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How An Asian immigrant became British because where she chose to live most of her friends were white - so had to learn English.
* Daily MailFriday, September 23 - 2005. COMMENTARY by Saira Khan
(Star of THE Apprentice) * ONLY WE ASIANS
CAN TEAR DOWN THE GHETTO WALLS TREVOR PHILLIPS was, alas
speaking the truth when he said, in his speech last night that there are ‘New
Orleans-style’ racial segregation in this country- and they are getting worse. It was brave of him to admit this in
public. But where
so many racial campaigners have gone wrong is to suggest that white racism, and
the policies of successive governments, are to blame for these so-called
GHETTOS. OF COURSE
it would be wrong to deny that there is a racist element in this country
(though I have to say I never encountered it as I moved through British
business, nor when I fought tooth and nail on the reality programme The Apprentice) Far more worrying to me has been the damage caused by multiculturalism - an honourable
idea dreamed up by a largely white, liberal intelligentsia, that has proved in practice
to be no more than an excuse
for emphasising the things that divide us, rather than those that unite us as
citizens of this liberal and tolerant nation. The guilty
secret about my community - I am a child of Pakistani immigrants who came to
this country in the Sixties - is that so many of us live in GHETTOS Not because we have to. But because we want to. We are not forced
into the racial enclaves which Trevor Phillips so
rightly deplores by wicked governments, by lynch mobs or even by poverty. This is not apartheid-era South Africa, nor
is it the southern United States. So what has gone wrong? WHY do so many
young Asians feel disenfranchised? WHY do the
murderous dreams of ‘Martyrdom’, peddled by a handful of fundamentalist clerics, attract a small but
significant minority of British -born Muslims? AND WHY -
according to opinion polls - do great swathes of British Muslims even feel some degree of sympathy,
for the suicide bombers? AFTER ALL, you can
regard the Iraq war as a disastrous mistake (as many white Britons do) without
wishing ill on their fellow countryman. I am
convinced that such horrific alienation is a product of a ‘ghetto mentality’ - the ingrown and paranoid mindset, which
this self-imposed segregation can produce. Many
ghettos are indeed time bombs waiting to explode - as they did, four years ago,
in the race riots in Bradford. We must do
something to prevent further conflict.
And the answer, I believe, lies not in the corridors of Westminster but
within the Asian community. Far too
many Muslim immigrants and their off-spring are still happy living their
segregated lives. I can understand why. It is
difficult, sometimes painful to move out into the wider community. But that, surely, is why they came here in
the first place. Britain was,
and still is, a land of opportunity and prosperity. But such blessings do not land freely in your lap, they must be
sought out, whatever your background. But instead
of encouraging enterprise and diversity, too many of those in power in ghetto
communities resolutely refuse to accept change. WHY SHOULD THEY?
They are doing well out of the status quo. These,
remember, are deeply traditional societies where English is seldom heard, where
men rule the roost: overwhelming family
pressures are often used to keep children in line, and young women are routinely
pressured into marrying - sight unseen - distant relatives from Bangladesh or
Pakistan. And now,
the rise in Faith schools, education is controlled by the same power elites. The
end-product of such self -imposed isolation is surely a generation often unable
to cope and compete - still less integrate - with the rest of British society. We are in
danger of creating a self-pitying victim culture in which youngsters secretly
yearn for well-paid mainstream jobs, but are turned down because their language,
their skills and their ability to function outside the ghetto are inadequate. It is so
much easier for them to blame such disappointments on Islamophobia or racial
discrimination that to accept that they are paying the price of their
up-bringing. My parents took a
different path and I am grateful to them for that. They left
Kashmir to better themselves, and build a new life in Nottingham. They
were prepared to live with poverty and yes on occasion, with discrimination, so
that their children could do better. Dad
was a qualified doctor, but his qualification were not accepted here, and he
ended up working in the lace trade. Mum
worked making car parts to make ends meet. By luck or judgment they avoided what were to become great
ghettos like, say Bradford, parts of
Birmingham, or Southall. WE found
ourselves instead living in Long Eaton, a small town between Nottingham and
derby in a grim, two-up two-down terraced house, and for along time slept on
mattresses on the floor. But, looking back,
the crucial thing was that we were not entirely surrounded by recent Muslim
immigrants. Most of our friends and
neighbours were as poor as we were, but they were members of what had come to
be the ‘host’ community. Most of my
friends were white, so I had to learn English.
I went to the local school with them.
Yes, I attended morning assembly and learned Christian hymns - I still
recall them with pleasure. I also took part in Religious Education lessons. But I have to tell you - and importantly,
I have to tell those Muslims who cling to the security of the ghetto - that this experience did not turn
me into a Christian or compromise my upbringing. It did, though, make me think seriously about what it means to be
a Muslim -surely no Mullah could object to that. That school
also taught me something about the culture and religion of the country, which
my parents had embraced. So as I grew
up and started to work, I was able to function successfully with people from
all backgrounds. I am proud
that Asians have an enviable reputation for hard work, enterprise and
managerial skills, but I know it would have been far harder for me to progress
as far as I have done in business if I had not the experience and confidence
which my upbringing in mainstream Britain gave me. That
is why I say to my fellow Muslims: The Government can’t tear down the
ghetto walls. Only you can do that. And it is high time you did so. [Font
altered-bolding and underlining used -comments in brackets] * * [We hear that many Asians do not at
all feel themselves British for which the fault in the main lies with the Immigration
and Refugee policies of governments in the past and particularly with the
present Government with its illegal invasion of a Muslim country. As we have intimated elsewhere and as
indicated in its minutia in the present highly qualified article it was vital
that all immigrants should have moved into the British community on their arrival
in the country. One of the most important lessons of
the long History of our country is that newcomers have until the influx of
millions of Asians since the Sixties with some
exceptions as the above
article outlines - have integrated and adopted
the culture of their host country without having to deny their own. The solution will be hard to find
because as with matters, which have developed under a particular regime for
which a drastic measure is required, as with an analogy with a long term plan
whether in housing or in medical welfare which has been allowed to develop without
identifying the main objective at an earlier stage. We have instances in the monster Tower
blocks, which destroyed community spirit, or as today massive impersonal General
Hospitals, which are replacing the local community hospitals of the past -which
many local people wished to retain. So it must be with those millions of immigrants
who have instinctively chosen to live with those of their own culture rather than
make any move to join the home community and are now asked to leave their
secure and now natural surroundings for to join a what they feel a decadent host
community. THE FAULT WAS THAT OF GOVERNMENTS AND THE LIBERAL DO-GOODERS WHO ENCOURAGED THE
SEPARATION OF OTHER CULTURES BY THEIR PROMOTION OF COUNTRY WIDE GHETTOS OF DIVERSE COMMUNITIES. The present difficulties are the direct result of the
large numbers of immigrants from particular cultures who have from the
beginning not felt the need to integrate and there is now no possible chance
that the great majority of them will ever do so. WHAT CAN WE DO? Many recent
commentators from the Asian community have been as blunt as to say: ‘INTEGRATE or GO’ Immigration or Economics and Foreign Policy should depend
on openness and truthfulness in the workings of Government. This problem is as great as those faced in Eastern Europe when
the many who after the fall of Communism thought their change of ideology would
bring immediate great prosperity. The
reality is that only time can bring beneficial change and only then after great
hardship. Many citizens
of Eastern Europe are now working in the West and no doubt some will make their
new country their future home. We hope the present ghetto Muslim population will take the
opportunity to bring down their wall of suspicion and join us with their strong
family values and accept our long traditional hospitality, as millions of others
have done in the past or many may decide to return to their former homeland. Our great Lexicographer Samuel Johnson
(1709-1784)
in the Preface of his English Dictionary said on the subject of CHANGE: ‘Change is not
made without inconvenience, even from worse to better’ also (To show how
approachable the English are) ‘When two
Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather’ * * * SEP/05
*
* *
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION to the EU
* FOR A REFERENDUM SIGN TODAY ON LINE telegraph.co.uk/eureferendum * July 18-2007
VOTE -2007
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE TO SET YOU FREE
THE UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER BUT SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES. *
ONLY WILL BRING DEMOCRACY BACK TO THE ENGLISH PEOPLE * Home Rule for Scotland WHY NOT HOME RULE for ENGLAND
* MAY/07
[All underlined words have a separate bulletin THE QUESTION THAT THE VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY THE CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT? * FOR RETURN TO *
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