LIMPIEZA Y RETIRO DE ESCOMBROS. UNIDAD: Global

One participant spoke from the perspective and particular history of West Indian migrants, for whom Islam contributed both to the recovery of a historical authenticity and to the pursuit of social justice. Islam provided a ‘muscular option’ and an alternative to what was seen as ‘decadent and effete Christianisation’. In his early Muslim experience in a poor part of London, ‘trying to get a community on its feet’, Islam was a voice that articulated the need for a fairer society. Yet though he was ‘authentic’ in his being and his appearance as a Caribbean man, his background was somewhat more privileged and he was seen by some in London as a ‘plant’, as an agent of White

privilege in disguise. This was partly an instance of old-fashioned racism—he paraphrased the feeling as ‘here come the whites to take charge, and they’re sending this guy’—yet he would not deny the reality of white middle-class and upper-middle-class privilege. The way such privileged people took to Sufism, he declared, had made it seem exclusive and stained it with class and racial resentments—though this was presumably the kind of snobbery they were trying to escape by embracing Islam in the first place.

The Chair drew attention to the sociological element of such comments as a necessary complement to the spiritual aspect of much of the earlier session. He asked, in a deliberately provocative manner, whether it was out of alienation that converts found in Islam an ‘underdog’ on which to project their own disaffectedness and marginalisation. In response, one participant jokingly pointed out the significant proportion of ginger converts in the gathering, suggesting that as they were already outcasts, they found it natural to make common cause with Islam. He personally did not feel alienated, nor had he come to Islam at the end of a search; it had simply been present in the background of his life. Yet he felt that this would vary from person to person, and he described another participant as someone who, clearly disaffected with his social surroundings, had searched for and found in Islam a cultural alternative. The presenter added that he personally longed to be part of ‘the mainstream’; in the 1960s, he had been a member of marginal movements which now constituted the mainstream, whereas he had converted and now felt marginalised afresh.

One participant asserted that the prospect of righting a historical wrong—the Crusades—had influenced his decision to convert. Believing that the destiny of Islam had been interrupted, it was easier for him to join the side of the badly treated. Another attendee, however, hoped that the ‘manufactured’ clash of civilisations was reaching its end, since around him he saw society self-dividing like never before. He admitted that because Islam was attracting so many new people, it could also attract psychopaths—those who were drawn to conflict. But these were ‘an absolute minority’. It was more important to bear in mind ‘the great diversity of paths to Islam’. Although much had been made of spiritual inspiration during the symposium, others were drawn to Islam purely out of social motivation, such as marriage or the example of one’s friends. Though he cited one willing convert who had mixed up the Prophet Muhammad with Muhammad Ali, he did not mean to discount such avenues to Islam—indeed, he had seen how they could lead to great piety—but he felt that difficulty of incorporating them all was a great contemporary challenge.

There were surprising resources for converts in British history itself, two participants revealed. One spoke of the striking difference in public attitudes to Islamic conversion now and in the Victorian period. Then, he suggested, conversion was not as fraught an issue, partly because the Muslim community was more upper class than today. (The phrase ‘turning Turk’ has its contemporary equivalent in ‘white Paki’, he added.) This was a useful heritage to deploy in countering the pervasive ‘media narrative’ suggesting that only those at the bottom of society would convert to ‘this lowly religion’. A second participant added that other unexpectedly deep Muslim heritages, such as that of the black community, should be brought to the surface. It would be an advantage to converts, he asserted, to know that heritage Muslims were not the only ones with Islamic heritage.

8.6 White Privilege

Another speaker addressed the recurring subject of White privilege from a white working-class background. He questioned whether participants had fully apprehended the apparatus involved in the construction of White privilege. Privilege also denoted wealth, power, and the right kind of religion. The colour of one’s skin alone was insufficient, as ‘the Celtic narratives of marginalisation’ within Britain indicated. His working class roots gave him a strong sympathy for the underdog as well as a deep desire to educate his community. Islam would be a means to this education, he believed, if his community were not unfortunately embedded in far-right politics. Moreover, he felt that strictly ‘white’ privilege was something he had forfeited, to an extent, through his conversion and subsequent rejection by his own people. An older convert added that prejudice existed on both sides, recalling the reaction among his wife’s Pakistani family when he, a white man, married her in the 1970s. Prejudice existed in ignorance, he added, and so ignorance must be the target. But a third participant suggested that they needed to see themselves from the perspective of heritage Muslims. Of course there would be mistrust of white converts, he said, but that was a reaction to outsiders, not to converts or whites per se. As with many social situations, the tension related to ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’. He urged the gathering to be careful not to misread this dynamic.