The controversy in the UK over voluntary partial adoption of sharia to help solve domestic disputes within some Muslim migrant communities led to a storm of criticism of the Archbishop of Canterbury , the leader of the Anglican Church, over what he did not say, and very little discussion on the implications of what he did say.
The subsequent bashing of the Archbishop with the image of violent intolerant Islam did not reflect the findings of the recent global Gallup poll on what world Muslims think, and was ritualistic, political and diversionary. But it did convey that part of British public opinion is now frightened of Islam and that British Muslims are nervous that British identity and loyalty are in question. The problems encountered in UK are not unique and are part of a more global picture. The Archbishop was right to imply that a new synthesis must emerge, but this goes wider than a new synthesis with Islam.
Globalization is accelerating and migrants from countryside to town may find themselves marginalized in poorer urban communities, whether in Pakistan or the UK. Economics is the driver and social development has to catch up.
Second urbanization and the drive for secular rights and democracy, especially in rapidly modernizing Muslim states, conflicts, at least to some extent, with traditional tribal and religious values. Thirdly society whether in Europe or in modernizing Muslim societies wants consumerism and secular democracy but seeks to preserve religious, cultural and regional identities.
We cannot build the new world in the cathedral of a shopping mall with the values of a TV soap opera. There has to be more to life than that.
Given these rapid changes those feeling loss of identity search for their roots, or seek to retain the values of the past. There can be a retreat from globalization and modernity as a reaction to lack of success in adaptation to new circumstances, and this can lead to pockets of rural under development in between factories and shopping malls. This is now happening in Europe as well as in the countries in economic and social transition from whence the migrants come. The marginalized part of the Muslim migrant community in the UK has a disproportionate number of its young men in jail, with too many poorer male migrants held back by lack of education and training. These are problems of economic deprivation and underdevelopment, not of religion.
It is inevitable in this process that the host society changes as well as the migrants, and in the UK these demographic and social changes may be one of the reasons why Islamaphobia can become a symptom of a deeper unease at the felt loss of identity , especially by the marginalized groups in the majority culture – ” the poor whites.
There are therefore two parallel synergistic processes going on in the UK.
The first that the migrants are changing, and the second that Britain is changing, and the two are related. Recent Indonesian first time visitors to UK are quite surprised at how cosmopolitan it has become after waves of migration from Commonwealth countries and from Eastern Europe along with large numbers of visitors from the Middle East. Just as Britain is changing, the migrants are changing, not just because they have moved from rural Asia to urban Britain but also because the countries they came from are in a dynamic process of urbanization and modernization.
Paradoxically some of the rural under development in British back streets reflects relative isolation from the rapidity of economic and social changes in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as from modernity in the UK. Some older migrants have missed out on the modernization process in both societies and their children really suffer because of this! This is a double whammy that has to be addressed or it will lead to more problems, but these are problems of under development, not directly attributable to Muslim identity, which can and does incorporate modernity. A key part of the modernization process in Muslim societies is to find a new balance between the secular rights and freedoms which the great majority of people now demand, and the cultural and social implications of the religious identity which still defines who they are. The determination to acquire the first has to be reconciled with the strong desire retain the second. This requires some dexterity but is not impossible. This also becomes easier to manage if the gaps between haves and have-nots can be reduced. The degree of economic under development generally affects the intensity of the feelings on religious and cultural identity politics, but some of the feelings of frustration or of being somehow second class or a victim of great changes persist as education and income improves.
Some of the greatest sense of frustration for the young may be when the speed of actual economic and social achievements does not correspond to the revolution in rising expectations. Commonly young people in this position no longer respect much their elders, the mosque, or the traditions they come form. These are the conditions in which extremist ideas can prosper, filling anomic gaps in identity and self esteem.
The voluntary adoption of sharia law in marginalized migrant communities, far from contributing to extremism, as has been suggested, may help to strengthen and adapt traditional values so that local UK migrant communities can address the issues of gradual incremental change on a firmer basis , using ideas people already know and understand to help resolve domestic and family disputes which may now be cross border in nature affecting land rights ” back home ” as well as property rights in UK . Much depends here on building wiser local leadership that includes younger people and women, backed by social and community workers who understand where people are coming from and what is needed. An interchange of best practice between social workers dealing with urbanization between UK cities and cities in Asia would seem a very sensible idea, and might help pull things together better.
Sensible progressive changes in sharia banking and other aspects of Islamic law will result in due course in synergistic changes with UK secular law , as British laws adapt to the changing balance and nature of British society. The true test of Britishness will not be the nationality test given to would be citizens, but the capacity of the British legal and social system to adjust with greater realism to the new realities of the multiculturalism bequeathed by the British Empire, and accelerated by modern globalization.
This is no time to reject multiculturalism in UK or Europe, but a new improved approach is needed that is more aware of the twin challenges of underdevelopment and modernization, and that identity is part of modernization and not an obstacle to it. Persuading the West than Muslim can mean modern as well as moderate will be a longer job, but this has to be done as well! Dr Terry Lacey is a Jakarta-based commentator on Muslim issues.
