The Pakistan Forum52 is one of the most popular platforms for Muslim businessmen of
Pakistani heritage and background in Birmingham. The Pakistan Forum has members from the Muslim businessmen community who actively participate in local council elections and other social affairs of the community. The Forum organises public gatherings of prominent Pakistani community members in order to highlight and present their demands or concerns to key figures in the local government. During my fieldwork, I learnt that some members of the Pakistan Forum were lobbying the local government to establish a cultural centre for the Pakistani community in Birmingham. The proponents of the Pakistani cultural centre were of the view that there are already enough mosques in Birmingham for the community. What they saw as needed was a cultural centre that might be helpful for the younger generations of Pakistani heritage to ensure an awareness about their parent’s history, language, migration trajectory and their achievements in Britain.
52 The Pakistan Forum claims to be a non-profit, civil society type group of Muslim Businessmen of Pakistani heritage. The group openly supports Labour Party. The group only becomes active and functional when the Labour Party wins local elections and forms a government at the Birmingham City Council. The Forum represents itself as a civil society for the Pakistani diaspora in Birmingham.
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However, the majority of the members of Pakistan Forum were in favour of demanding land for building another mosque or Islamic centre in the name of community welfare and cohesiveness. There was an argument, grouping, difference of opinion and lobbying within the members of Pakistan Forum whether they should be demanding help from local government for establishing a cultural centre or that for a mosque. Mr. Mushtaq, a member of the Pakistan Forum and a proponent of the cultural centre, told me that he already knows that his friends and like-minded sympathisers would not be able to convince the majority of Forum’s members to present a demand for establishing a Pakistani cultural centre before the city council authorities. He said that the biggest hurdle for such an idea is the approach, life style and priorities of people like Haji Sahib. He told me with a laugh, “some community leaders like Haji Sahib want to take all Muslims in Birmingham into heaven, even if they have to take them forcefully”. On the eve of the re- launch meeting of the Pakistani Forum, where a large number of Muslim businessmen, community leaders, local councillors of Pakistani heritage, Labour Party leaders, British MPs of Pakistani descent and around three hundred Pakistani community members were present, Haji Sahib delivered this speech:
“Dear audience, we all know that British society progressed and developed as a whole, once it got rid of superstitions and prejudices of nepotism and developed a positive outlook for future. Progress and prosperity of a community is always a team effort. We can have a member of parliament on the basis of caste relations and kinship ties within Pakistani community, but we will never have dignity, representation and voice as one community if the bases of our union are those values that British society rejects. We can have a big house here and back in Pakistan because we want to show off people our wealth, but will never have a place of recognition in this society due to our lavish life styles. We can advance our business by doing this and that, but we will never develop a reputation of a trustworthy stakeholder or business partner in wider markets unless people believe in our characters. We might feel better about ourselves and about our egos by ignoring or avoiding a member of our community due to petty disputes, but we will never be able to represent our community as a dynamic force that is united for good cause. We might feel satisfied and relieved from our Islamic duties by just paying charity to mosques and donations to Imams, but we will never be successful in eradicating vulgarity and sinful practices if we are not fully involved with in mosque affairs and don’t involve our next generation in building Islamic institutions. If we built a cultural centre for future generations, we don’t know what type of people will be running that centre and how it
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will affect our children’s minds and character building, but if we built an Islamic centre, at least we would have this satisfaction that it will be run by pious people and good Muslims”.
The other community leaders, who got a chance to speak before the audience, also supported the idea of establishing an Islamic centre. Haji Sahib took a lot of pride while talking with people, after the speeches, about his contributions to establish mosques in Birmingham throughout his life time. He said that nobody believed when they planned to establish the Ghamkol Sharif Mosque and people said that it would be difficult to generate enough money to build such a huge infrastructure. But Allah sends Ghaibi Maddad (divine help) if you have intentions to serve the will of Allah, said Haji Sahib, sitting on a dinner table with other community leaders. Mr. Mushtaq told me later that he does not agree with what community leaders say and demand from the local government. He said that although Haji Sahib has talked about living a pious life, and that Haji Sahib has condemned contesting elections by mobilising voters on caste relation and kinship ties, he said that Haji Sahib favours candidates from his own caste when voting during elections. At the same time, Haji Sahib owns a house here and has a large house back in Pakistan but that he condemns this in his speeches. Mr Mushtaq said that if it were no people like Haji Sahib, who engages with politics on the bases of caste relations and kinship ties within the Pakistani community, Birmingham could have three MPs of Pakistani background instead of two in the 2010 general elections. Mr. Mushtaq told me that although in his public speeches, Haji Sahib speaks against caste based politics, actually, he did not support a British-Pakistani candidate who was contesting parliamentary elections because she was not from his caste.53
I observed a similar attitude towards encouraging the public performance of piety and virtuous life in a fundraising and Dawa event organised by iERA, a Missionary stream of
Salafi Islamic reformism.54 While a speaker was giving lecture about how to ‘change the world through Da’wa’ his emphasis was that people should publicise if an individual carries out a virtuous act. The rationale the speaker gave for publicising pious and virtuous acts was that Muslims in Britain live in a society where nobody notices what you do unless you publicise it. The speaker said that evil acts get all the publicity while pious and
53 Salma Yaqoob, a candidate with a British-Pakistani background who is a politician and was a candidate for the Respect Party from the Birmingham Hall Green Constituency, secured second position in the 2010 elections to a Labour Party candidate.
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moral acts mostly go unnoticed. The speaker emphasised that you must record your
Da’wa related activities and share them with other fellow brothers and sisters. One man,
who gave a generous donation to iERA’s ‘mission Dawa’ program, was invited by the speaker to come on the stage and then the speaker addressed the women participants who were sitting on the upper floor of the council hall in Birmingham in the following words: “Sisters, you can see this brother. Masha Allah, he is healthy, good physique, right dressing, Islamic appearance and I can provide witnesses to testify that this brother lives a life of Taqwa.55 The best part of the story is that he is young, rich and single living a pious and moral life. Any sister whose family would like to contact this brother’s family can have his contact details from me. Dear audience, I am not doing anything un-Islamic by introducing a single male to females rather I am advancing the mission of Da’wa. All sisters must not waste their time and youth in finding the ‘right person’ by following their idealistic whims. The only indicator you sisters should be looking for while finding a life partner for yourselves, should be a guy living the life of Taqwa, and if the guy is rich too, believe me, that is going to be a perfect match for you”.
For reformist Muslims, pubic performance, encouragement and the appreciation of pious and moral lives of Muslim businessmen, entrepreneurs and youth is a Da’wa technique for advancing their mission and message. By doing so, reformist Muslim individuals and groups not only enhance the loyalty and attachment of the individual being projected to their reformist interpretation of practising Islam, they also encourage others to behave, follow and become like the one who is being projected as a role model. Thus, the events and situations which encourage and glamorise the public performance of piety becomes a win-win situation for both reformist Muslims and Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs in Birmingham. For Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs, public performance of piety, at the same time, also serve a socio-political purpose. Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs, with political, economic and social ambitions, advance their ‘pious introductions’ to prospective and potential voters, clients and community members in general. The story of Haji Sahib also reflects that through the public performance of piety and moral life, disagreement and counter arguments can be managed as well as manipulated. Thus, the public performance of piety and moral life becomes a site of contestation amongst divergent opinions and reformist groups to assert their identities and to make sure their presence and voice being heard at the public spheres of
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everyday life of Birmingham Muslims. At the same time, I critique the perception, or correlation, that the public performance of piety is merely an instrumentalization for worldly success and gains by reformist Muslims and Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs. The same notions of personal piety and its ‘unconscious or non- exhibitionist’ public performance are implied by some reformist Muslim groups like
Dawat-i-Islami and Tableeghi Jamaat for the gains in the afterlife. Instead, I assert that
the version of public performance of piety amongst these group is ‘unconscious or non- exhibitionist’ because these reformist groups strictly believe in not giving a public performance of their pious lives and yet, at the same time, their physical appearances and modes of engaging with other Muslims is an act of public performance in itself. These groups do not encourage their members to give a public performance of piety and virtuous life for their personal gains. Instead, they encourage their members to do this for the sake of advancing their mission of Da’wa and to secure a place in paradise by submitting to the will of Allah.
Encouraging and performing personal piety and virtuous life publically is a common trait among almost all streams of reformist Muslims, whether Barelvi or Salafi. The only exceptions, however, are the Barelvis who affiliate themselves with Dawat-i-Islami and the second are the members of Tableeghi Jamaat. However, both of these groups are minority groups with respect to their followings in Birmingham. I could not get access to leaders or representatives of Dawat-i-Islami as they were not willing or interested in giving any kind of interview. Madni Bhai, who is a well-known worker of Dawat-i-
Islami, told me when I asked him about the reluctance of his organisation’s
representatives to interview, or hold an informal chat, that none of their member would be willing to interview because they do not practice Islam in their everyday lives for self- projection. In a telephonic conversation with a senior representative of Dawat-i-Islami, I introduced myself and my PhD research. After he inquired further, I told him that my PhD research will be published as PhD thesis at my University and that it might become part of a research publication in academic journals in future and clarified that I am not a journalist. I requested him to give me time for an interview or informal chat about his work. He replied, “A pious act and a pious life should reflect itself through everyday life actions of Muslims and not through text of any book or any research journal that is reproduced after an interview”. On my further explanation that I will not use his real name in my research writings in case he is thinking about ‘confidentiality’ or if he prefers anonymity, he replied “mentioning my fictitious name for something which I said would
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be a lie and lying is a big sin in Islam”. He advised me that I should be participating in their weekly programs of Salaat-o-Salaam and that I should be listening to their message of Islam and should not be talking to or interested in knowing about the messenger. Most of my observations about Dawat-i-Islami are based on my participations in their programs and spiritual gatherings.
At the same time, members of Dawat-i-Islami follow a strict dress code and maintain a particular physical appearance all the time. They can be identified in streets or other public places with their green turbans and white dresses. There is an emphasis among
Dawat-i-Islami members on performing every act of public or private significance in
everyday life in accordance with the ways of Prophet Muhammad. The public performance of piety for Modernist Barelvis i.e. Dawat-i-Islami does not manifest itself through talking or sharing their pious and virtuous deeds with other fellow Muslims. Instead it is reflected through everyday life actions which maintain an appearance in strict adherence to the ways of the Prophet Muhammad. Thus, the performance of piety becomes a very personal and yet very public act at the same time amongst Dawat-i-Islami whom, for the sake of clarity of analysis, I call Modernist Barelvis. The popularity of private notions of piety amongst the members of Dawat-i-Islami also has an economic dimension. The majority of the members of Dawat-i-Islami come from lower middle class or poor backgrounds of Barelvi Muslims, and are mainly labourers. Most of them are factory workers, manual workers, shop assistants etc. The economic constraints on their everyday life hardly leaves room for the public performance of pious and virtuous acts. The notions of piety and virtuous acts, thus, carry significance in their private lives more than in the public spheres of everyday life.
On the other hand, Pirkhanas, the Traditionalist stream of reformist Barelvi Muslims in Birmingham, strongly believe in the public performance of piety and virtuous life. However, the standard for piety and ideal type for the virtuous life of the devotees of any
Pirkhana is the personality and cult of Pir, the living saint. Newcomers (the individual
making an effort to establish his own Pirkhana, see chapter two) on the other hand, have to inform people about their pious ways of living life, doing business and acquiring spiritual powers. Amongst reformist Salfi stream of Islamists, the definition of pious and virtuous life carries another meaning. For Islamists, the virtuous and pious Muslim is the one who is well integrated into mainstream British society, has a good job or a successful business, associates himself with global Muslim Ummah with political consciousness and
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asserts their identity as a Muslim at public platforms. Encouraging and demonstrating public performance of piety becomes pivotal for different streams of Islamic reformism in order to spread their mission and message. Each actor has to give a performance in front of others to show their association with any particular interpretation of practising Islam and how the belief in that very interpretation has changed and allowed their life to prosper.
Schielke (2008) maintains that Islamic revivalist movements offer an alternative to escape boredom for Egyptian rural youth in more efficient way than other Islamic traditions can. However, the ambivalence of everyday life makes the affiliation of youth short lived with Islamic revivalist movements sometimes. The case of Birmingham Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs, and their display of public performance of piety and virtuous life, is an addition to Schielke’s notion of piety among Muslim Youth in Egypt. Among Birmingham Muslims, the practice of public performance of piety is a constant everyday life practice. Although in the month of Ramadan, the ideals and exhibition of personal piety and doing charity becomes more prominent in aspects of daily life, the practice of public performance continues after Ramadan among Muslim businessmen and entreprenurs in Birmingham. The compromise and negotiations over piety-led lives, however, are there while Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs apply the notions of piety and their moral lives to their personal agendas of worldly economic success. Schielke (2009) also notes that morally committed homo Islamicus youth with aspirations of material and worldly success tend to part ways from being observant of Islamic morality under the pressures of global consumerism in their everyday lives occasionally. Shielke argues that people tend to make sense of their lives by negotiating with moral ambiguities on daily basis. Youth who tend to touch women on the street without their consent also tend to be pious on various other occasions in their lifetimes under the influence of Salafi ideals of piety and Islamic revival. This everyday life crises of ‘moral ambiguity’ is something that I could observe among Muslim businessmen and entrepreeurs as well.
4.4 Economic Dimensions of the Public Performance of Piety: Selling the ‘Self-