Time’s Up

Getting into Jerusalem proved far easier that getting out. I sit here in the middle of a huge atrium, with about 30 minutes to before I board my flight, and having spent the best of the last 90 minutes bring questioned and meticulously searched by staff here at the airport. For first time in my life I experienced an intimate body search, and all while I make small talk about the size of my waist to mask my nervousness at the thought of this giant of a man feeling parts of me few have had the inclination or desire to do in the past.

Nearly five terribly swift weeks in the holy lands, and what have I learnt in my time in Jerusalem? As I prepared my things earlier on and organised myself for my return trip to Istanbul, a number of thoughts were rushing through my mind, many of which I will explore in a fuller talk that I am preparing to deliver to Jewish-Muslim students in Birmingham in two weeks time. I was also preoccupied with thoughts of the some tragic family news I had heard earlier this morning.

I believe in hope. There is always hope. We must never forget that, but there are also certain concerns that worry me which somehow tend to slash this very same hope. As I get older this occurs more and more. Israel is one such worry. The holy lands are an unusual place, full of at least three thousand years of history, but principally from the Roman and Muslim periods onwards, and yet outside of this country, apart from devotees of the faiths, most people associate Israel with a state that occupies the lands of others. For the two million Palestinian Arabs who remain as Israeli citizens, the feeling of occupation however is palpable enough to them. While the general pattern is that they are just getting on as well as they can, with a tiny percentage doing well through business and trade, the vast majority feel the pressure of being penned in by a security state that is deeply conservative, centralised, and, dare I mention the word, racist.

But it would be wrong to paint a blanket picture here. Not all Israeli Jews are the same, far from it. Of the five million or so who live and work here, around 5 per cent are ultra-orthodox, but yet they make the most noise and are heard the loudest. Among these few, there are around 150 different factions, and they are deeply divided. Most Israeli Jews are anything from liberal-moderates to staunchly secularist. These latter groups have so much in common with liberal-moderate and staunchly secularist Muslims, but if only both groups fully appreciated it. Those on the right of politics tend to disagree with such notions the most; these people are wealthier, live more exclusive lives, tend to be well-educated and well-travelled, but are also rather bigoted, reactionary and conservative. Those on the left of politics tend to be more tolerant, more open, but also more critical of authority. This applies here in Jerusalem as it does pretty well anywhere else in the world right now.

There are certain things that have disturbed me as I looked upon this city. Occupational and residential segregation, for one. Arabs and Jews hardly share the same spaces in schools, neighbourhoods or in various employment settings. Jews are also divided by ethnicity, class, politics and religiosity; for example the influx of Russian Jews who like vodka is in stark contrast to the Ethiopian Jews who serve coffee at Aroma or act as runners in the airport. Aspects of the machinery of the state are deeply problematic: laws are discriminatory and enacted by biased judges; from those that prevent Arabs and Jews from marrying, to those that prevent from being recognised Arab-Israeli political parties that are not outwardly loyal to Zionism. And, the wall – that confounded wall! Standing up close and personal to it makes you think of one thing. A prison! Arab villages around for centuries have been partitioned. Some families need to travel 90 minutes to the nearest checkpoint to get to the other side of the wall to visit their loved ones who were previously a ten minute walk away.

Invariably, as a critical sociologist, my natural instinct to take the side of the oppressed, the dispossessed, the marginalised, and to look at systems and all their failings. Of course, Arabs could always do more to show openness and acceptance, but the reality is far from perfect for them. From 1948, to 1967, to two Intifadas, the Palestinian Arabs are of the firm view that resistance is futile. All it does is to irritate the bear who crushes the irritating fly with one clean swoop of its giant claws!

Inevitably, politics comes to the fore, and I am of the view that politics is rather best left to politicians, who will only ever continue to make a mess of things. So I keep my analytical hat on as best I can and talk about the positives.

I presented to a number of students in Jerusalem and talked about my work. One two occasions, I reminded people that however much we all get excited about our identities and wish to protect and nurture them, in the context of internal and external challenges and opportunities to them, as human begins we are all the same. East and West are constructions of each other – and it is no accident that at the intersections of these points, whether here in Jerusalem or indeed in Istanbul, more energy is put into emphasising differences rather than similarities. Strip away the extremist religious codes, the inward-looking politics, notions of some kind of memory around some kind of identity, and we are all the same. This is what I want to focus on, and will do so in far greater detail in my talk two weeks from now. Adieu.

Is Europe Christian?

A recent article in Today’s Zaman on the question of whether ‘Europe Christian?’, innocuous as it is, got me wanting to write something, largely because of the range of ill-informed nameless comments below it. This is my brief take on the question.

The idea of modern Europe is because Europeans were too busy killing each other during the twentieth century, and economic unity in the face of pax Americana was definitely needed.

Historically, the idea of an enlightened Europe came about after it effectively abandoned purist religion to be replaced with science and industry. But it was also about individualism replacing collectivism, forget its long shared history between itself and Islam, ultimately forming in response to perceived challenges from this very Islam, where the age of discovery was actually more about slavery, and where the colonisers took over Muslim lands and exploited every last drop of goodness from them, leaving newly-created artificially constructed nations in tatters.

Today, Europe needs immigration – like or not – the facts speak for themselves. Without immigration, the future of Europe is uncertain. Muslims in Europe today, in spite of every challenge, continue to try and make an effort to make a contribution. It is when they are penned in by racism and violence that they then form communities which largely contain their own, becoming further visible in the process, and then reinforcing the stereotypes that not only that they do not belong but that they are in fact alien to us. ‘They are not us’ and ‘we are not them’ is the rhetoric spewed out by lazy politicians who would rather ban headscarves – a piece of cloth!

Ironically, the best of progressive Islamic and Christian thinking emerged precisely with the two shared most – but in pulling apart for self-interested reasons among the dominant and inward looking reasons among the dominated, Islam and Christianity were separated, possibly forever.

image source

Shocked? Hardly!

There are more shocking images of abuse of war victims that have come to light, this time by US soldiers operating in Afghanistan. It is a sad indictment indeed but what is even more shocking is the reality that this probably just the tip of the iceberg. Far greater abuses have been and are probably going on, and most of us are so desensitised by such images or even the awareness of these goings-on that we are apathetic, almost uncaring. The US-NATO-led war machinery is crumbling, with little effective outcome to mention in Afghanistan. But when will it end? No time soon by the sounds of it. Meanwhile, next door, the Pakistani military is flexing its muscle in relation to a beleaguered ‘memogated’ Zardari and Iran is bringing down by remote control hi-tec US spy planes as a top nuclear scientist is assassinated…

Three nights in three countries…

Earlier on today I was back in an airport, the third time in four days, and this time ready to board my flight to Tel Aviv. Before I finally made it to Tel Aviv, I was both excited and a little nervous, as already I had been stopped by security in Istanbul and asked to show all my papers in full. Lo and behold, I go stopped at Tel Aviv airport, and questioned by three sets of people, and for around two hours in total. This is of course standard procedure, and it is not treatment reserved only for me, just for people like me, which is rather understandable given the heighten concerns in relation to international security, etc. It is somewhat ironic too that my area of research and writing is on ethnic conflict and political Islam.

I am here at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where I will spend just over one month as Visiting Professor, the idea being to complete one chapter for my next book, as well as to finish and submit two journal articles with my colleague at the University. Without any significant worry I am now settling into my first night of 31 nights here, having had a glorious Palestinian meal earlier on. Feeling rather full and somewhat cold, as it is quite chilly here in this apartment even with all the heaters on full blast, I am contemplating my first evening and my conversations with people so far. Of course, there are complex political, cultural and sociological issues at play here in relation to the big questions, and unsurprisingly both of the major sides in the battle for recognition and authenticity have their own stories and narratives to tell. I can understand already that there is a great deal of misinformation combined with self-interest in play, but I wonder how much of it is fuelled by popular culture, the media, the press and indeed the nature of institutions, social practices and notions of memory which is selective or idealised here in Israel, and by all sides. I will add more on this over time. Suffice to say, the first afternoon and evening has gone well enough, and tomorrow morning I will head off onto the campus and get connected with library services in earnest, as well as find my office and to try and get my feet comfortable under my desk.

I am full of hope in personally being able to find answers to some of my own research questions, and I am hopeful of discovering the middle path in relation to what the problems are and the solutions might be in relation to wider issues at play in this nation. Much to do and think about until then…

Doom and Gloom in Britain – and even Sherlock cannot rescue it

I am currently in Birmingham, catching up with the family, before I embark on a long overseas trip on Tuesday, and more on that on my next main blog. What struck me on my arrival is how little things have changed. In my own mind, I feel change, and I am now guessing that this change is in me. While I work away in my intellectual space in Istanbul, critically assessing Turkish cultural life as well as continuing to write on various race, ethnic and Muslim minority issues, I am struck by the overwhelming sense of doom and gloom in the UK. What is even more depressing is the general state of British television. I feel as if time has stood still while I channel hop, the first time I am watching TV of any kind, and see nothing of any value whatsoever, including oft-repeated repeats. Tonight, however, is a different story. I am somewhat addicted to the new BBC Sherlock, having caught up with the previous four episodes, and eagerly awaiting the fifth offering in this clever modern take on a classical English hero. Last week’s episode was criticised for being a little racy and the chief villain, apart from Moriarty, a woman no less, was actually in love with Sherlock, not for his brains and brawn, but for his sexuality! What a shock – to think of a woman so shallow so as to actually be attracted  to some man simply on the basis of her sexual desires for him. How dare Sherlock be so reduced, and because of a woman. Tut Tut, I say.

Justice, to some extent, for the Lawrence family – but racism in Britain is alive and well!

The year 1993 seems as if it is in the distant past, but few then realised its significance for British race relations. Trundling along and finally coming to a halt, Major’s Conservative government was on its knees. With the ERM debacle the year before, a biting economic recession very much underway, the Tories were kicking each other over Europe, and to an extent the infighting that was highlighted then still blights them today, now back in power after 18 years of ‘New Labour’, who were really ‘New Conservatives’, often without even the veneer of a socialist or left-orientated ideology. Blair and co gave Britain the ‘Third Way’, which was not this nor that, and certainly not one or the other – just a mish-mash of weak left and strong right policies that suited the moment.

Politics aside, a young Caribbean man, was brutally killed, suspected to have been so by five white English men, who attacked a young Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop in a south-east area of London. The Metropolitan Police Service was woeful in how they investigated the murder, when witnesses and corroborating evidence were simply ignored. Nothing happened until New Labour and under the indefatigable Jack Straw, their first Home Secretary and arguably their best, instigated an inquiry into the handling of the MPS investigation. In 1999, the now infamous Macpherson Report delivered a damning indictment of this police service, branding it institutionally racist. It raised many concerns – how could an entire police force be culpable in this regard when the problems were clearly localised, or were they? If it was not a cover up then the whole police service was responsible, or was it? No evidence on the latter came to light, and so the term unwitting racism became the phrase to capture the moment. With still no prosecutions, the MPS took a battering from various media and liberal intelligentsia, and such was the emotion and the passion at the time, the race relations legislation of the country was significantly strengthened, introducing some of the strongest anti-racist policy anywhere in Western Europe. After the events of the summer of 2001, which saw the worst ‘race riots’ in over two decades and the events of 9/11 in the USA soon after superseded the focus on racism and inequality and replaced it with terrorism and problematic religio-cultural norms and values, there were still no prosecutions in relation to the brutal murder of Lawrence. The unrelenting but subdued Lawrence family struggled on to fight for justice, but it did not come.

Today, the judge in the trial of two of the original five men in court on charges of murder after DNA evidence came to light 18 years after the original event finally declared a guilty verdict for Gary Dobson and David Norris, now aged 36 and 35. A small victory for the family who finally see justice for their beloved son and for the rest of us a scant reminder that racist murders will not be tolerated. But it also shows us all the Britain is still a deeply racist society, one that took 18 years to convict only two of the five original suspects, where racist murders and attacks are almost every day occurrences, where young black men are even more likely to be stopped and searched, prosecuted, jailed for longer terms and get released later than others, and where colour racism now combined with anti-Muslimism are the still the biggest concerns facing minorities. Race dropped off the agenda after the 7/7 bombings, but racism never really went away. Although the very few who are brave and principled enough to stand up against racism, bigotry and intolerance are to be valued highly, as Britain will always produce these warriors, the rest of dominant society has become subtle racists. No white Briton would dare call a minority a ‘Nigger’ or ‘Paki’ to their faces any more, but this does not suggest they do not really wish to act against them on the basis of some deep-rooted prejudice or hate. Justice, to some extent, for the Lawrence family – but racism in Britain is alive and well! Some things have certainly changed, but a great deal remains the same, if not worse.

Welcome to my Blog

The year 2012 will be a very busy time for me. I will be travelling to a number of countries in relation to the book I am researching on ‘Islamisms’. I will also be taking part in a number of speaking engagements, and I continue to explore Turkey and its great cities as part of my life and work here. So watch this space as I endeavour to update readers with regular snippets on my take on the world and my views and opinions on the big and the small.