An examination of the differences between a Muslim living in a Muslim country and a Muslim living in the UK. Part 2
		You might be asking yourself what might be wrong with living here then, if everything is so ‘hunky dory’? Well, there are more problems that need to be addressed. The other mayor, and probably the largest, problem being the fact that the Islamic religion and the Muslim people are terribly misunderstood in the west. Islam is portrayed as a violent and callous religion in the Islamophobic media. And this shown to a country that’s largely influenced by the media does not have a good out come. Add to that also the fact that schools don’t rely explain to children what Islam is about in depth. This causes a big rift and a racist attitude towards the Muslims by the non-Muslims. This tension was then further increased by the September 11th incident, which was blamed on the Muslims in whole by the western media. Groups such as Al-Qaeeda then came into the limelight, which increased further the agitation between the two groups. A study by Nancy Paik showed that "According to a recent poll in U.S. News & World Report, more than half of people surveyed believed that Islam was anti-American, anti-Western, or supportive of terrorism." Where in fact a BBC poll shows that not only do 80% of Muslims in Britain not support the war effort against the Taliban and Al Qaeeda, nearly a quarter of them actually condone those from amongst their community who went to fight on the side of the Taliban. This shows what the misunderstandings and the loss of good communication did to the bond between the non-Muslim and the Muslim Britons. If these Muslims where to go and live in Muslim countries such as Somalia, they would not endure this kind of racism from their people. But again the British government has tried to repair the relationship between the Muslims and non-Muslims by educating their people and showing them how real Muslims are like. The BBC held an Islam season, where they showed a range of different programs talking about Muslims and their lives. Which Channel Four then also copied and aired some Islamic programs. The Birmingham Local Education Authority also supported this by introducing official guidelines that met the religious and cultural needs of Muslim children. This over took headlines such as that of the Muslim lawyer who claimed she was sacked for her headscarf from the Church of England's solicitors (The Independent (London) 13 July, 2001) The racism is now almost completely talked from both sides of the field. The non-Muslims are not the only prejudice. There are young Muslims all over the country that attack non-Muslims, claiming that they are being victims of racism. But thankfully the government is trying to do something about this and not just sitting back and watching. There are not a lot of difficulties for Muslims living in Britain I have to admit. Following a survey of 10 people that filled my questionnaire there where only the odd complaints, but nothing mayor. This shows that Britain is the next best thing for a Muslim. Me being originally from Somalia myself I don’t find anything wrong with living here. The laws have been made so that Muslims can feel at home in Britain and not left out in the cold. They do not feel like outsiders, or get treated any different than the non-Muslim migrants. But saying that there are probably a few Muslims getting treated badly in some parts of Britain, nowhere is ever perfect. But coming back to our original source of focus, the Somalians, they seem to have it worse than their Asian fellow Muslims. Up till now Somalians are still not recognised as a race group of themselves. They are always put in the black-African category. This makes it hard for us to be able to follow the progress of Somalians as a group. They get lost in the system somewhere. Also the Somalians categorised as black-Africans also causes a bit of a problem still for their formal recognition as Muslims in the British society. Although 99.9% of Somalians are Muslims. But luckily that is all changing now, thanks to people like Rageh Omaar being cast into the spotlight. This shows the British community that there are Somalians in their land and that they want to be part of their society. So all in all you can say that Britain is a great country to live in if you are a Muslim. You have got the freedom to perform your five pillars. The law recognises you as an individual with special needs. You are protected under the law, and finally the whole British community now also knows a lot more about Muslims than they did ten years ago, thanks to the help of the media. So I have nothing more to add to this. I shall now finish with the words of Abdal-Hakim Murad: "Islam is the most suitable faith for the British. Its values are our values. Its moderate, undemonstrative style of piety, still waters running deep; its insistence on modesty and a certain reserve, and its insistence on common sense and on pragmatism, combine to furnish the most natural and easy religious option for our people."
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