BBC Radio 4 - I’m a Muslim, Get Me out of Here!
This programme (to which you can listen until this time next week) examines the phenomenon of educated, professional Muslims leaving the UK, both for the Gulf, particularly the UAE, and their old homelands, particularly Pakistan. A number of people are interviewed, including a couple who are not of immigrant stock and have no obvious bolt hole, but still want somewhere better to bring up their children than the UK.
I must say I feel a little uneasy about all this, not least because many of those leaving are the wealthier Muslims, who may well end up leaving the less well-off behind. However, since a favourite hijrah destination is the Emirates, how long do British Muslims really have to live the high life there? The place may not be as repressed and repressive as Saudi Arabia, but it (or parts of it) still has a reputation as a place where you can get in serious trouble for getting on the wrong side of the wrong people, and unless the laws are changed in the next few years, neither you nor your children will get citizenship unless you are a female who married a local, which means that as soon as they decide there’s not enough money to go round, they will chuck you out. I appreciate some people’s urge to do hijrah, but it’s not as easy as taking a highly-paid job in Dubai (or going to teach English) and thinking you’re secure.
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Is it cos I is Muslim?
Radio 4 produce a programme reporting on the phenomenon of Muslims leaving their place of birth in the UK and moving to places like Dubai because of increasing Islamophobia. A Guardian/ICM poll found two-thirds of Muslims thinking like this in
Agreed Yusuf, the Gulf is not necessarily a good long-term prospect for hijrah. Having said that, the Emirates has apparently moved on from an oil dependency economy. The problem is, it seems most of the service economy is geared towards Westerners. If Muslims are leaving the UK due to an increasing hostility, it’s probably a fair guess that such hostility would result in diminished contact with the Gulf, thus eroding the economy there anyway. The Gulf could well be in a precarious position inthe coming years, whether the US decides to leave Iraq or escalate with Iran, It’s by no means certain they can make a peaceful transition to regional co-operation.
Assalaamu alaikum,
There are different emirates in the UAE, and they’re not all like Dubai, but “repressive” is not what I think of when talking about Dubai. They’ve got prostitutes, nightclubs, way too much traffic… But there are other areas that are more conservative. I don’t think that being punished for being on someone’s wrong side is really a concern, though. The thing about the Gulf countries is that they’re generally conservative - thus nice for raising Muslim children - but as far as consumer goods, you can get pretty much anything. They’re full of malls with British stores, and they have just about every American restaurant chain you might want. I already live here, and I understand the issue of not really being settled because you don’t have citizenship, but I don’t see it as a bad place to live. (That’s not to say that there aren’t negative aspects, as with anywhere.) I have absolutely no desire to live anywhere else.
I don’t really know, but I’m not sure that the UAE economy is so dependent on the UK or Westerners, Raashid. There are plenty of Gulf families who travel there and buy property there, and they have strong ties with the subcontinent and other parts of Asia, as well as the Arab world.
Ann
Abu Dhabi is a better place to raise children than Dubai, imho, although far more dull. For all the talk of “oil economy”, only AD has the hydrocarbons. Dubai is trying to become a financial/trade centre. And the likes of Ras al-Khaimar have some oil/gas, but nothing to match AD or to sustain long-term growth. One thing I have witnessed is the number of plans to build huge cities in the middle of the desert. I once drove from AD to RAK and counted a dozen or so signs informing people of the new cities that are about to appear (most of the signs had white faces, so you know whose money they’re after).
And “repression” is not merely a matter of closing down brothels. Chairman Mao was a philanderer and Stalin a drunk. However it is hard to argue their regimes were not “repressive”. Really… we need to get over the false descriptions of tolerance and repression as merely the amount of sex or alcohol that is available.
The UAE is repressive in so far as they have little political and press freedom.
I can understand muslims wanting to get out of Britain. But the problem with going anywhere in the Arab world is - giving up a lot of freedoms you may be used to in Britain; whether that’s having to listen to the same government -administered khutba in every single mosque across the UAE, or getting arrested in Egypt for attending a demo.
All this talk of muslims leaving UK because “need a better place to bring muslim kids up than Britain”.
Why dont they all stop talking and just go anywhere??
Britain might not be the hell hole to them had they stood up whilst they where here and told these bombing bastards to stop attaccking my country.
Yeah….. they,ve come to UK, destroyed the peace, and are now wanting others to tell them where theyll get a peaceful life!!!
What a cheek!!!! Just get your cases and get packing, theres always paraside with black eyed virgins to go to.
Good riddance to the lot of you.