Here is a quick summary of the paper by Dr Abdul Bari. Its a summary of the first of three sections. Will try and get through to all of it later inshallah. Ramadan is coming. Very busy week! 1, Muslims in the UK are in a unique position to lead other communities in Europe. They have more established communities. With a population estimated to be over 2.7 million,5 Muslims have largely become an established community. We have a significantly higher proportion of youth population among us; we also have a good number of convert Muslims and indigenous Muslims of European extraction. With the growth of our numbers through migration, birth and conversion as well as achievements in some areas of life, we are often seen as a notable socio-political and economic force by Muslim communities elsewhere in Europe. Therefore our ability here is to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps will have major effect elsewhere, inshaAllah 2. Main theological and ideological Muslim groups within the UK are: Brelvis, Deobandis, Tabligi Jamat, Salafis, Ahle Hadith, Islamic Movement, Hizb at Tahrir, Non affiliated broad based orgs. 3. Internal factors or concerns (sikhwa) of the Muslim Community. Shikwa 1 – deficiency of knowledge and scholarship Deficit of knowledge between activists and underdeveloped of scholarship in general. There is lack of awareness of the socio-political dynamics of the modern world and society amongst Muslim scholarship. - Lack of unity, co-operation and warmth. Muslims have set up institutions based on their own particular cultural and theological origins which have lead to fragmentation of the Muslim community. Governments contributions in post 7/7 (9/11) has further contributed to the fragmentation. The ethos and spirit of complementing and co-ordinating in good works, ‘agreeing to disagree’ as it is called, is thus weak amongst many of us in reality. What we often see is the rhetoric of ‘brotherhood’, or of ‘unity’, but not as much of warmth and little practical co-operative action. Some may even use the jargon phrases as meaningless lip service. -‘Returning to Islam’ has become different things to different people. For too many Muslims, our return to Islam means increasing some rituals, improving our external looks, organising more events for the sake of, some critics say, ticking boxes – in reality, doing ‘more of the same’. To some activists it may mean impulsively running around like ‘headless chickens’ with their ‘heart before head’. , to some Muslims it is about how deeply they can insulate themselves into their ghettos or ‘cosy world’ for fear of ‘losing’ Islam and their children’s future. There is shortage of confidence within the Muslim community to be part an integral force in the UK thus allowing them not to see the bigger picture and vision. Shikwa 2 – Crisis of effective leadership. Many leaders are well intentioned for the work they carry out. They may not however be fully cognizant of the required personal and group qualities and ability to understand the essence of Islam and its message in modern times. It is also relevant to know how many of them are reasonably aware of the surrounding society, and of the context in which they are working. They may be very active within their own group, but very few see things beyond their immediate community horizon and a significant proportion are unable to relate to wider society in any meaningful sense; there is a dearth of social leadership among our leaders. - Organisations not ‘fit for purpose’. Orgs are very exclusive in their outlook. They do not see beyond their own communities. The orgs have lost appeal in particular to the youth who sees them to be very bureaucratic, process driven and irrelevant. Some of them are like shells within shells, having perhaps little connection with or relevance to wider society. There have been efforts by orgs such as the MCB to give disparate platform to the various Muslim voices however not much because of two reasons: 1) we have a shortage of social leadership acceptable to the main groups and also to the community, and 2) affiliate bodies probably do not take these platforms seriously enough and do not invest their human and material resources to make them successful. - Lack of succession plans to hand over batons of leadership. Some leaders try to cling to their power base with even unethical means until their last breath. Ineffectiveness of - Movement groups in the Muslim minority context. Movement groups initially captured the imagination of the mass. However over decades and for probably structural reasons, some of these movements seem to have lost much of their steam. A mixture of complacency and overconfidence appears to have thwarted their progress and inertia has taken over. They are seen by many as elitist and exclusivist, not people-oriented. Their vision may still inspire many today, even in the European countries; but the groups that originated from the mother movements have so far been unable to contextualise the vision with timely structure and strategy. Shikwa 3 – Failure to harness the talents of our youth and muslims of european extraction. The youth are at the receiving end of all the social ‘experiments’, some might say social engineering, regarding belief and lifestyle. The generational and cultural gaps in our community have multiplied over the decades; culture is often portrayed as Islam by many in the older generation, and this tends to drive our youth further away from religious moorings. The orgs have not harnessed the talent of the youth in particular the women who have made great achievements in education in the last decades etc. - Poor or ineffective parenting, particularly in children’s preparatory and early teenage years, is yet another weak link that is alienating a big section of our youth. - Mosques are not accommodating the youth who see the committees members monopolising on much of what happens in the mosques etc. Many within the successful and ambitious section are taking professional career paths. This is highly commendable, but at the same time the important question is ‘are they giving something back to their community?’ - The issue of inability of our mosques and community organisations to involve the significant number of ‘revert’ (convert) Muslims and Muslims of European extraction in the UK is also a serious one. Shikwa 4 – Underestimating the external challenges and our reactiveness. European Muslims are facing onslaught of attacks which has thwarted positive integration and contribution in the society. Sometimes the reaction of Muslims have not been appropriate or Islamic. The neo-cons are setting the agenda for Muslims. They are labelling Muslims to disunite them (RAND). The response from Muslims are always reactive. Sometimes fringe groups resort to violence. . Some of our activist groups are even unaware of the extent of the damage they are causing to us and our relationship with wider society. Others seem to be too busy with their routine works or ignorant to the hidden dangers to address the issues proactively and holistically. This is widening the gaps between our community and others.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 21:48:19 +0000
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