/DR

Near the corner of Westchester Avenue and Pugsley Street in Parkchester, just off the elevated tracks of the No. 6 train, Yaakov Wayne Baumann stood outside a graffiti-covered storefront on a chilly Saturday morning. Suited up in a black overcoat with a matching wide-brimmed black fedora, the thickly bearded 42-year-old chatted with elderly congregants as they entered the building for Shabbat service.

The only unusual detail: This synagogue is a mosque.

Or rather, it’s housed inside a mosque. That’s right: Members of the Chabad of East Bronx, an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, worship in the Islamic Cultural Center of North America, which is home to the Al-Iman mosque.

“People have a misconception that Muslims hate Jews,” said Baumann. “But here is an example of them working with us.”

Indeed, though conventionally viewed as adversaries both here and abroad, the Jews and Muslims of the Bronx have been propelled into an unlikely bond by a demographic shift. The borough was once home to an estimated 630,000 Jews, but by 2002 that number had dropped to 45,100, according to a study by the Jewish Community Relations Council. At the same time, the Muslim population has been increasing. In Parkchester alone, there are currently five mosques, including Masjid Al-Iman.

“Nowhere in the world would Jews and Muslims be meeting under the same roof,” said Patricia Tomasulo, the Catholic Democratic precinct captain and Parkchester community organizer, who first introduced the leaders of the synagogue and mosque to each other. “It’s so unique.”

The relationship started years ago, when the Young Israel Congregation, then located on Virginia Avenue in Parkchester, was running clothing drives for needy families, according to Leon Bleckman, now 78, who was at the time the treasurer of the congregation. One of the recipients was Sheikh Moussa Drammeh, the founder of the Al-Iman Mosque, who was collecting donations for his congregants—many of whom are immigrants from Africa. The 49-year-old imam is an immigrant from Gambia in West Africa who came to the United States in 1986. After a year in Harlem, he moved to Parkchester, where he eventually founded the Muslim center and later established an Islamic grade school. Through that initial meeting, a rapport developed between the two houses of worship, and the synagogue continued to donate to the Islamic center, among other organizations.

But in 2003, after years of declining membership, Young Israel was forced to sell its building at 1375 Virginia Ave., according to a database maintained by Yeshiva University, which keeps historical records of synagogues. Before the closing, non-religious items were given away; in fact, among the beneficiaries was none other than Drammeh, who took some chairs and tables for his center.

Meanwhile, Bleckman and the remaining members moved to a nearby storefront location, renting it for $2,000 a month including utilities. With mostly elderly congregants, Young Israel struggled to survive financially and, at the end of 2007, was forced to close for good. The remaining congregants were left without a place to pray. During the synagogue’s farewell service, four young men from the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights showed up. Three months earlier, Bleckman, then chairman of the synagogue’s emergency fund, had appealed for help from the Chabad.

“The boys from the Chabad said they came to save us,” said Bleckman. “We were crying.”

At this point, Chabad took over the congregational reins from Young Israel, with members officially adopting the new name Chabad of East Bronx. Still, for the next six to seven weeks, Bleckman said they could not even hold a service because they had nowhere to hold it.

When Drammeh learned of their plight, he immediately volunteered to accommodate them at the Muslim center at 2006 Westchester Ave.—for free.

“They don’t pay anything, because these are old folks whose income are very limited now,” said Drammeh, adding that he felt it was his turn to help the people who had once helped him and his community. “Not every Muslim likes us, because not every Muslim believes that Muslims and Jews should be like this,” Drammeh said, referring to the shared space. But “there’s no reason why we should hate each other, why we cannot be families.” Drammeh in particular admires the dedication of the Chabad rabbis, who walked 15 miles from Brooklyn every Saturday to run prayer services for the small Parkchester community.

For the first six months, congregants held Friday night Sabbath services inside Drammeh’s cramped office. As more people began joining the congregation, Drammeh offered them a bigger room where they could set up a makeshift shul. (When it’s not in use, students from the Islamic school use it as their classroom.) Inside the synagogue, a worn, beige cotton curtain separates the men and women who attend the service. A solitary chandelier hangs just above the black wooden arc that holds the borrowed Torah, which is brought weekly from the Chabad headquarters. A large table covered with prayer books stands in the center, and a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is displayed prominently on a nearby wall. During Shabbat, when Jewish congregants are strictly prohibited from working, they have to rely on the Muslim workers at the center or on Drammeh to do simple chores such as turning on the light and switching on the heater.

At first, it did not make sense, said Hana Kabakow, wife of Rabbi Meir Kabakow. “I was surprised,” said the 26-year-old congregant who was born and raised in Israel. “But when I came here I understood.” The Kabakows have been coming to the service from Brooklyn for the last two years.

Harriet Miller, another congregant, said she appreciated the center’s accommodating the synagogue. “They are very sweet people,” said the 79-year-old Bronx native and long-time resident of Parkchester, who added that she welcomes the new Muslim immigrants in her neighborhood: “We were not brought up to hate.”

Drammeh also understands the importance of teaching tolerance more broadly, and for turning the school—which was itself founded at the nearby St. Helena Catholic Church on, of all days, Sept. 11, 2001—into a model of sorts for religious tolerance in New York.

“We’re not as divided as the media portrays us to be,” Drammeh said. “Almost 90 percent of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian teachings are the same.”

His latest project involves introducing fifth-grade Jewish and Islamic school students to each other’s religious traditions. Other participants of the program, now in its sixth year, include the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, the Al Ihsan Academy of Queens, and the Kinneret Day School of Riverdale. At the end of the program, students organize an exhibit that shows family artifacts of their respective cultures and religion. The principal of the Islamic school, who is also Sheik Drammeh’s wife, said that even after the program ended, the participants became “fast friends” and would visit each other’s homes.

“They would have birthday parties together,” Shireena Drammeh said. “When someone invites you to their house, I mean, that says it all right there and then.”

While the Jewish congregants are thankful for their new home, they hope that one day they can rebuild their own synagogue. That day may be far off: Even now that they have space to worship, they still struggle to operate. They don’t have proper heating inside, and the portable working heater could not reach the separate area where the elderly women are seated, forcing them to wear their jackets during the entire service. Congregants are appealing for financial support from the Jewish community and other congregations.

But Leon Bleckman and others say they now also have loftier goals, including reviving the Jewish presence in the neighborhood and reaffirming the positive relationship with their Muslim friends. “We are able to co-exist together side by side in the same building,” said Assistant Rabbi Avi Friedman, 42. “That’s sort of like a taste of the future world to come—the messianic future where all people live in peace.”

This article was taken from http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/88849/a-bronx-tale-3/

Ted Regencia is a digital media student at the Columbia Journalism School. His Twitter feed is at @tedregencia. Lindsay Minerva, a digital media student at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, is an intern at Newsweek. Her Twitter feed is at @lindsayminerva.

/DR

There is a strange atmosphere in the streets of Paris as New Year’s Eve approaches. This is the period when in most West European cities, those who have spent a whole year living without rules and as both slaves of the system and of their own condition give themselves new objectives and targets, they will here again only try to follow during the first weeks of the new year. Too many « Merry Christmas! » and too many « Happy New Year! » in perspective even for those well aware that in these days of economic crisis, their future is more than ever counted and already condemned.

In some of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the Consumer Confidence Index is however said to be at its highest; which, also, reminds me the late Thomas Sankara’s words: “there is only crisis when the poor starts asking for his share”. What, indeed, if the economic emergence of part of what we used to look at as the third world was, among other things, one of the explanations for the economic hardship the western world finds itself plunged in today? In the last decades, the emergence of China as an economic superpower also led to the economic development of many raw material supplying countries. Also, with economic booms in countries such as Dubai, Qatar or again Turkey, it seems that the new Eldorado is more likely to be found in the East than anywhere else on the globe.

But, I remain convinced that the future and success of these new emerging economies will depend on their capacity and ability to deal with the ex or neo-colonial powers. To tell the truth, I am even a bit pessimistic. Many Arab or so called Muslim countries are now signing treaties with their first enemies in the West, unaware that altering or selling part of oneself in order to get peace and protection has always been a mistake not to say a disaster; as the experience of the Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century in France teaches us. To the same extent, economic prosperity and influence have, also, never been efficient ramparts against military invasions. Few people in the west and fewer people in the Middle East understand that what we call the Arab Spring is just another 9/11 that will end up here again with the colonization of new territories.

A new bill was passed in France last week, making it liable to a prison sentence the denial of any genocide. This new law is without doubt targeting what France, among other countries, considers as a form of genocide perpetrated by the Turks in 1915 against the Armenian people. Once again, the witch apprentice seems to ignore his own committed genocides and crimes, when in an attempt to substitute himself to god, he purposely created a new “race”, selecting and mixing blacks, whites and Native Americans into one man for more profitability (http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2011/12/26/les-crimes-coloniaux-etaient-un-genocide). He, now, dares come and tell the rest of humanity about what should be, and he goes into raptures over the athletic performances of the “new human race” he created. The year 2012 will for sure not be any better; unless for once the world opens its eyes and every one of us puts light on the lies.

/DR

Intense theoretical debates about the virtues of democracy have been taking place over the past months as we attempt to analyse events in the Arab world. Democracy, most conclude, should be the goal: it is the best political system, one in which citizens can see that their political choices are respected, their freedoms and rights protected. Such an outcome would be Mena’s greatest achievement: at last, the Arabs will experience pluralism, openness and — why not — modernity.

At the same time, in the West, the democratic system is going through one of the deepest crises in its history. Far from idealised, theoretical descriptions of the democratic system, citizens of western countries have the increasing impression they have been forgotten; that their opinion counts for nothing.

As former Tunisian president Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi fell because their respective peoples were calling for freedom, eight European leaders (the list is far from exhaustive), who should have resigned because of their responsibility for the economic downturn, are imposing their rule over the political apparatus. The political system known as democracy has proved to be neither transparent nor free when both state and citizens are so deeply in debt. Who is making the decisions today? Who has the power?

When Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou started playing politics with his call for a referendum, he was criticised and eventually forced out of office: it is not time to consult your people, he was told, as their freedom to decide could lead to our collective collapse… The dominant economic powers and institutions as well as the ratings agencies have enforced their own logic: this is not the right time to consult your people.

The media simply follows along behind; for them it natural and consistent for elected presidents and ministers to be forced out of office without the population having had its say. As if, in time of crisis, the rules of democratic procedure must be suspended: citizens are nothing but spectators. The Muslim majority countries are being asked to reassess the relationship between the state and the religious authority. Islam should not impose its truth and dogma over the democratic elected state. The latter must be free, and must express the will of the majority. Theocratic regimes are dangerous, as they neither protect the equality of citizens before law nor their right to decide their future. Critical points indeed!

The Muslim majority countries should by all means rid themselves of their secular or religious dictatorships. To call for democratisation is legitimate and appears to be the only way forward: this is the essence of the Arab awakening, its hope as much as its goal. Yet, we should be asking sharp questions about the model and the ends. Should the Arab countries follow in the footsteps of the West? Is the western model worth duplicating? Where are this freedom and transparency the democrats are talking about? Whichever way you turn, you hear rising complaints: people feel as though they are losing their rights, enjoying less freedom, becoming progressively marginalised.

In the US, the most recent and ever-deepening economic crisis is exposing the citizens’ helplessness. Millions are unemployed and deep in debt; they have no medical insurance to cover their needs, no social services to protect their families. They are asked to vote for candidates who spend billions of dollars on election campaigns, yet end up being forgotten between elections. Some citizens tried to make their voices heard on Wall Street: real power is not in the White House but along that street where the dominant economic actors, agents and institutions, are not required to respect democratic rules.

Economic control

Theirs is the power of economic control and high finance, of money and media: here democracy has no room, no reality. The protesters numbered a few thousand indignant citizens expressing a common view: which way are the western democracies heading?

In Europe, the feeling is the same. We may well have no religion exerting control over the state, but the transnational corporations, economic institutions, banks, media and well-structured lobbies are undermining the very essence of any democratic system (which should be based on transparency and majority rule). We talk about separating religious authority from state authority — but who will protect the state from the economic, financial and media powers that are imposing their anti-democratic decisions and policies? It is all well and good to celebrate an idealised democratic model, but the truth of the matter remains that western democracies are eroding; people are losing their rights and prerogatives. It is time for the citizens to wake up and to demand transparency, respect and consistency.

The Arab world needs political creativity; but the West, deep in crisis, cannot be a model. It is time to find other ways, new horizons. The globalised world is undermining national democratic dynamics. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya or even the US, Greece, Italy, France or Germany cannot achieve ‘democracy’ on their own. Yet nationalism would be a new trap, as the non-democratic forces are lurking behind the existing nations, where the citizens have no status and have lost their rights. Democrats and free citizens must learn to look beyond their borders: an arduous and demanding task that will require transnational civic movements. There is no choice. With freedom comes some constraints: an apparent paradox, yet a historical truth. 

Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University and a visiting Professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Qatar. His new book Islam and the Arab Awakening will be out this month.

Several articles and studies that I have come across, lack the scientific objectivity and analysis of an academic work. These pieces of work were often written by westerners who are either politicians massaging the ego of the many frustrated xenophobes or pschycologists mainly considering everything different as abnormal. Subsequently, the topic of integration as a modern social phenomenon has never been methodically covered as in a university thesis like in “L`integration de La culture musulmane en Grande Bretagne “by Dr Mustafa Traore.

Due to the exigency of academic work, this study leaves no room for any biased ideas or subjective thought. As a result, we have the privilege to witness the materialization of a great journalistic work illustrated throughout the three chapters of the book covering more than 200 pages in a unique style; scientific yet enjoyable and entertaining.

In a careful approach the “Integration of muslin culture” as a social fact in today’s western society; its difficulties, its success or failure are covered thoroughly from all possible angles, in a pragmatic manner with great depth and honesty. The writer in an implicit way is constantly in dialogue with the reader. Every possible reflection or question of the reader is anticipated. As a matter of fact, there was not a question, nor a query that came to my mind, that I did not find the answer in the following paragraphs, chapters, or better, in the next lines.

I felt transported through different technical religious and legal issues in an exceptionally gentle and easy approach. Many of the misperceptions and ready-made views about Islam are also exposed brilliantly, without any apparent interference.

For a study purpose, our writer took a meticulous attention in choosing his interviewees. Like in an entertaining novel, the writer managed to utilise the characters’ accents and cultural background in a great analytical effort. Based on study and field research, the interviewees’ experiences, perceptions and observations are shaped beautifully in a remarkable academic work.

Djilali bellahsene

Black History Month (BHM)

/DR

In 1987 BHM was introduced to schools in the UK by Linda Bellos to respond to the general absence of representations of Black achievement in the education system.   Since then, in October of every year, BHM has been celebrated throughout Britain in schools and Further Education (i.e. post-compulsory, pre-university and vocational) colleges, with Societies hosting events in Higher (i.e. tertiary) Education. Redressing the absence of Blackness in education is thought to have both engaged ethnic minorities in schooling (particularly those that historically underachieve in UK schools) and create recognition of the various communities that are settled in Britain, who are tolerated and whose cultures are enjoyed at social levels, but not considered as positive contributors to world history.

Pupils achieving 5 or more A*-C at GCSE/GNVQ: by sex and ethnic group, 2004, England

*GCSE stands for: General Certificate of Secondary Education.  It is the qualification that pupils obtain when they leave school at the earliest age of 16.  Good GCSEs are grades A*-C. The indicator of acceptable achievement is set at 5 good GCSEs.

 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=461

BHM is modelled on its US predecessor. Over there BHM is one of a number of Months devoted to ethnic communities who are under-represented in the education system.  The fact that some institutions over here celebrate the history and cultures of their establishments’ various ethnic communities is one reason why there has not been a perceived need for a designated month to celebrate Greek culture in North London for example.  Another reason would be that Ancient Greek culture already features in education in the West. Ethnicity alone does not therefore justify the grounds for inclusion in BHM.

Notwithstanding this rationale, opposition to BHM centres on a number of issues relating to the overall focus on Black ethnicities at the expense of others. In a number of educational establishments, the English population is in the minority.  Whilst English history and culture are obviously integral to the national curriculum, the absence of representations of marginalised English cultures (e.g. working class) means that the education system is similarly alienating for and dismissive of individuals from these groups. In fact, nationally, White working class boys fare worst from the education system than all other groups. The reasons for such under-achievement are undoubtedly multiple, although lack of identification with subject content is cited as one.  This argument would seem to undermine the premise of BHM in a society in which class divisions are deeply entrenched. The paucity of students from working class backgrounds in the Russell Group (i.e. some of the most prestigious universities in the UK) testifies to these divisions. Fewer than 15% of students who go to universities that are in the Russell Group are from working class backgrounds. 

Other opponents to BHM claim that not leading to a specific skill that is useful in the labour market or resolving a tangible social problem, BHM (particularly during the current period of economic downturn) is a waste of taxpaying resources and a niche topic, given the overall percentage of Black and other ethnic minorities in Britain.

2001 Census findings

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=455

Some opponents object to BHM as it is currently practised, whereby institutions limit the academic focus of the Month to the American Civil Rights Movement, leaving students unaware of both Black British history and the histories of the Black communities (e.g. Nigerian, Jamaican and Somali) that are represented in high numbers in the UK. Further, they criticise the embourgeoisement of Black cultures by the focus on elite personalities such as Mary Seacole at the expense of grass roots individuals and movements. In addition, they are highly critical of the teaching methodology of BHM activities, where students are presented with a series of general knowledge facts and figures, illustrative of Black people’s contribution to world history.  This approach fails to encourage students to actually engage with Black artists and/or movements on an intellectual level. Further, the material presented tends to give simplistic representations of Black communities as entirely positive. 

Of course Black children benefit from having positive images of Black cultures, and society at large benefits from these by reassessing its superficial stereotypes.  However, the Month in this form is not sufficiently challenging.    These shortcomings, coupled with the focus on Black contributions to the Performing Arts at the expense of Black literature for example, suggest that the time when Black British Studies will be offered by the Russell Group is remote.

Mary Seacole                                                                   

 http://www.mylearning.org/jpage.asp?journeyid=281&jpageid=1263

Ethnic Composition of London 2007

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/London_Ethnicity_2007.jpg

The fact that the White working class is marginalised in the education system needs to be addressed. Not only is a nation culturally enriched by education that reflects its social contributors, but also economically.  White working class boys figure high in NEET (i.e. those Not in Education, Employment or Training) statistics.  This does not, however, detract from the need to address other serious educational flaws and shortcomings which also have long-term negative consequences such as social marginalisation.  In these times where funding is being spread thinly across a number of social interests, it is fundamental that whatever initiatives are introduced not only be seen to be fair, but also have long-term positive outcomes. 

Students’ Opinions

In a survey that was conducted in schools and colleges in the inner cities of England in 2009, the majority of respondents stated that BHM improved their general knowledge.  Whilst this is positive, the near universal claim amongst respondents that they knew a lot about Black cultures, yet their failure to associate the Month with academia was startling.  After 30 years of BHM, school children are familiar with Ackee and Salt Fish (the Jamaican national dish) and Djembe drumming, but not with Gary Younge (author of No Place Like Home) or a chapter from Peter Fryer’s Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain.  Their limited associations of Black cultures with music and food are in themselves reminiscent of stereotypes that define Black peoples as entertainers and performers.  Even the brightest of children still commonly only associate Black cultures with a history of slavery past and present, unfamiliar with the specificity of the inherited racial chattel slave systems of the Americas,  and commonly refer to Africa as a country and its languages as ‘African’.

Not only is there a misperception of what Black studies can entail, but also its professional usefulness.  Were students to engage more with Black literature at school, there would be no marked academic outcome because Black Studies does not exist at university in Britain. By contrast, the US enjoys several decades of Africana studies in its universities (including Ivy League institutions). Over there, the first Black Studies Programmes began in 1968, following demands by university students (black and white). Today, universities all over the US offer this programme and have lecturers of all backgrounds.  The connection between this and Black aspiration to be other than a performer or sports person, and increasingly positive inter-ethnic relations post-Civil Rights has yet to be fully documented.  Yet this is undoubtedly a fairer representation of the people that constitute its nation than the system in the UK.  What is the long-term outcome of a nation such as Britain which is famously tolerant of difference, but also equally ignorant, despite its longstanding and continued connections with Black communities? 

It seems unlikely that BHM will change in the UK, principally because of the lack of demand on the one hand, and growing concerns that other larger social groups have been sidelined in the process on the other. Whilst this is understandable in terms of bothsupply and demand and resources, a country such as France that has yet to institute Black studies would do well to take note and consider the need to implement a programme with greater foresight than that which marked the introduction of BHM in the UK.  Just as France has had similar debates on integration as the UK, so too does it seem inevitable that inclusivity in schools will be explored.  Rather than spending funds replicating the UK BHM system, which obliges all students to follow it, yet does not dispel stereotypes because of its rather superficial focus, perhaps a Black studies or Africana programme that was optional yet academic would at least engage those with a interest in the subject at collège and lycée and be academically beneficial (i.e. in representing a serious academic pre- or post-bac qualification that students could then use to further their studies in other areas to begin with, and eventually in this area should they choose to do so).

There are those who are highly critical of the arbitrary and inaccurate labelling of studies as Black or White.  In a world where colour as a social construct is inexistent, these criticisms are legitimate. As things stand, history tells us that when there is no ‘racial’ labelling in education (as is the case in France at the moment), the education system focuses virtually exclusively on authors and a version of history in which historically marginalised (i.e. Black amongst other) groups are absent or stereotyped.   The question is not whether or not there is a need for Black studies in 2012 France, but how to make it (academically) relevant to students who wish to study it.

Dr F. Marfo January 2011

Dr Marfo holds a BA in French from Goldsmiths College, London University and a PhD in African American and Afro-Brazilian Literature from Bristol University. She has published articles in Konch Magazine and Callaloo and was involved in introducing a course on Black Literature in French whilst working in Guinea-Bissau.

Florence551@yahoo.co.uk

/DR

Why is it that we feel quite nostalgic about the old days when most often the only thing we long is to bring change to our current life, condition or position? The district of Paris I live in has improved for the better these last two decades, most people would admit. Yet, I very often miss the old days, when being of the nineteenth district of Paris had a very strong and negative connotation. Now, every year by the end of July and during the whole month of August “Paris Plage” invites itself in our district making it more attractive to all kind of people. There is no doubt that for those who had adopted the nineteenth district as an integrated part of their global identity, like myself, the changes and improvements of these last decades in the district have somehow left us alienated.

For the readers quite unfamiliar with the French capital city, let us be a bit more explicit. Paris is divided into twenty districts. The nineteenth is the last but one. It is located in the North East part of the capital city. Though it became an integrated part of Paris some 152 years ago, a short walk in the upper part of the district in the late seventies, still gave you the feeling of being outside the capital. The numerous parks and large spaces offered to the delight of the younger generations a sensation of freedom unmatched in the rest of the city.

Yet, “past childhood, it is almost finished” says the French singer Renaud in one of his songs. This is the sad reality many of the residents of the nineteenth district were unfortunately to experience by the time they reach adulthood. As a young boy in the late seventies and early eighties, I remember being the witness, more than once, of quarrels, disputes, and fights between teenagers or youngsters of the district over illicit products and goods of which I at the time ignored the names. Heroine, Cocaine, crack, or ecstasy; here are the names of the different substances that were to deprive the youth of the district of all the skills required to better stand up and fight in an unfair society. By the time I had grown up to be a young man, those who had been in their twenties in the seventies and eighties had transformed themselves into unhealthy frail drug addicts.

With the arrival from the United States of the Rap and Gang culture in the capital, people of my age group were taking a path different from that of the big brothers in the district. Dance, sports, and fights were our first centres of interest rather than Heroine, Cocaine, and Crack. At least, this is what we first thought. Leaving childhood for manhood also means getting to more independence and autonomy and which of course goes along with being able to support oneself financially. Stealing, nicking and selling back was the method we had first found to be totally independent before shifting to a much more lucrative form of business that involved the sale of hashish and other illicit substances.

Fortunately enough, the daily consumption of hashish and other drugs was not to get rid of us as it had been the case with our big brothers and their addiction to Heroine, cocaine, Crack and so on. Our brain and intellect was however to receive a severe blow. Years of too much addiction finally left many of us brainless and with several psychiatric internments.

Here is my story of the old days in the nineteenth. Things have changed a lot since then. Regeneration plans have been decided by the Mayor and other politicians. New populations commonly called the « Bobos »; in other words the well-off are now also part of the nineteenth.

The mayor and his ambitious politicians are keen to please the rich invaders, but tend to ignore the old inhabitants mainly composed of ethnic minorities; most of whom scarcely pay taxes or vote in times of election. As the district is becoming more fashionable, the poorest and therefore ethnic minorities are sent in the suburbs, outside the limits of the district. I am also convinced that the new inhabitants of the nineteenth despise the old ones whose parents like mine came to live here in the seventies and early eighties, when the place was rather deprived and shabby. For sure the neighbourhood has undergone considerable refurbishment plans, yet, it seems that it has been all done at the stake of our souvenirs and memories.

/DR

There gonna be “Burning and looting tonight” as used to put it Bob Marley in his song Get Up, Stand Up. It seems that for the last ten months some countries in the Maghreb region and the Middle East have successfully tried to put into acts this same message. The Arab Revolution or as some others tend to call it the Arab Spring also gained the support of most Western countries. These latter in some cases even urged and directly supported the revolutionaries or rather the rebels as it is under such name that they have become known world wide.

“It is time for regime change!” most Western countries were calling the Arab leaders, contemplating the financial opportunities that such reality could occasion for their own collapsing economy. But that reaction of course was before realising how excellent traveller the Arab Spring -just like the Arab Phone in its own time- was. As a specialist in British cultural studies, I was contacted this week by some French media who wanted me to describe and comment on the spreading revolts over the UK. I later heard that my 15 minutes testimony -not being conform to the idea they wanted to convey- was not going to be taken into consideration. Robin D’Angelo, a young journalist from streetpress.com being just an other product of the French racist society, had simply decided not to mention or use my what he considered “disturbing analysis”.  Let’s make it clear, the British riots had nothing to do with what France knew in 2005. The reasons for the riots in Britain were not racial or ethnic discrimminations as it was the case in France in 2005.

A narrow study of the situation in the UK proves that those revolting and rioting were doing so because they had the feeling of being the victims of deepening social injustices. Britain like most of the Western world is stricken with a devastating financial and debt crisis that leaves the poor and deprived powerless and less likely to cope with an ever growing consumption society. The haves and the haves not, such is the difference in the UK; with the particularity that unlike what is the case in France, poverty is not « racialised » or « ethnicised » as the case of the three Asians killed by rioters while attempting to protect their businesses in Birmingham proves it.

Yes, the British riots look more like a revolt against social injustices; a British version of the Arab spring, some would say. But, unlike what is the case with the Arab revolution, no media or institution seems to be willing to see in it more than unjustified forms of rebellion and unrest. Why is it then, that when it comes to make one’s voice heard in the developing world, we the Western world in general tend to support complete change through chaos, while at home we reject any form of change claim that could destabilise our general system and economy? The same attitude seems to be observed when it comes to southern countries that have their policy and whole institutions dictated by our western countries. I do not hide the fact that in my understanding of the British uprising movement, it would have been more logical for those who used to support the idea of regime change in the Arab world to support the idea of system change in the case of UK.

To the French politicians reading these few lines, I also want them to bear in mind that anything Arabic or Arab moves quickly, quietly and has no frontier. To make it clear: the Arab spring may knock at our doors sooner than expected.

DR

Abbas Nokhasteh is a British citizen whose interest focuses on promoting and creating bridges between different practitioners, activists and artists. Through his organisation Openvizor.com, Abbas also connects together different organisations and associations around the world.
Earlier this week, in London, he took the time to meet and interview Dr Moustafa Traoré – a French academic and activist who has just released a book on the integration of the Muslim culture in Britain.

Before promoting the academic’s work -« L’Intégration de la Culture Musulmane en Grande-Bretagne, des principes à la réalité (L’Harmattan, 2011) »-, Abbas inquires the motives and conditions in which Dr Moustafa Traoré carried out his research.

Then, the notions and concepts of integration, assimilation and multiculturalism all become crystal clear to us.