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| Britishness and Identity Politics |
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The ties that bind
The push for a nationalistic, values based citizenship is therefore a divisive and coercive approach, which sadly dominates much of the identity debate today. It betrays a lack of confidence, and perhaps substance in the dominant values and symbols of national pride that are being forced on society today. Sadly, this will not create the harmony that many may intend, only harm.
In the end people, and especially minorities, feel they have a stake in society when they feel welcome, are given space to find their feet and practice their own faith in a protected sphere, without vilification and pressure to reform their religion from its basis. They feel they have a stake when they feel that justice and opportunities are truly for all. In such a way there is a natural process of attachment to ones home, an appreciation of the natural environment in which one lives, and an adoption of those aspects of culture that do not contradict ones principles. This is the natural process that existed for centuries in the Muslim world that allowed minorities – religious and ethnic – to feel attached to their state, preserving many rich cultural variations in a way that did not cause division and resentment.
For Muslims in modern Europe – including Britain - this has not only been denied through the attempts at social censorship on the personal views of Muslims, laws banning the hijab (and now the jilbab), a discriminatory foreign policy and oppressive legislation, none of which will help the process of harmonizing society.
This was the lesson of Northern Ireland. This was the lesson of Lord Scarman after the race riots of the eighties. Yet this is the path that politicians tread once again. Sadly, this is a shared history that does not appear to have been bought into.
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