Rachel
Rachel
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

On Islam

I don’t think I have ever heard anyone refer to Christians from Northern Ireland, never, it is always Catholics and Protestants. Because we largely understand the divisions we refer to them as different groups. We also talk about methodists, quakers and jehovah’s witnesses, rarely grouping them together as generic Christian.
I believe that the prevalence of Islam in our current society means that we are well overdue a change in the way we speak of its divisions and groupings.
I for one am exhausted by hearing about Muslims as a generic unit. I understand the concept of the Ummah, the united nation of muslims, but the Prophet (pbuh) himself spoke of 73 sects in Islam only one of which is the chosen one. Which should give an idea of the divisions within Islam itself.
Half of the discord in discussions about muslims comes from this lack of specifics in denotation. We would not label the lovely old lady who makes cakes for a Cof E bake sale in the same breath as an anti-balaka fighter despite them both being christians, but inadvertantly this is what we do when we generalise about Islam.
The three main divisions in islam are Sunni , Shia and Ahmadi. The sunni and shia divisions began in the year 632 regarding the succession of Muhammed so are fairly well established . The Ahmadi sect was only founded in 1889 and are considered by many sunni and shia to be kafir, that is not to be muslim at all.
By far the largest number of muslims are Sunni, but there are then many sects and divisions within that.
Two of the largest groups active in the UK are the deobandis and the barelvis . Other known names are salafi — which are represented by those such as Anjem Choudary.

The deobandis largely try to stay off the mainstream radar but are hugely influential in Britain. They run 40% of the mosques and many schools and further education establishments. The sect was originally begun as a response to hatred of British rule in India and has a very strongly anti -western philosophy so the huge growth and influence it is gaining in the UK unchecked should be a concern.
The Barelvis are the second largest sunni group in the UK running over 20% of the mosques. Although not quite as hardline as the deobandis they are none the less very traditionalist in terms of segregation of sexes. It was a barelvi muslim who left his house in Bradford last year and drove to glasgow to stab an Ahmadi muslim. This of course does not make all barevis killers but there is a worrying lack of condemnation of this act and a small search of barelvi supporters social media accounts finds many who are sharing updates the killer has sent from his jail cell.
It should also be noted that Deobandi and Barelvi both consider the other group to be false muslims.


I believe that the lack of understanding of what is occuring in Britain in Islam is dangerous for us all, not least for the muslims who after all are most likely to suffer from increasing sectarian violence.
The recent oscar win by Mahershala Ali was a case in point. Announced by much of the press as “the first muslim to win an oscar” there were immediate disavowals of him by other muslims because he is an Ahmadi. This one is by the founder of an organisation supposed to protect muslim rights DOAM (documenting oppression against muslims)

The increase in numbers of British muslims over the past 50 yrs -xxxxxxHas been rapid and were they integrated, as the multicultural dream wishes, we would all be pretty knowledgable.
As it is we are not and we also have a situation where an impressive muslim political and pr machine is in place which makes it difficult for non muslims to discuss islamic society in anything but glowing terms.
The very fact that the barelvi is not a household term is surprising given that it was a follower of this sect that murdered an ahmadi for posting a happy easter message just last year.
Often when I attend islamic events I am the only white journalist there. The people who happily cover world Hijab day and visit my mosque and other PR stunts rarely venture into the exclusively muslim enclaves where muslim women, if allowed to attend are veiled and segregated.
When David Cameron tried to address the issue of some muslim women who dont speak english after years of living here there was an immediate backlash from educated muslim women taking personal offence, articles abounded about a backlash on twitter using the #traditionallysubmissive. Hardly anyone questioned the fact that those women using the hashtag were clearly fluent english speakers with a degree of tech savvy and connectivity. I don’t think anyone questions that there are many well educated women who choose to follow islam, but that being the case should not stop a discussion of the existence of enclave communities in Britain where it is not uncommon to find women who have lived here for many years with little to no grasp of English. It has happened to me on many occasions that I have addressed a woman and she had called over her son to translate.
Its a wierd double standard where Islam is only discussed at its extremes, those being terrorism or integration . The only real islamophobia seems to me to be the fear non muslims have of talking about Islam because they are scared of saying or doing the wrong thing and then being labeled islamophobic — a ridiculous irony that I hope stops before we blindly walk into a version of the iranian revolution.

Rachel

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Rachel

Rachel Megawhat London based photographer. Here is where I write about things