By Heidi Kingstone
The most terrible things can happen in the most normal of towns. Walking in Ilford, Essex, (about an hour's drive from London) a 17-year old Muslim girl, wearing the traditional headscarf, made her way to school on a Monday morning in March.
Just before she went to class at Ursuline College, this young girl, who remains anonymous, was abducted by a middle-aged man. He bundled her into a white van and drove off to a local park where the fundamentalist Christian tried to "save her soul" by demanding at knifepoint that she convert to Christianity.
As she refused, petrified and crying, he cut little crosses into the back of her hands and sides of her arm, small scars that have started to heal but will remind her forever of this terrifying ordeal. That concluded after an hour with the man dropping off the frightened girl - a woman repressed by Islam, he told her - back at her sixth form college.
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| 'It would be like the Ku Klux Klan dominating media coverage in the United States' |
The Muslim community in the United Kingdom has been increasingly in the spotlight since 9/11, and following the Madrid bombings last month and arrests that took place last week of nine young British-born Muslims, five subsequently charged, the glare is red-hot.
While it is a misnomer to talk about "the Muslim community" as it is hugely diverse, many feel under pressure, demoralised and disheartened because of what is perceived as the constant denigration of their religion.
"What exasperates the community," explains Inayat Bunglawala, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella group set up at the behest of the government after September 11, "is how a radical element within the community has been able to so monopolise media coverage of their affairs. It would be like the Ku Klux Klan dominating media coverage in the United States. You get a very distorted impression."
While the vast majority of young Muslims are law-abiding citizens, there is a pervading sense that the way the community is portrayed is as if radical Muslims inhabit every mosque. "That," says Shareefa Fulat, director of Muslim Youth Helpline, "can add to the sense of isolation."
The 2001 census recorded that there were 1,6 million Muslims in the UK, (the number now is probably closer to 1,8 million) and it is the second-largest religion after Christianity.
| 'You get a very distorted impression' |
There are more Muslims, mostly Sunni, here than Sikhs, Hindus, Jews and Buddhists combined, and more than 50 percent of Muslims are British-born.
For many there has never been tension between being British and being Muslim, but many Muslims feel there is a lingering sense that they are the enemy within.
"The Islamic faith lays great stress on leading good clean lives," continues Bunglawala. In the wake of Madrid the Muslim Council issued a letter to the UK's thousand mosques urging Muslims with any information about terrorist threats to contact the police because it is an Islamic duty to help save innocent lives.
While the Muslim community struggles to find a collective voice, it's not always clear where the leadership lies. There is an acknowledgement that mosques can act as recruiting grounds for potential Islamic terrorists, which was one reason that the Muslim Council issued their letter.
Baroness Uddin, a Labour peer born in Bangladesh, has criticised the fact that there are no credible leaders and as a result feels that the situation will only deteriorate further.
Still, many young Muslims feel excluded on several levels. "You don't have to face direct racism to feel discriminated against," says Fulat, "it can just be the lack of alternatives."
In a culture in which pub life predominates, this social setting can be uncomfortable. Some young Muslims feel that they will never fit in, and just accept that as a way of life.
Unemployment rates among Pakistani and Bangladeshi men, the largest Muslim communities in the UK, are up to three times higher than among white males. Adding fuel to the fire, about 537 Muslims have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences since September 11th. Only six have been convicted, which makes some in the Muslim community think things have turned into a witch-hunt.
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