This is from when Jessica was visiting last month! That evening we got pre-dinner at Harrods: an enormous gelato sundae at Morelli's, one of the many tasty eateries in their famous food hall.
One thing that jumped out at me when as I scanned the rest of the people happily enjoying candy-covered ice cream, was that based on the dress of the women, everyone around us seemed to be Muslim. And there were interesting touches that reflected this Muslim predominance 
around the rest of the store, like the Arabic signs indicating which chocolates are alcohol-free, for example. One possible explanation for this is that Harrods in particular attracts a Muslim clientele. It was owned by Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed, an Egyptian businessman, from 1985 until 2010, when it was bought by Qatar Holdings.
But for someone who has lived the past 4 years in Brookline, Harrods is not the only place that the large number of Muslims living in and visiting the UK is apparent. As soon as I got off the plane at Heathrow, I saw more women in headscarves and varying types of Hijab at the arrivals gate than I had probably seen in my whole life up until that point. One of the Pope's assistants made a similar point before the recent papal visit, although his take was decidedly un-PC. For my research at the Trop I've been looking as some local public health reports, and was impressed by the number of websites (especially in places like London and Birmingham) that featured articles like "Guide to a healthy Ramadan" and "Controlling your diabetes during Ramadan." In many neighborhoods the streets are lined with Halal grocers and delicious-smelling kebab shops.
The obvious presence of Muslims living in London got me to thinking about the US, and the rampant anti-Muslim sentiment running through the population right now. I don't have any data to back this up (but I'm sure it's out there), but it seems to me that most of the anger/hatred/fear stems from people who don't actually have that much contact with Muslims in their daily life, simply because they live in parts of the country where there aren't that many Muslims. I think a good example of this is that is wasn't New Yorkers who raised the crazy opposition to the lower-Manhattan cultural center. And because there are many people who don't see Muslims on a regular basis, the right-wing pundits that been able to convince them that all Muslims are dangerous and stand for the destruction of America. I'm not saying that the UK doesn't have any problems with anti-Muslim feelings - obviously simply mixing populations does not cause immediate understanding and acceptance. It's an incredibly complicated issue. I guess my point is just that if the pastor in Florida had seen more Muslim families enjoying ice cream sundaes and peacefully celebrating Ramadan, he might not have been driven to burn their holy book.
Actually, the interesting thing is that there seems to be this global perception that England is over-run by Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiment on CNN, Israeli websites etc. constantly reacts to any article on culture or religion in Britain with claims that "the Muslims are anyway taking over".
ReplyDeleteThis has prompted me to go and check the statistics how how prominent Islam actually is In British society, and even I was surprised to discover that only about 3% of the British population are Muslim. It's just that they are for the most part concentrated in London and a few other locations, creating the impression that they are a much larger part of the population than they actually are.
But, I don't know if your argument also works in England. Does the anti-Muslim sentiment come from areas where there is only a very small Muslim population, or does it come from places like London?
It's a good question, Daphna. I'll leave it to Becca to respond directly, but you do raise a really important fact: there really aren't that many Muslims (or any religious minority) in England. For all the talk of "multicultural Britain," 92% of the population is white (though, to be sure, "white" obscures plenty of cultural difference). I think you're right that most people's perception of what England looks like demographically is overwhelmingly influenced by London and other large cities.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of anti-Muslim sentiment, it's probably instructive to look at far-right parties and groups like the British National Party and the (even scarier) English Defence League. I can't say I know much about the origins of either, but I've just had a look at the Wikipedia page on the EDL - it got its start in Luton, one of the more ethnically diverse English cities.
Hey Daphna,
ReplyDeleteInteresting points. There is an unrelated but equally curious perception in the US that England has this disastrous health care system where you wait months and months to get sub-par care in a dilapidated hospital. But I digress.
As to your question at the end, I don't really know where the anti-Muslim sentiment is concentrated. Danny made the important point while I was writing this post that there usually has to be some amount mixing of people before racism or bigotry takes hold. Ie, I wouldn't be surprised if people in southwestern England weren't too concerned about Muslims, and people in certain areas of London were living completely comfortably side-by-side with Muslims. Perhaps it's those people somewhere in the middle where the fear is deepest?
But at the same time I think that the loud voice of the right-wing media has broken this trend by loudly shouting about the dangers of Islam, reaching those people who have never seen a mosque in their lives. Why else would some American parents, living in small towns where the Muslim population is close to zero, list terrorism (which in this day and age means terrorism by Islamic extremists) as their number one safety concern for their children?
Very interesting points.
ReplyDeleteAll this stuff is saturating the news here in the US, so I decided to look some of it up on my own. Basically, it seems like "Anti-Muslim sentiment" (the most popular news term) has gone up in the past five years; not a ton, but it is a significant difference (1). People in the US who have a negative perception of Islam overwhelming oppose the Ground Zero mosque/cultural center (not that this is suprising) (2). New Yorkers seem to be conflicted about it, with a majority saying that people (Muslims included) should have a right to build religious structures in their communities, but a 2/3 majority also say that the GZ mosque/cc should be voluntarily relocated. This seems a class case of NIMBY (3).
ReplyDeletePublic opinion seems to be along fairly similar lines in the UK (if actually not more strongly anti-Islam), with only a quarter of those polled having a positive view of Islam while 3 in 10 in the US have a favorable view (although who knows how the surveys differ) (4). The Pew study does seem to support the idea that people with less contact with Muslims have less favorable views of Islam (ie older, Republican, and less educated) but that is reading into the data a bit. (1)
Sources:
1) http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1706/poll-americans-views-of-muslims-object-to-new-york-islamic-center-islam-violence
2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090806231.html
3) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/new-yorkers-want-ground-zero-mosque-moved-regardless-of-rights-poll-says.html
4) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242048/Almost-half-Britons-oppose-mosque-built-area-finds-study.html
I dunno what rep the Daily Mail has in the UK, but similar articles were in other papers (Telegraph, Guardian). A quick look at the comments section on the Guardian article reveals the same crap you would find here in the US.
Wow, thanks Chris! our first comment with a bibliography! Lots of food for thought here...
ReplyDeleteHah! I'm not exactly the blogging/commenting type. I guess documentation generally doesn't come standard with the Internet...
ReplyDelete