Pull of two cultures can create deadly tension

Published on Sunday 12 November 2006 01:05

I SOMETIMES feel like a pair of 501s at the testing stage. Tugging on one leg, gently but steadily, is the machinery of capitalism and the West. On the other, the erratic yanking of a wild beast is pulling me back to my roots. Like many young Muslims living in Scotland I feel confused, a little lost, distressed and largely powerless to do anything about it.

There is no excuse for the awful, despicable crime committed by those who murdered Kriss Donald. However, we should try to learn lessons where possible. Did these killers suffer an extreme sense of the same frustration I feel - and did that contribute in any way to the warped rationale behind their targeting of an unknowing, innocent victim? If so, what do we need to do to prevent the same thing happening again in the future?

Muslims face a particularly complex set of challenges when trying to integrate into western society. Youngsters are constantly juggling western ideals with traditional values in an attempt to accommodate both their family and their friends. However, as links with their country of origin weaken generation after generation, more and more Muslims are successfully integrating themselves into society and are comfortable with their "Scottish Muslim" identity. On the path to the development of this new westernised Islam, though, there are inevitable difficulties.

Young Muslims are playing both sides of the field and without proper support this can have damaging consequences. The sense of not belonging wholly to one or the other side and the resultant growing dislocation pushes vulnerable Muslims into a cultural limbo - angry, isolated from the mainstream and with no vent through which to channel their pain. Could this pent-up tension have played its part in nudging the three Pakistani youths responsible for murdering Kriss Donald over the edge?

His savage murder came as a shock to everyone in Scotland, including the Muslim community. It marked not only a new level of racial tension, but a role reversal between aggressor and defender. This was a young white man attacked by a group of Asian youths. It is possible nobody will ever know what psychological impulses pushed the killers into committing such an awful crime - but many Muslims will wonder whether the cultural limbo I described earlier can be held partly responsible for what happened on that tragic day.

Can we do anything about it? There are fundamental attitude problems in both communities in this respect. As well as an unwillingness among Muslim parents to allow their children to mix freely, there is a growing complacency within the "indigenous" community that it should be Muslims who make the effort to integrate and that cultural barriers, such as the consumption of alcohol, need to be addressed by Muslims, and not them.

This mutual lack of understanding and communication creates an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. And in the current climate, especially since 7/7, suspicion and distrust breed fear and hatred. The racially-motivated attack on Kriss Donald will not, I fear, be the last.

There is also a growing disenchantment with the Labour government in Westminster - though this sentiment is generally shared by everybody, regardless of background. From a Muslim's perspective, the Islamic community has been irrationally targeted through the ruthless manipulation of the media by key political figures. Muslim bashing is a vote winner and Islamophobia in the Noughties is where anti-Semitism was almost 100 years ago.

Over the past few years, Islamic households have been subjected to dawn raids, Muslims have been held in custody - often with little or no evidence - and Asians have been targeted purely on appearance.

This basic violation of human rights, coupled with what Muslims see as an inexplicable foreign policy in the Middle East, has polarised the community. The vast majority, despite their frustration, have turned to prayer or have accepted their lot. But in a handful of cases, Blair's propaganda has aided the recruitment of home-grown terrorists to al-Qaeda's network.

In a rare public speech on Friday, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, expressed concern at the rate at which young people, including teenagers, were being radicalised and indoctrinated. How many more Dhiren Barots are there out there and why are we not talking to them? Surely prevention is better than cure?

Muslims feel misunderstood locally, under-represented nationally and threatened internationally. They feel like their whole way of life has come under attack. Multiculturalism is proving to be a delicate and potentially explosive process. These are important times as Islam grapples with westernisation in an attempt to find a mutually acceptable balance. Both ideologies have a massive contribution to make to the 21st century, but the key is compassion, communication and choice. So what am I going to choose? Well, I'm a believer in taking the best of everything (a cultural "third way", if you like), so I'll just keep on smiling and hope that the jeans don't tear.