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British muslim youth
humble_muslim
04/17/01 at 05:25:30
AA I read this in the Telegraph.  Though some of it may be biased, it is rather disturbing. SUNDAY night's riot in Bradford came early in the British rioting season, the weather being not yet fine or hot enough for everyone to join in and express his outrage at the injustice of the world. There is nothing quite like rain, or even the mere possibility of rain, to soothe the savage breast. In Bradford, Asian youths clashed with white youths, and shops and cars were damaged or destroyed. The riot might at first sight indicate an inflamed state of race relations. Actually, the situation is much more nuanced: the riots demonstrate that Asian youth is becoming more anglicised, in the worst possible sense. They now belong to the primitive "who you looking at?" culture of the young natives, a culture in which egos are as prickly as consciences are weak. A decade ago, for example, there were hardly any convicts of Asian origin in the prison in which I work. The few that there were had generally committed VAT fraud in their middle age, or some such crime that hardly causes old ladies to tremble as they walk down the street or wonder whether they should go out at all. In the past 10 years, however, I have noticed a startling shift. Asian convicts now abound, all young men, and they have committed just the same kind of crimes as their white and black equivalents. They wield machetes in places where there is hardly a blade of grass to be seen; they carry baseball bats but do not even know what a baseball looks like. They have become violent, aggressive, drunken and drug-addicted. As one might expect, their educational standards are falling: they are now almost as ignorant and uncultured as their white neighbours. There are other indications, too, that they fit increasingly well into modern British youth culture. The young men tattoo themselves, though their complexions are not really suited to this "art"; they adopt the same fashions, they eat the same fast food in the street, they listen to the same music, they wear the same ironmongery in their faces, they have a gold front tooth to demonstrate that they are successfully evil and not to be trifled with, they walk with the same vulpine lope, they shave their heads in the same way. I asked one young Asian man why he adopted all these repellent fashions. "I want to look stupid," he replied. "I want to look aggressive and violent. I want people to cross the road when they see me." At first, it was only the young men who adopted British popular youth culture. But the girls are now beginning to join in as well. Illegitimacy among them - unheard of a few years ago - is on the rise. More unmarried Asian girls are turning to a life of abandonment by the fathers of their children. They are attracted by the same kind of primitive masculinity as their white and black peers, and fail just like them to learn by experience. In short, the same culture of radical individualism, untempered by any appreciation of its consequences or of social duty, is making inroads into the Asian population of this country. There is another striking fact about this development: it has gone far further among the Muslims than among the Sikhs and the Hindus. For example, the overwhelming majority of Asian prisoners - much in excess of their proportion in the Asian population as a whole - is Muslim. It is they who take the heroin, form gangs and commit most of the violence. Why should this be? The Muslim parents are themselves law-abiding. They give their children no encouragement, quite the contrary, to participate in British popular youth culture, which they rightly fear and despise. They have only to look around them at the mass illegitimacy and complete absence of self-respect in the native population for their natural conservatism to be reinforced. The answer, I think, is that their code is much more rigid than that of the Sikhs and the Hindus. Take the question of arranged marriage: very often among the Muslims a marriage is arranged at birth, often to a cousin, and the parents of the bride or groom regard the fulfilment of the promise made at birth as a matter of honour so important that they would quite literally rather see their child dead than refuse to marry the chosen spouse. Preserving one's reputation in the community matters more to them than anything else. The life, let alone the happiness, of the child is unimportant by comparison. Among Sikhs and Hindus in this country, the arranged marriage is much less rigidly imposed, and provided that both parties agree with the system as a whole, it is extremely successful. Brides-to-be may be shown several prospective grooms, more or less at the same level of accomplishment as themselves. They have the right of veto: and thus a subtle blend of personal preference and social obligation makes the system work. When a rigid code of conduct breaks down, it breaks down completely, and results in total demoralisation. That is what has happened to the British working class, much of which struggled for so many years for respectability in the face of enormously difficult circumstances. Liberated from social pressure to conform to certain standards, and told that being yourself - that is to say, doing what you please when you please - is the highest good to which man can aspire, it was left completely without cultural or moral bearings. The results have been catastrophic. The young Muslims are experiencing the same disorientation, a few years later. This does not mean that they will get on well with their similarly demoralised white neighbours and peers: on the contrary, race hate will give both groups the semblance of a raison d'etre. And no doubt there will be a fundamentalist backlash as some among the Muslims realise what a primrose path to damnation anglicisation is. But this does not alter the fact that the white working class and the Muslim youth have much in common. At the root of the clashes in Bradford is modern popular youth culture, which is itself the product of 1960s "liberation".
NS

Re: British muslim youth
BrKhalid
04/17/01 at 10:18:09
Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) I could say a lot on this article but I just wanted to talk about the last sentence [quote] At the root of the clashes in Bradford is modern popular youth culture, which is itself the product of 1960s "liberation [/quote] What is this "liberation" that the author is talking about? He gives the answer in the following passage: [quote] That is what has happened to the British working class, much of which struggled for so many years for respectability in the face of enormously difficult circumstances. Liberated from social pressure to conform to certain standards, and told that being yourself - that is to say, doing what you please when you please - is the highest good to which man can aspire, it was left completely without cultural or moral bearings. The results have been catastrophic. [/quote] He says there was "social pressure to conform" and being "liberated" from this they became devoid of "cultural or moral bearings" What he fails to realise is that it's the fear of Allah [swt] that makes you "conform" and if you detach or "liberate" yourself from this viewpoint then you will automatically become devoid of any "cultural or moral bearings". This idea stands for all times, be it in the 1960's and the working classes or in respect to our Muslim youth of today. It has absolutely nothing to do with "social pressure to conform with certain standards". And Allah knows best

Re: British muslim youth
humble_muslim
04/17/01 at 10:52:57
AA Yeah, but the fact that 99% of parents in the UK don't teach the kids muslim culture, but "Paki" culture, means that it is precisely "social pressure to conform" and NOT the fear of Allah which is used to control kids.  Believe me, when I was growing up in the UK, I wanted to have girlfriends.  What stopped me was not the fear of Allah, but knowing that this would be completely unacceptable to my parents.

Re: British muslim youth
BrKhalid
04/17/01 at 11:11:56
Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) Interesting point you've raised humble_muslim I wonder what the Islamic viewpoint is for abstaining from sin because we fear someone or something else besides Allah [swt] One way you could look at it is that you were obeying your parents (and after obedience to Allah) this is the second most important right you have to fulfil in Islam. Could this "social pressure" as you define it not be a part of Islam then?

Re: British muslim youth
humble_muslim
04/17/01 at 11:21:49
AA But many parents don't even do their salat, yet expect their kids to tow the line when it comes to things like girlfriends.  Allah SWT is really left out of the picture. To claim that arranged marriages is the reason muslims become criminals is journalistic claptrap. But there is no dobut in my mind that when social norms are explained to kids without bringing Islam into it, or with hypocrisy, there will be a backlash. I think it's even worse with girls.  I knew a girl whose father was a drunkard, but who used to get mad if her hair was open. Kashif and all you other Brits, I'd like to get your two pence worth on this.
NS

Re: British muslim youth
humble_muslim
04/17/01 at 12:47:16
AA This is from a friend of mine, who is a muslim minister in a prison in the UK. ---------------------------------------------- Thanks for the article. As usual it contains truths, half truths and damn right lies. Its the way the Jewish Media attack Islam. Unfortunately, the points about Prison are correct. 1.    Muslims after atheists and christians form the third largest group of prisoners in the UK. Currently there are over 4900 prisoners in the UK which represents 15% of the total prison population. 2.    The highest proportion are Asian which refects the general population as a whole. However, there are Arabs, Nigerians, Somalians, Kosovars etc. In fact the greatest proportion in Immigration Detention Centres are Muslims from Eastern Europe. 3.    It is true that 20 to 30 years ago, the commonest crimes were fraud and deception eg DSS fraud, tax fraud etc. However, there is a heteregenous mix now between violent crime (ABH, armed robbery, GBH etc) and drug related crime. These seem to be balanced though in Cat APisons-top security , most are in for violent crimes. Brixton, Wormwood Scubs, Pentonville have a mixture between drug related crime and violence. There are 4 general cats of Prisons (Cat A High security prisons, Cat ,Cat ,& Cat D which is an open prison like HMP which I am a visiting Muslim Minister and contains soft criminals. 4.    The main reasons for more Muslims in Prisons are: (1)    Failure in the criminal justice system i.e. due to institutional racism a Muslim would be more likely to be sent to prison then a white guy. (2)    Other sociological factors such as unemployment, poor housing and education. An eg is that a lot of Muslim Prisoners particularly in prisons such as Manchester and London come from large council estates where they are generally quite ill-educated. Thus, drugs, prostitution presents an easy way to make money. (3)    Unfortunately, IstigfarAllah due to the factors above more Muslims are turning to crime. (4)    Alhamdullilah, a lot of Muslims become better in Prions due to all the mosques and efforts of visiting Muslim Ministers. Also Alhamdullilah, some non-Muslims become Muslim particularly West Indians. (5)    I'm not an expert on Muslim women prisoners, but I know there are a lot less. I hope the above clarifies some issues.

Re: British muslim youth
Anik
04/28/01 at 02:03:18
A.A. okay I am not from around there... fill me in... what happened exactly? why do Brit's have a rioting season? sorry if these questions are so basic that they don't need be mentioned! A.A.anik,.

Re: British muslim youth
BrKhalid
04/29/01 at 01:33:28
Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) [quote]why do Brit's have a rioting season? [/quote] As far as I'm concerned there isn't one! It just sounds good to the media to have one

Re: British muslim youth
Barr
04/29/01 at 01:49:41
Assalamu'alaikum, Dear Br Humble Muslim, [quote] But many parents don't even do their salat, yet expect their kids to tow the line when it comes to things like girlfriends.  Allah SWT is really left out of the picture. To claim that arranged marriages is the reason muslims become criminals is journalistic claptrap. But there is no dobut in my mind that when social norms are explained to kids without bringing Islam into it, or with hypocrisy, there will be a backlash. [/quote] Albeit the disturbing news article, it can be very discouraging, disappointing and one can be very disillusioned, when we look at these consequences and the "hypocrisy" shown. But then again, is it really hypocrisy, when perhaps, that is the way the older generation have been brought up with and the only best way they knew to bring their children up amidst a culture very alien to theirs? I think we also have to consider the internal conflicts that the older generation have got to overcome and adjust to. Though, there is a time to be frustrated with the situation, perhaps, let us put more optimism in ourselves, and work towards a paradigm shift, akhi. We see youth hungry for direction and identity, and I see this as a niche/ vacumn where we can work to fill it up. This is an opportunity that ALlah has given us, it is whether we want to take it up or not. wallahu a'lam
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