Policy Research Centre<\/a>. The study, conducted over 18 months and released in September 2009, aims to give voice to young Muslims who are often analyzed by researchers, but rarely heard from. And as someone who was born in the United Kingdom, spent her early years there, and recently lived in London\u2019s East End \u2013 an area with a large urban Muslim population \u2013 I found Ahmed\u2019s report to be highly topical and necessary.<\/p>\nOver 100 young Muslims were interviewed across the country in various focus groups, all representing over 15 ethnicities. Ahmed\u2019s work is an intriguing analysis on the state of young Muslims in the UK and clearly has much input from the young Muslims that she spoke to. Seen and Not Heard<\/i> informs us that young Muslims have a plethora of issues to deal with \u2013 including poverty, education, subcultures, the generational gap, media, police interactions \u2013 and of course, religion. <\/p>\n
But first, there\u2019s the terminology itself. Ahmed notes that a primary distinction must be made in addressing and discussing young Muslims in Britain. The term \u201cyouth\u201d has the negative connotations of being affiliated with gangs and violence, which occurs all too often in perceptions by the government, police, and media. \u201cYouth\u201d are seen as a problem in society and Ahmed therefore proposes that Muslim youth be addressed as \u201cyoung Muslims\u201d or \u201cyoung people,\u201d which some of her interviewed youth workers also recommended, for a step in preventing \u201cotherization.\u201d <\/p>\n
A highly refreshing aspect of Seen and Not Heard<\/i> is Ahmed\u2019s analysis of the interactions between young Muslims and their parents, and how education comes into play. Overall, the tensions between the two are often comparable to what young people in general experience with the older generation \u2013 this intergenerational gap is present in many communities, Muslim and non-Muslim. <\/p>\n
However in Muslim communities, factors such as language and culture are also present and frequently cause distance between parents and their children. Such circumstances do affect the education of young Muslims and their attitudes towards it, as many Muslim parents in the UK are not able to engage with their children\u2019s education:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research shows that attitude, language, poor education background and feeling insecure with systems of school governance can turn parents away from helping children with their homework, coursework and other assessments, remembering that many parents of the first generation didn\u2019t attend school in the UK and in fact have a generally poor track record of education themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
In other words, this results in young Muslims thus not taking their education very seriously, for their parents do not check on their progress. This was certainly the case with me \u2013 my parents, like many, were either too busy with work or were not able to understand my teachers and coursework, resulting in disengagement (though not indifference) with my education. <\/p>\n
In contrast, after we moved to the United States, I noticed that young American Muslims around me often had their parents involved with their education, while I was left to my own means. Ahmed has shed much light onto my shared UK experience and recommends that schools need to extend outreach to parents of young British Muslims with a better cultural understanding. This would result in a better education for young Muslims, and ultimately, better life and job opportunities. <\/p>\n
A discussion of the media\u2019s treatment of young Muslims is another critical and necessary \u2013 but rare \u2013 insight offered by the report. Ahmed quotes many young Muslims on their perceptions of how media portray them negatively, and documents how this affects their identity. For example, young Muslims are often unfairly forced to answer for the actions of Muslims abroad, and more frequently so because of an increasingly globalized media network. <\/p>\n
Some interviewees often times felt helpless at the expense of the media, saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t really make a difference.\u201d Ahmed recommends that young Muslims be encouraged to enter media fields as a means of empowerment. As a precursor to this, other interviewees have proactively countered the negative perceptions enforced by the media simply by getting to know their non-Muslim peers.<\/p>\n
Ahmed concludes that the identities of young Muslims in the United Kingdom are constantly in flux, because of shifting attitudes towards education, culture, and religion \u2013 and that the media\u2019s everyday barrage also spurs perceptions to shift quickly. By dispelling many stereotypes and misconceptions, Seen and Not Heard demonstrates that young Muslims in the United Kingdom do have a lot of potential. It\u2019s just that their potential needs to be recognized and respected.<\/p>\n
Hena Ashraf is a filmmaker and a fierce advocate for the making and use of independent media. She can be reached at hena@a2palestinefilmfest.org. Download and read Seen and Not Heard here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new assessment of young Muslims in the United Kingdom suggests that common assumptions regarding their identity are oversimplified, misleading, and – most of all – failing to take into account their own views and opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"\n
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