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Will a Barack Obama emerge among young Muslim voices?
Young Muslims are showing they can carve out their own place in a society that looks at them with suspicion, writes Dan Firth
SINCE 9/11 and 7/7, the political and media spotlight has been focused sharply on Muslim communities. Read almost any newspaper or watch television and there is only one story when it comes to young Muslims in Britain – the story that revolves around the danger of their being “extremists”, the story of their “radicalisation”, the story that says they are potential “terrorists”.
Pick up any government report and sadly the same picture emerges. Yet there have been few opportunities for young Muslims to speak out about how they feel in this heated political climate.
Luckily, this gap was recognised in Islington and in 2007 the council’s Listen Up project set up Young Muslim Voices (YMV) in partnership with statutory, faith and voluntary organisations and with widespread political support. Its aim has been to empower young Muslims to challenge stereotypes and draw politicians’ and the public’s attention to the issues affecting their lives.
The project also sought to build community leadership skills and a culture of active citizenship by giving young people the opportunity to take a lead in shaping the project. Through an anti-racism football tournament, a documentary film-making project, a radio show in partnership with City University, art workshops at Highbury Grove School and a youth-ed conference, more than 1,000 young people have shared their stories.
What has emerged is an alternative story of what it means to be a young Muslim living in London. It is the story of young people trying to find a place for themselves in a society that looks at them with suspicion. The story of young people confident and eager to engage on social and political issues yet frustrated by the barriers their participation runs up against.
From increasingly intense policing to combat terrorism to a widespread sense of having to demonstrate their allegiance to “Britishness” and to concerns about educational exclusion, young people from Muslim communities are feeling increasingly claustrophobic, singled out and excluded. Many young Muslims are fed up with being tarnished and judged by the acts of a small minority and are concerned that current policies around preventing violent extremism may alienate and exclude more young people.
Despite these challenges, Young Muslim Voices group has been determined to make a difference. At a youth-led conference last November the young people who organised the event invited politicians, imams, the police, teachers and youth workers to listen and discuss with them potential solutions to these pressing issues.
One of the key issues that rang out from the conference hall is that young people need to be supported and empowered as active citizens to make a difference. Equipped with the right knowledge, skills and confidence young people can bring about a positive change in society and can invigorate our democracy.
The young people involved in this project have been a shining example of this. Together they have built a project that it is not defined by faith, class, postcode or ethnicity, but by a shared vision of how they would like Britain to be – a vision of fairness, equality and respect. The group has recently won the Philip Lawrence Award for active citizenship and a number of the young people will be setting up their own community projects to inspire and involve their peers.
One project will aim to work with young Somalis, one will build active citizenship through sport and another will encourage more Muslim girls to speak out.
Twenty of the young people will be trained as young leaders, the next generation of youth workers, teachers and community organisers and maybe political leaders. Perhaps among them, we’ll unearth our very own British Barack Hussein Obama.
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