Question of identity is both seminal as well as problematic
It was indeed very exotic, dining at Loch Fyne, a Scottish restaurant at Trumpington Street in Cambridge, with a friend who is a successful Ophthalmologist. Loch Fyne serves fish only which is especially cooked and regarded as a delicacy by Cambridge folks.
My friend, a King Edward Medical College graduate, had moved to the United Kingdom (UK) many years ago. Blessed with a successful career, a charming wife and two adorable kids, both of whom are now grown up and pursuing their studies in medicine from institutions of extraordinary prominence in London. He himself is quite balanced in his opinions. He considers religion as an important variable in any society but only if it is left to the choice of the individual. No one should enforce any ideology on others through coercion, he thinks. Besides, any religion fomented as state ideology becomes social anathema.
In the UK, no one is entitled to enforce any religious ideology on others or so I thought. It unfolded later that my impression was misplaced.
Reverting to our conversation on dinner at Loch Fyne, as is the wont with most Pakistanis, politics and religion was the staple diet apart from fish of course. The conversation turned to Panama Leaks and the possible repercussions it may bring to bear on Pakistan’s ruling family. Both of us agreed on the Pakistani electorate’s acceptability of politicians despite their involvement in massive financial scams.
The conversation switched to Islam in England, particularly its waxing influence in educational institutions. My friend was visibly disconcerted over the state of affairs and the British government acting as a damp squib. The spawning influence of Hizb-ut Tahrir on the youth and the widening network of Islamic seminaries in cities like Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester and Manchester are incontrovertible facts. Nevertheless, the British state has yet to devise some well-thought-out strategy to properly monitor and rein in the fast growing influence of the Islamists. It is crucial as terrorism orchestrated by Islamists has gone global; Paris and Brussels being its latest victims.
Islamic societies operate with considerable effectiveness in every major university of the UK. These societies target the young Muslim students and gradually start administering them a dose of Islam that mostly is of Saudi orientation. The youngsters managing these societies are fluent in English, intellectually smart and invested with confidence. They use the liberal space available to them in the UK to their full advantage.
The Muslim students on their admission in the universities are systematically lured into the fold of Islamic societies and subjected to a discipline-like persuasion to offer prayers in congregation. If anyone misses out on the prayer in congregation, he is reminded through a text message or phone call. In a way, it is a controlling mechanism which is very effectively employed by the Islamic societies.
Things come to a head when those indoctrinated youngsters are encouraged to enforced those ideas and practices in their respective homes. At home, they tend to enforce religious rituals through the amenable agency of their mother(s).Thus the option of free choice, a principle on which the whole structure of the liberal ethos hinges, is wrested away from those youngsters.
As a consequence, a new subjectivity is formulated which is drawn away from the society and the socio-political norms underpinning it. It is a state of social dichotomy they are pushed into. They are virtually alienated from their own country and society, living in the vacuity of abstract ideology, which hardly has any practical bearing.
Listening to these concerns of a father, I tried to unravel this phenomenon. Islamism has burst out of the geographical confines of South Asia and Middle East. It is, now, an international enterprise with Europe and North America as it fountainhead.
Question of identity is what appears to me as seminal as well as problematic. Identity is formed through history, geography and culture, and the set of values emanating from the interface of these three. The vast majority of the second or even third generation Muslims in the UK, or in any other western polity for that matter, could not fully embrace these constitutive elements of identity. Beyond a couple of decades, the history of the UK has little fascination for them as it does not reflect their subjective self in its narration. Prior to 1947, the history of the UK portrays the forefathers of the youth, about whom we are concerned with in this article, as the vanquished. Thus the glory reflected through the history of their adopted country is not shared by them.
With some variation, the same can be said about geography and culture. Generally, the Muslims of the entire subcontinent are faced with the situation of intellectual confusion which stems from the "segregation of history and geography". The very sensibility growing out of the interface of these two disciplines constitutes the core of the value system.
That dilemma becomes even more acute for the educated youth of the UK. It is that ‘identity deficit’ that is the chink in the armour so far as university-going youngsters are concerned. The value system they are mostly fed on by the Islamists has completely divergent historical as well as geographical underpinnings; aggravating the dichotomy they are subjected to.
In this not so promising situation, the only way out for them can be to embrace the core values of their adopted country without completely obliterating their own cultural ethos. How can it be done, that is a difficult question.