Imagine going to school, and being picked on for your beliefs. Or reading stories that claim you’re being oppressed by the religion that guides your life. For the majority of us, that’s unlikely to happen, but for the 3 million Muslims living in the UK, this is a reality. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims found that Islamophobia was fuelling hate crime, driving divisions within society and even influencing terror attacks.
“British society at large, by virtue of normalised prejudice against Muslim beliefs and practice, have come to imbibe a panoply of falsehoods or misrepresentations and discriminatory outlooks,” its report said.
There were 679,000 babies born in the UK last year and all of them are UK citizens. 68,000 of them are also Muslims, but how easy is it to balance life between the two — particularly when the two sides don’t always make it easy to be both?
Bilan is a young woman from Bristol. She went to comprehensive schools where the majority of students were white, and is now a university student in Gloucestershire. She is also a Muslim, with Somalian roots that she is very proud of.
‘I still have my roots, my roots make me who I am. Being British doesn’t mean forgetting where you’re from.’
Bilan is proud of her faith and says, ‘My faith is in my heart,’ but this doesn’t stop her having her issues.
‘Muslim women are very visible because of what we choose to wear, and it makes us a target, which is one of the challenges that I face on a daily basis. In society today, because of all the misconceptions of Islam as a whole, it’s hard for us Muslims that were born and bred here, especially with the media. People think we’re all oppressed, but we’re not.’
Following 9/11, the media’s stance towards Islam took a negative turn, alienating people who had been living within Western cultures for years. With headlines like, “1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis” and “Ramadan a ding-dong,” it’s hardly surprising that Muslims living in Britain feel like they have a target on their backs.
'Too many people are indiscriminate, they cannot differentiate between good and bad people'
Because of this, lots of young Muslims sometimes feel that they have to compromise to find a balance between both sides of their lives, embracing Western culture with their friends, and their faith with their families. Another young Muslim, Maryam, who embraces her Pakistani roots, gave an example that seems to be relatable to many within her generation of Islam.
‘If I ever feel a bit distant from my faith then I can have some issues. It could be that I don't want to wear my hijab and that isn't for fashion reasons so much as it is for the need to feel accepted, especially in this day and age where Muslims can be targeted.’
In a 2017 report, Tell Mama noted a huge increase in Islamophobic attacks, with 1,201 confirmed reports, mostly against women by teenage boys. That’s not to say that Muslim men aren't victims of hate crimes too, and they claim that they have their own challenges and conflicts to overcome.
Nabeel is another young Muslim from the University of Gloucestershire who claims that he’s faced his own challenges while trying to balance his faith and his life in Western culture.
‘I find that it can be quite difficult to balance faith and western culture. You can also be influenced by friends to do things that can go against your faith which can also make it difficult. I know a lot of people who have gone against their faith and have intoxicated themselves, but for myself I choose not to.’
Drinking is often perceived as a key part of growing up in a Western culture, with most teenagers in the UK going to house parties or clubs as they turn 18. This ‘rite of passage’ is something that completely goes against the teachings of Islam, but in an attempt to ‘fit in,’ there’s every chance that teenage Muslims will break the rules of their religion to appear ‘normal’.
Atique Miah is a Muslim chaplain at the University of Gloucestershire and is open about the challenges he’s faced in the past, and how he’s overcome them now.
‘In some cases I try and come to a compromise because Islam is actually quite flexible whereas people often are not. Where no compromise could be found, in the past I have let my Faith fall by the wayside, but now I understand the importance of Faith and its direct relationship to my wellbeing, I am starting to put my Faith (and by extension myself) above anything that compromises it.’
This idea of flexibility within Islam is something that more young Muslims are starting to embrace. Many young Muslims are choosing to adopt a westernised lifestyle, weaving their religion into their various choices. Eating Halal is one choice that Nabeel makes.
However, Muslims are also making choices that some argue go against their religion. Maryam and Bilan both choose not to wear a burqa or niqab to be accepted more easily by society, despite being open about their religion. Bilan reasoned this as one interpretation of the Quran, and that while it is compulsory to cover up and protect your modesty, there is no mention of the burqa.
All four of our contributors have their own perceptions of Islam, and they all face their own challenges, as all young Muslims in the UK do, but one idea seemed to stand out more than any other.
‘In my honest opinion, the biggest and worst challenge faced by Muslims in the UK is terrorism. No matter how much we denounce it, we are constantly being put in the spotlight to remind the rest of the world that we are not like those people.’
Atique’s thoughts on the biggest challenge faced by Muslims in the UK highlight the conflict within society that Muslims have to face every day. Since the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks, the media’s attitude towards Muslims has been largely negative, particularly in the tabloids. Readers of these publications are more likely to be Islamophobic and the conflict caused by the perceived differences makes it harder for the next generation of Muslims to integrate with the culture they were born into. Bilan summed up the effect that this has had on young Muslims like her.
‘In society today, because of all the misconceptions of Islam as a whole, it’s hard for us Muslims that were born and bred here, especially with the media.’
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