing ovation. Nowhere in the article does the Star mention that there were many other Muslim councillors (Tory, LibDem and Labour) present at the same event – all of whom did stand and applaud.
In other words, the Daily Star is either grossly irresponsible in its sloppy representation of the facts, or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda.
Who can blame a reader who, after reading such a skewed version of events, is gripped with anti- Muslim fervour?
On the same page was a phone poll: DO YOU AGREE WITH THE EDL POLICIES? 98% of the respondents did. If I read the Star every day, and believed it, I'd join the EDL too.
Not that you have to be a dedicated reader to be exposed to its influence. Just pop into WH Smith's. There they are, those headlines, the steady drip-drip-drip: MUSLIM-ONLY LOOS and BBC PUTS MUSLIMS BEFORE YOU and MUSLIM SICKOS' MADDIE KIDNAP SHOCK (No, I haven't made that one up). Drip drip drip. Bullshit or exaggeration masquerading as fact. And to what aim?
On 9 February the Star ran a front-page headline claiming ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE TO BECOME POLITICAL PARTY. Even that turned out to be dubious – their leader had merely said "we aren't ruling it out". Inside, another phone poll asked whether readers would vote for the EDL. 99% said yes.
Do they believe what they read in the Daily Star?
I believe this is a wonderful country. All of it. The people are inherently decent and fair-minded. All of them. We should resist crude attempts at division, wherever they come from. Because we deserve better. All of us.
Charlie Brooker in The Guardian
Tory chairman Baroness Warsi recently complained that Islamophobic chatter had become acceptable at dinner parties. I hate to break it to you, Baroness, but if they're saying anti-Islamic stuff while you're sitting at the table, imagine what they come out with when you nip off to the loo.
A few weeks later, David Cameron delivered his speech on multiculturalism, and Warsi's notional dinner-mates doubtless nodded in agreement, even though the very word "multiculturalism" has so many definitions it almost requires translation. It's not black and white. Which is ironic.
As a result it was possible to draw almost any conclusion from Cameron's speech, from "segregation is unhelpful" to "send 'em back". Cameron is many things – including an android, probably – but a racist he is not.
So he was doubtless dismayed that his speech went down well with the BNP's Nick Griffin, who interpreted it as a "huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream". When I read that, my sense of hope took a huge leap into a shit-filled dustbin.
The speech was also welcomed by Tommy Robinson of the English Defence League – and Stephen Lennon of the English Defence League. Who are both the same person, Robinson being Lennon's pseudonym. Mr Robinson-Lennon claims he's opposed only to extremist Muslims, not moderate ones, although how he hopes to tell them apart when he seems unsure of his own name is anyone's guess.
But then certain elements of the EDL seem confused by names in general. Several of them have been heard chanting "Allah, Allah, who the fuck is Allah?" If they don't know who he is, perhaps they ought to read that book they want to ban.
Robinson-Lennon recently appeared on Newsnight, up against Paxman. Not a classic battle of wits, but nonetheless the EDL's man came out on top: while middle-class viewers may have chortled at Robinson-Lennon's relative inarticulacy, others may have seen a member of the establishment sneering at a working-class white guy. Admittedly, Paxman sneers at everybody; he can't catch sight of his own reflection in the back of a spoon without asking who the fuck he thinks he is. But it reinforces the view that the white working classes are marginalised and looked down on by the media.
Not the entire media, mind. Some tabloids do little more but speak up for the white working classes – the Daily Star in particular. Which would be great, if the Daily Star didn't patronise its readers by repeatedly publishing lies.
Sometimes they're daft lies. Take the lie about the company behind Grand Theft Auto planning a game called Grand Theft Rothbury, inspired by the Raoul Moat saga. "We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication . . . We apologise for publishing a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member," read part of the paper's subsequent grovelling apology.
Sometimes they're visual lies. Take the time it Photoshopped a bald scalp and headscarf on to an image of Jade Goody in a wedding dress, to make it look as though she'd posed for the picture during chemotherapy.
Sometimes the lies appear on its front page, in a way that might alter a reader's view of Muslims. When not furiously recounting whichever grotesquely offensive stunt professional button-pushing irritant Anjem Choudary's come up with this week – stories which are not lies – it gets worked up over other "Muslim outrages" with little or no basis in fact. Take the story "MUSLIM-ONLY PUBLIC LOOS: Council wastes YOUR money on hole-in-the-ground toilets". Weeks after that appeared, the Star admitted that "the loos may be used by non-Muslims and were paid for by the developer".
And sometimes it doesn't quite lie, but misrepresents by omission. Take the story on 8 February "WE'LL STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR BRITAIN'S BRAVE WAR HEROES", in which it is reported that "The English Defence League is planning a huge march after two Muslim councillors snubbed a British war hero given the George Cross". It refers to an incident in Birmingham where two Respect party councillors remained seated while more than 100 other politicians gave a soldier a standing ovation. Nowhere in the article does the Star mention that there were many other Muslim councillors (Tory, LibDem and Labour) present at the same event – all of whom did stand and applaud.
In other words, the Daily Star is either grossly irresponsible in its sloppy representation of the facts, or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda.
Who can blame a reader who, after reading such a skewed version of events, is gripped with anti- Muslim fervour?
On the same page was a phone poll: DO YOU AGREE WITH THE EDL POLICIES? 98% of the respondents did. If I read the Star every day, and believed it, I'd join the EDL too.
Not that you have to be a dedicated reader to be exposed to its influence. Just pop into WH Smith's. There they are, those headlines, the steady drip-drip-drip: MUSLIM-ONLY LOOS and BBC PUTS MUSLIMS BEFORE YOU and MUSLIM SICKOS' MADDIE KIDNAP SHOCK (No, I haven't made that one up). Drip drip drip. Bullshit or exaggeration masquerading as fact. And to what aim?
On 9 February the Star ran a front-page headline claiming ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE TO BECOME POLITICAL PARTY. Even that turned out to be dubious – their leader had merely said "we aren't ruling it out". Inside, another phone poll asked whether readers would vote for the EDL. 99% said yes.
Do they believe what they read in the Daily Star?
I believe this is a wonderful country. All of it. The people are inherently decent and fair-minded. All of them. We should resist crude attempts at division, wherever they come from. Because we deserve better. All of us.
Charlie Brooker in The Guardian
February 06, 2011
David Cameron boards the EDL bandwagon
Bungling David Cameron was last night accused of “stoking the fires” of race hate just hours before a thuggish far right march.
The Prime Minister pledged to make Britain “a lot less” tolerant towards Islamic extremists who whip up hatred against the West. But the Tory leader was slammed by religious leaders for “vilifying” Muslims and boosting support for the far-right English Defence League who saw thousands of supporters gather for a hate-filled rally yesterday in Luton, Beds.
Tensions simmered as around 3,000 EDL members marched through the town, which was largely boarded up and barricaded by police for the event. Around 1,000 officers from 14 different forces monitored the protest in an operation that cost more than £800,000. There were skirmishes during the march, 19 people were treated for injuries and police said eight people werearrested, “mostly for possession of offensive weapons and assault”.
EDL leader Stephen Lennon, 26, told the Daily Star Sunday: “It is no coincidence Cameron made this speech the day the EDL held its biggest-ever march. We are a phenomenon and we have support in every town and city. For the past two years we have been highlighting the evils of militant Islam and the effect it has on our country. And we are getting more support. Cameron’s seen this tide turning against these extremists living in our towns and has jumped on the bandwagon. But he’s a politician and is all talk. He doesn’t care. And he is wrong. Multi- culturalism does work in this country. Christians, blacks, Polish, Jews, Sikhs, and people from every other background in the world live in harmony here. It’s those who follow militant Islam that cannot live side by side with us.”
Later Sabby Dhalu, from Muslim pressure group One Society Many Cultures, slammed Mr Cameron saying: “Vilifying Muslim communities on the day when they are being targeted by the EDL in Luton could not be more grotesque.”
Among the crowd, chants of: “We want our country back”, “Muslim bombers off our streets” and “No surrender to the Taliban” rang out along the parade route. One protester calling himself Dave, from Wolverhampton, said: “We want these Islam extremists and terrorists out. You can take your mosques and f**k off.”
The parade was led by 30 women EDL members in a bid to show people the group is not just made up of thugs.
Just 200 yards away from the EDL protests, local Muslims demonstrated against the far-right group. Imran Khan, 26, said: “If police weren’t here and the EDL came on to our streets we’d join together and fight them. And EDL blood will be spilled.”
Hundreds of United Against Fascism members also staged a protest. Sadiq Khan, 40, Shadow Justice Secretary, said ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech in Munich that he was “writing propaganda for the EDL”.
But Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi, 39, hit back and said: “For Sadiq Khan to smear the Prime Minister as a right-wing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible.”
Sunday Star
The Prime Minister pledged to make Britain “a lot less” tolerant towards Islamic extremists who whip up hatred against the West. But the Tory leader was slammed by religious leaders for “vilifying” Muslims and boosting support for the far-right English Defence League who saw thousands of supporters gather for a hate-filled rally yesterday in Luton, Beds.
Tensions simmered as around 3,000 EDL members marched through the town, which was largely boarded up and barricaded by police for the event. Around 1,000 officers from 14 different forces monitored the protest in an operation that cost more than £800,000. There were skirmishes during the march, 19 people were treated for injuries and police said eight people werearrested, “mostly for possession of offensive weapons and assault”.
EDL leader Stephen Lennon, 26, told the Daily Star Sunday: “It is no coincidence Cameron made this speech the day the EDL held its biggest-ever march. We are a phenomenon and we have support in every town and city. For the past two years we have been highlighting the evils of militant Islam and the effect it has on our country. And we are getting more support. Cameron’s seen this tide turning against these extremists living in our towns and has jumped on the bandwagon. But he’s a politician and is all talk. He doesn’t care. And he is wrong. Multi- culturalism does work in this country. Christians, blacks, Polish, Jews, Sikhs, and people from every other background in the world live in harmony here. It’s those who follow militant Islam that cannot live side by side with us.”
Later Sabby Dhalu, from Muslim pressure group One Society Many Cultures, slammed Mr Cameron saying: “Vilifying Muslim communities on the day when they are being targeted by the EDL in Luton could not be more grotesque.”
Among the crowd, chants of: “We want our country back”, “Muslim bombers off our streets” and “No surrender to the Taliban” rang out along the parade route. One protester calling himself Dave, from Wolverhampton, said: “We want these Islam extremists and terrorists out. You can take your mosques and f**k off.”
The parade was led by 30 women EDL members in a bid to show people the group is not just made up of thugs.
Just 200 yards away from the EDL protests, local Muslims demonstrated against the far-right group. Imran Khan, 26, said: “If police weren’t here and the EDL came on to our streets we’d join together and fight them. And EDL blood will be spilled.”
Hundreds of United Against Fascism members also staged a protest. Sadiq Khan, 40, Shadow Justice Secretary, said ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech in Munich that he was “writing propaganda for the EDL”.
But Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi, 39, hit back and said: “For Sadiq Khan to smear the Prime Minister as a right-wing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible.”
Sunday Star
December 27, 2009
2009 in review - Nick Griffin appears on Question Time
Police hold people back outside Television Centreprotesting BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time
Baroness Warsi recalls the most controversial TV show of the year
Normally before a television appearance you're all in the same green room and you mingle in the make-up rooms, too, but this time we all had our own rooms and our make-up was done separately. It wouldn't have been fair just to isolate him.
The only time I felt nervous was when I saw the piles of paper Jack [Straw] and Chris [Huhne] had. I felt like a student who hasn't done enough revision for an exam.
David Cameron felt that everything Nick Griffin finds repulsive about today's Britain is embodied in me. I'm a Yorkshire-born, Muslim daughter of hard-working, working-class parents. It was quite a brave decision. It was a high-profile, high-risk programme, politically. Once we got started, I enjoyed it. I find Nick Griffin an unpleasant and manipulative man, and intellectually shallow. He's part of the "anti" brigade. Always anti-someone: first Jews, then Blacks and now Muslims. But I think the BBC should have him on. As long as you're not beyond the pale – violent and beyond rational debate – you should be engaged, and exposed.
I was hoping the programme would follow the usual format, with questions on the economy, the Royal Mail, etc. Instead there was an obsessive concentration on race and what Nick Griffin had said in the past. I would have been intrigued with the BNP's policy on getting Britain out of the economic recession.
Nick Griffin was both extremely nervous and trying extremely hard to please. This was his big chance to seem a nice, reasonable guy. It looked very forced. David Dimbleby pulled him up, asking, "What are you smiling about?" At times it was like a comedy – especially when he talked about "non-violent versions of the Ku Klux Klan".
Later, Jack was waffling on that immigration was not an issue in Britain today. It was a difficult moment because I had to acknowledge that there was an element of legitimacy to what Nick Griffin was saying. I said, "I don't agree with the guy on the end, but you, Jack, aren't being honest on this."
Afterwards, my phone was jammed with texts and I had hundreds of emails. I read each and every one. There were some nasty ones saying, "Go back home," but 95% of them were positive. I also got a lot of emails from British Muslims, saying they were proud to see someone comfortably British and Muslim and able to articulate a sensible view – rather than the hotheads the BBC usually have on.
I don't think the BNP have had a poll boost. The poll questions are couched so wide that almost everyone would fall into them. Academics from the University of Manchester told me if there was a rise it was from about two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half per cent. I've also been told that on fascist and racist websites Griffin has been pilloried: things like: "He was trying so hard to hug the black woman and be nice to the Asian woman." So he's upset his core vote.
I'd happily share a platform with Nick Griffin again, but I'd much rather do it in a format where you can really debate the issues. I wanted to get behind and below the BNP beliefs; Question Time is more about point scoring.
Observer
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