The Conservative Party leader David Cameron wrote in today’s Observer about the “British values” issues which were under much discussion this past week. Of merit is his debunking of stupid suggestions like having a Veterans’ Day (when we already have Remembrance Sunday and have done for decades) and putting flags out on the lawn. On the other hand, he and his party’s vice-chairwoman, Sayeeda Warsi, are on the offensive regarding Muslim girls being forced into marriages and being denied education by their families. I wonder how they intend to tackle this - perhaps they might do away with tuition fees and re-institute grants for promising students whose parents just don’t want to pay? Or perhaps he just prefers to lecture.
And the Observer can think of no better way of illustrating this than … a picture of a woman in niqab on the front page of their website (view image). It’s not really illustrative of women being denied education, though, because you’ll find plenty of women in niqab in many British universities. I intend to complain to their readers’ editor (reader@observer.co.uk) and suggest you do as well. Besides the fact that a lot of white Brits aren’t all that patriotic anyway, the Muslims who most offend “British values” are the idiotic men with their offensive placards and slogans.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Attempt to link Islamic societies to terrorism
- The real value of online friendships (Hadley Freeman revisited)
- Panorama and other media coverage of the Gilderdale affair
- Muslim women driving, and contrasts on niqab
- Rod Liddle and the Independent
Couldn’t the cost of higher education be one reason why birth rates are so low now?
assalamu alikeum
The irony is, muslim girls are actually doing very well at school, so to say they are being denied an education is not true because the universities are packed with young muslim women, who are doing much better in some cases compared to their male counterparts. Its when they seek employment that they face troubles.
Recent studies showed that it was mainly discrimnation of religious dress (i.e headscarf) and perceptions of muslims, which held those women back from getting paid and promoted on the same level as your average white british woman.
Cameron needs to get off his high horse and actually deal with the real problem and not wallow in the same sterotypical clap trap.
George: cost of living in general is one factor which has contributied to low birth rates but i dont thinks its the only one. I know France are tackling this by given financial incentives and aid for women who postpone their careers to have a 2nd/3rd child (as most on average have 1 or 2). Not sure if they’ll do such a thing here (actually no because we’re too busy aiding america with their illegal wars!)
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
I agree with Muslim Gal; it’s the cost of living, rather than education (let alone higher ed) which keeps families from having more than a couple of children. After all, nobody knows what the lie of the land will be when it comes to their own children going to Uni. Education, at a basic level is free; what costs lots of money is housing and job insecurity.
Can I ask, MG, what your experience in this area is? Are you in higher education and is the study you cited about hijab discrimination your experience?
assalamu alikeum
One of the studies i was refering to was the more recent one by the EOC, but others untaken by independent organisations like Joseph Rowntree Foundation have come up with relatively simalar findings.
Its a mixture really of racial and relgious discrimnation. Firstly, ethnic minority women are more likely to be overlooked for employment, paid less, and given promotion than white females in Britian. That is known fact and no social study has disproved that.
When you break it down even futher between minority groups, you find that muslim women of asian backgrounds are at the bottom and thats largely due to religious discrimnation. Its a case of the minorities having to fight for the scraps really and thats where alot of muslim women fall down on due to religion- especially when they’re dressed like a muslim.
Employers are no longer allowed to dicrimnate against religious headress- whether sikh, muslim, jew etc.. and its difficult to actaully prove thats why your being discrimanted for because no-one will actually come out and say it. Before those laws came through though, i know sisters who employers told straight up, that under no circumstances would they accept the hijab and some were offered the job, on condition of them removing it. Now we’re not talking about face veil or burqas, just the square piece hijab or shayla tucked under their shirts like this:
http://www.thehijabshop.com/prod.php?code=VG01BLUE
There were no health and safety issues invovled, its was a case of not wanting someone who obviously clearly indicated they were muslim working for the company.
Now no employer will say that sort of stuff today in public, because they’d be facing an employment tribunal. So what you get are responses like:
“Your over-qualified”, “The position has been filled” (when it hasnt!).
And thats if your lucky to get your CV even looked at. Ethinic sounding names which indicate specfic races or cultures are less likely to get called up then those with anglicised ‘white’ names.
This white muslim brother i know was telling me how at his old work place they had a ‘white-only’ policy and refused to employ any non whites regardless of how qualified they were (they did hire a few far east asian women, but they were cleaners). One time though, they called up this guy for an interview for a position in I.T and Accounts Dept. and he turned out to be black whom had an english name and english accent (which is not uncommon lol). Anyways, when he left the building, the manager chucked the black guy’s CV and forms that he filled out in the bin and told everyone that there was no way he was working for the company and all the employees (except this brother) laughed and proceeded to make comments. Again that man would not have gotten the real reason why he was not employed for the job: due to his colour, and would have been sent a nice little letter sending their fake condolences.
Alot has changed now and to be honest, whatever negative rep muslims get, it will hurt us socially and economically. Its already happening in america and studies which have been taken over there show that arab/muslims in general are being affected in employment- and muslims in a america are much better off economically then muslims in europe. So if its getting bad over there for muslims, it’ll be worse for us, as we’re techincally poorer.
And yea, im currently at university.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I’ve been meaning to ask you something: Speaking of idiots with obnoxious signs, is much known about the infamous London protesters with those surreally extreme placards (“Behead those who mock Islam” or whatever).
I have more experience than most with stupid and/or bigoted Muslims—a story for another time—but I must admit that I find this whole thing fishy. It’s an Islamophobe’s dream, a cliche straight out of Central Casting, for menacing masked men to hold up such extreme, politically tone-deaf and unusual (even among bona fide reactionaries) messages on cue for the cameras.
Is there reason to think there is more to this than meets the eye?
Well, as one who’s attended a few demonstrations by another group - Stop Political Terror, which is about freeing Guantanamo captives and opposing oppressive anti-terrorist laws - I know of one incident where they turned up at a SPT demonstration and chanted their usual slogans. The demonstration was then reported on the news as one in which Martin Mubanga (ex-Gitmo detainee) spoke and at which violent anti-American slogans were chanted. I found out who was responsible next time I spoke to the SPT organiser.
The suspicion that they and Omar Bakri, their former leader, are agents provocateurs is not uncommonly expressed on some Muslim forums, but it’s not a universally held view.
What we know is: they are a hard core of former Muhajiroun who have gone even more extreme since that group disbanded.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I’ve been meaning to ask you something: Speaking of idiots with obnoxious signs, is much known about the infamous London protesters with those surreally extreme placards (“Behead those who mock Islam” or whatever).
I have more experience than most with stupid and/or bigoted Muslims—a story for another time—but I must admit that I find this whole thing fishy. It’s an Islamophobe’s dream, a cliche straight out of Central Casting, for menacing masked men to hold up such extreme, politically tone-deaf and unusual (even among bona fide reactionaries) messages on cue for the cameras.
Exactly. The Muhajiloonies were indeed trying to incite Islamophobia in the general British population, in the hope that it would drive Britain’s Muslims into their arms.
The best allies for any lunatic extremists, in terms of recruiting followers, are the lunatic extremists on the other side of the issue.
Like Hitler vs Stalin, Sharon vs Hamas, Muhajiloonies vs Islam-haters.
Salam
Same subject was heavily debated here in Denmark som weeks ago. People just dont get that forcing people NOT to wear burka, hijab or whatever IS oppression. SubhanAllah