"The laissez faire approach to Britishness citizenship and identity can not continue. We need a new civic contract", argued Sadiq Khan MP in a major Fabian speech on being a British Muslim, in association with The City Circle, Q-News and Fosis, the federation of student Islamic Societies.

Speakers: Sadiq Khan, Mohammed Abdul Bari, John Denham, Shahedah Vawda, Humera Khan.

The success of the BNP in Barking and Dagenham and the appeal of Islamist extremists to young Muslims showed that there were 'mirrors of exclusion and extremism' among poor white and Muslim communities, Sadiq Khan told the Fabian Society.

These needed to be tackled by "a stronger understanding of the contract between citizen and country" to meet the challenge of equality and integration across all communities, he argued.

"We need life chances to be more equal. But there is also a more subjective test of shared citizenship that we need to foster too - to ensure that a sense of belonging to this country is shared by all. There needs to be a horizontal contract between citizens - to provide integration - and a vertical one between state and citizen that provides equality", said Khan.

The debate, attended by over 150 people and held in association with The City Circle, Q-News and Fosis, the federation of student Islamic Societies, included responses from Mohammed Abdul Bari, the new Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, John Denham MP, Shahedah Vawda of The City Circle and Humera Khan of An-Nisa.

Arguing that, a year on from 7th July, there was a need for a shared mission across all communities, Khan criticised government engagement with Muslim communities in the year since 7th July, arguing that the innovative approach of setting up British Muslim taskforces had since led to disillusion among those involved: "What has happened to all the good ideas? Why hasn't an action plan been drawn up with time lines? … I worry that the government might become the Duke of York – marching all these talented British Muslims up the hill of consultation and dialogue only to march them down again as very little appears to have changed". These could not be questions for the Muslim community alone: 'Muslim voices and inputs need to be part of a mainstream and majority debate. It will be a mistake to have, in one area, British Muslims thinking about these issues among ourselves, and coming up with Muslim recommendations for change if non-Muslims who make up the majority have their own different analysis of the problems and are coming up with their own solutions somewhere separate".

"We must wrestle control of the argument that Islamic values are contrary to British values" argued Dr Muhammed Abdul Bari of the MCB. 'British identity has never had any simple or uniform definition' and multiple identities enrich our society. A British Muslim identity needed to be a "positive fusion" enabling British Muslims to add value to British society, said Dr Bari. "Our faith provides a valuable springboard for civic engagement and participation".

"The politics of identity hasn't replaced the politics of class", said John Denham, arguing that the politics of identity is often at its sharpest and most contested when it combines with social deprivation. "It is not like joining a golf club – it is not that there is a club of being British and this is about how Muslims find a way of joining it. It is about us all working together to define the 21st century identity we want to share", said Denham. This is not an issue for Muslims or for the minority – "the majority of the majority have an issue about identity" said Denham, arguing that an inclusive Britishness needed a retelling of the national story without which the origins of our diversity could not be explained. "We don't have a story of how Britain is how it is today that fully incorporates all of our histories".

But Humera Khan was critical of Sadiq Khan's approach. "Who decided that we had shared values? I don't remember being part of any discussion about that? Actually, we don't" she said, arguing that addressing the causes of Muslim exclusion required a longer perspective. "We want to have an amnesia about this. We talk as if there wasn't a life before September 11th 2001", arguing that analysis of the shortcomings of the race relations framework over several decades, which had put a lid on community tension rather than getting to the roots of the problem. The difficulty in dealing with a faith-based perspective had particularly disadvantaged Muslims, she argued. Those Muslims who did succeed in business or professions were those with whom the mainstream could feel comfortable. "There is still a sense that we need to 'leave ourselves at the door' to succeed", she argued.

"Our lack of a culture of self critique as a Muslim community" was identified by Shahedah Vawda, Trustee of The City Circle, as a barrier to tackling extremism. "We need to be more honest about the radicalisation taking place among young Muslims", she said.

Vawda said that Muslims had an important role in challenging a "clash of fundamentalisms". "Muslims are afraid of being the victims of a backlash as well as, like all British citizens, of being a target of terrorism" and that challenging literalist readings of the Koran would play an important role in this. "Acts of terror have nothing to do with Islam", said Vawda. "However, they also have everything to do with Islam as they are being done in my religion's name", she said. There was a growing move to challenge a "stagnation of critical thinking" which 'fossilises' Islam and to accept that "we need to look at the text within the context". Vawda argued that "foreign-imported Imans" had no legitimacy if they did not live within and understand the society they are part of – that was a prerequisite of issuing fatwas – and that a theological justification of western democratic structures would be important. 'We need a move from a politics of opposition where we define ourselves as what the west is not".

Sadiq Khan is Labour MP for Tooting. His lecture on Being a British Muslim took place on Monday 3rd July, at a Fabian Society event at Friends House, Euston held in association with The City Circle, Fosis and Q-News. The event included included responses from Mohammed Abdul Bari, the new Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, John Denham MP, Shahedah Vawda of The City Circle and Humera Khan of An-Nisa

This Fabian Society event, continuing our work on Britishness, was held in association with City Circle, Fosis and Q-News.

Back to Being a British Muslim

In association with

The City Circle

The City Circle is an open circle for open minds. It promotes the development of a distinct British Muslim identity and seeks to assist the process of community cohesion and integration by building bilateral strategic alliances between Muslim and non-Muslim communities and channelling the skills of Muslim professionals into practical projects to 'put back in' to the wider British community. http://www.thecitycircle.com/

Fosis

FOSIS is the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, a body that caters for the needs of Muslim students in further and higher education across the UK and Ireland. Fosis seeks to bring students together, to share experiences and to offer help and advice where appropriate, uniting Muslim students to positively contribute to both Muslim and non-Muslim communities alike.

http://www.fosis.org.uk/

Q-News

Q-News is Britain's leading Muslim magazine, providing independent analysis, critique and review of politics, culture and ideas. We are read by second and third generation British Muslims, parliamentarians, policy makers and educators. A third of our readership are not Muslim giving Q-News a unique place in the market as a publication which communicates the rich Muslim experience to a diverse audience.

http://www.q-news.com