 | | | | by Munira Mirza |
This week Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), denounced multiculturalism. He argued that multicultural policies risked segregating communities along ethnic lines and prevented second-generation minorities from integrating fully into British society. Most worryingly, he said, the creed of multiculturalism has turned away a generation of British Muslims and made them sympathetic to the cause of religious fundamentalists.
| But is the politics of multiculturalism really dead? Sadly not - for Phillips' statement is one in a long line of desperate attempts to re-brand orthodoxies about diversity without getting to the heart of the problem.
| In fact, the backlash against multiculturalism has been brewing for some time. Following the summer riots of 2001 in the northern mill towns of Oldham, Bradford and Burnley, 'multiculturalists' have pondered the problems of segregated ethnic communities, where each considers the other to be alien and threatening. Ted Cantle, author of the Home Office report on Bradford, remarked on the incredible situation of people living 'parallel lives'. Both whites and Asians experience high levels of unemployment, low educational attainment and disengagement from the political process. Their similarities override their differences, and yet in these towns race has become a divisive issue.
| The Cantle report identified that people's 'culture' could be a hindrance to social cohesion, especially if traditions and values from the homeland come into conflict with mainstream British values. It concluded that government and policymakers must do all they can to ensure the unification of disconnected groups and encourage a common sense of citizenship.
| The government has been busy developing policies to enhance citizenship and nurture 'Britishness'. Distinguished academic Bernard Crick chaired an advisory group to produce a set of recommendations for citizenship curricula in all schools, initiating ceremonies for new citizens, and citizenship tests, through which potential Britons are tested on their proficiency in the English language, and knowledge of British history and culture.
| Commentators have welcomed this new 'tough' approach to immigrants, arguing that they should make more of an effort to adopt a British identity, learn English, and abandon cultural customs which are unacceptable to the mainstream, in particular religious practices such as female circumcision. The ultimate question of 'whose side are you on' came last week with the Muslim Council of Britain's call to British mosques to report terrorist groups working in their midst. British Muslims are seen to be particularly reluctant to adopt Western identities and fall prey to the appeal of Islamic fundamentalism.
| But how can it be that a small group of opportunistic, crackpot, religious fundamentalists can frighten us into thinking we are losing a generation of young British Asians? It surely cannot be that they offer a coherent vision of the world or that swathes of teenagers are rediscovering Allah. Rather, the problem is that our society has nothing worth believing in to offer them. The likes of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the controversial imam of a North London mosque who preaches hatred towards the West, opportunistically seize on young people's desire to argue, engage with and make a difference to the world they live in.
| | | There is no positive assertion of values |
| It has now become fashionable for disciples of multiculturalism to denounce segregation and blame people's ethnic differences for chipping away at a common centre. But the fragmentation of our social fabric has not been exported from the without; rather, it has emerged from the centre. Telling them that they are British, 'again and again and again', as Trevor Phillips would like us to do, will only make young British Muslims think the problem starts with them.
| If you want to find the inspiration for the exclusion of young British Muslims, forget searching in the Koran, and look at the government's citizenship curriculum. In there you will find all the confusion, ambiguity and emptiness of what modern society offers to young people. There is no positive assertion of values, even less a celebration of the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, secularism and knowledge. There is instead a 'key stage assessment' that students can 'demonstrate personal and group responsibility in their attitudes to themselves and others when participating' and, 'accept the value of others'. This is a polite way of saying 'your ideas are your own, so do not dare tell anyone else who disagrees that they are wrong'.
| The attempt to cohere society will fail time and time again due to one factor - nobody knows, or wants to assert, what society should be about today. In devising a citizenship test, you need to have a sense of what being a citizen means. Many have pointed out the absurdity of asking new citizens to swear an oath to the Queen, when a large number of citizens born here would probably refuse to do the same. Likewise, a test on British culture and history would likely be failed by a significant section of the population already here. The citizenship test may have begun a lively debate in the media in the mode of 'I Love Britain', but no conclusions have been reached. The only thing that politicians seem confident in asserting about our society is its tolerance.
| But tolerance does not build a society. Tolerance is indifference by another name, where private ideas are allowed and accepted but rarely brought into public debate. Today, tolerance is used as an excuse to avoid debating ideas and arguing passionately for what one believes. Indeed, when David Goodhart wrote his controversial article in February 2004 attacking cultural diversity, Trevor Phillips defaulted to the lazy position of accusing him of being intolerant and promoting 'nice racism'.
| We need to acknowledge that the crisis of identity is not caused by the strength of Islam, but the weakness of our own society. If we do this, we can begin to realise that the solution starts here, too. If we really want to create a common culture, we need to ask the awkward questions of what our society believes in and be prepared to fight for hearts and minds.
| Munira Mirza is a researcher in cultural policy at the University of Kent at Canterbury.
| Read on:
Facing up to the M-word, by Jennie Bristow
|
|
|
| | |
