Letter to Jacqui Smith MP, The Home Secretary

 7 July 2007                                 

Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Dear Mrs Smith

I wish to congratulate you for your new position as the Home Secretary and I welcome your recent speech in response to the terror attacks in London and Glasgow.

I am now writing to you in my capacity as Chairman of the National Association of British Arabs (NABA).  NABA has been working for the past five years to open channels with government departments in order to put forward the views of this sizeable ethnic group in the UK.  We have written on several occasions to the outgoing PM, the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary expressing our concerns, and our disappointments, but had very little response if any. 

Our correspondence addressed the wisdom of the previous government policy focusing on faith to the detriment of secular organisations. This has detracted and diverted potential gains that could have been made in persuading and empowering disillusioned youth to participate via the British democratic framework.  We faced the same attitude with the (CRE) who insist considering Arabs as an ethnic group only if they agree to be  subsumed within the  ‘faith’ category ie as part of the Muslim community.  We highlighted to them that this is not only erroneous but totally unacceptable to the majority of Arabs, of whom we estimate there are approximately 500,000 in the UK . 

Whilst the majority of Arabs are Muslim, there are sizeable numbers of Christian and other religious groups together with secular Arabs.  Such a short sighted approach has combined with ongoing negative stereotyping against Arabs to alienate the majority of who feel their efforts to integrate into UK society are being thwarted at every turn.  I would point out that there is not a single Arab representative or advisor on the vast majority of governmental bodies who rely rather on the advice of Asian Muslims to advise on Arab issues!

We have seen over the past few years the danger of such policy and are now suffering the consequences. Very frequently, Muslims Arabs, even the most moderate, have always questioned the rational of joining a secular organisation instead of a religious organisations whose voice in heard by the PM, the Government and the media. 

The youth and professional status of those arrested today have proved our fears and have demonstrated that we are now dealing with a new generation that has grown up in a region dominated by injustice and ongoing conflict and all what that entails.  This should give us cause for grave concern for those who have lost hope and the ability to rationalise and who have gone beyond reasoning to kill themselves and other innocents as tit-for-tat measures believing in that revenge by killing innocent civilians is the only measure left to them to express their despair.

Mr Gordon Brown’s acceptance that there must be an approach to ‘hearts and minds’ is welcome, but this can only be achieved by Britain resuming its important role on the world stage as a mediator for good.  We urge him to address the international issues behind terrorism.

We also urge you and the whole government to review the pitfalls of the previous policy of focusing on faith to the determent of secular organisations. Urgent attention is needed not only for the interest of Britain and its ethnic groups but also a solution to the Middle East crisis.  We need to reverse the trend towards religious extremism and this cannot be achieved except by opening up to the Arab community at large and seek advice and input from their experts and professionals rather than solely from the powerful religious groups who represent only a small minority of very religiously committed people, and the majority of whom are not ethnically Arab.

I am attaching for your information a short study on Arab immigration to the UK which I hope you will have time to read and I would welcome an acknowledgement from you that you will give this letter and study some thought when working on your proposals.

Kind Regards

Yours sincerely

Dr Ismail Jalili
Chairman, National Association of British Arabs (British Arabs cic)
(Past President of the British Arab Medical Association and the Iraqi Medical Association -UK)
7 July 2007

Appendix

Examples of the trends away from secular organisation in the UK

1.             Significant decline in the membership of secular organisations which rely on donations.

2.              Harp but gradual rise in the adherence of religious practices, more people have turned to mosques which they also used as a social meeting place in the absence of suitable secular social places.

3.             More monies donated to religious functions on the expense of secular, thus depriving all organisations working for the integration of Arabs in the British life from funds and means. Even a large proportion of those supported secular organisations have stopped their trivial contribution but started paying generously to the establishments of religious centres, however moderate they are, despite our ongoing warning that such places tend to be divisive to the community.

4.             Those secular organisations which are supported by local funding have continued to attract membership and expand their functions. Unfortunately these tend to have allegiance to overseas political ideologies and remain to promote the concept of returning to home, making these communities unable to settle and integrate in the British life. Their gathers always focus on conditions at the home country instead on building up roots in the news host country.