BMMS May 1994

The British National Party councillor in Tower Hamlets who won the seat at a by-election last September was defeated by a Labour candidate even though he polled more votes than in last year's election. The Liberal Democrat Party, which had controlled Tower Hamlets for a decade and had been implicated in some unsavoury racially-tinged policies, lost control to the Labour Party. The BNP has officially asked for a judicial enquiry into the Tower Hamlets election "to see if there were any malpractices". In Birmingham, the Labour Party increased its majority in the city but Councillor Najma Hafeez, who is a possible candidate for the Sparkbrook parliamentary seat at the next election, was voted off the Community Affairs Committee, which she had chaired for some years, in a vote amongst Labour councillors. Her rival for the Sparkbrook parliamentary seat, Councillor Muhammad Afzal, retained his place as chairman of the Personnel Committee.

A Labour councillor who had served the Burnley community since 1976 and was in line to become the mayor in 1995/6, Rafique Malik, was defeated in the recent elections by a Liberal Democrat challenger, Mohammed Fazal Subhan, by a majority of three votes. The local Labour Party has called for the election to be re-run indicating that, in its opinion, "six or seven proxy votes had been wrongly cast" (Q News 27.05.94). It was further alleged that the Lib Dems had been "whipping up racism". All such allegations were rebutted by the local Lib Dem Party.

The first Muslim to be elected to Leeds City Council, Taj Ali, who was returned for the Labour Party with a majority of 2,259 out of a total electorate of 16,000, was profiled by the Yorkshire Evening Post (02.06.94). The computer programmer explained how his commitment to Islam had strengthened over the years, especially after a visit to Mecca for the Hajj, and with it came a deepening socialist conviction. This led to his becoming active in the Labour Party over the past six years and his eventual selection as candidate for the Harehills ward. It is noteworthy that there has been a deepening political awareness amongst local Muslims who now comprise about two-thirds of the local Labour membership of 270. There are reported to be 3,000 "Asian" voters in the ward. Mr Ali has pledged himself to combat social deprivation in the area and has called on all groups to make common cause with him. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 1]

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Focus on Bosnia

The charity Islamic Relief has launched a scheme in Leicestershire to ask people of any community to donate funds to allow canned meat to be sent to Bosnians on the occasion of Eid ul-Adha. The charity will use the money raised to have animals slaughtered according to Islamic law in Hungary and then have the meat cooked and canned so that it can be shipped cheaply to people who are starving even though they might live in remote areas (Leicester Mercury 02.05.94).

A London-based Muslim women's charity, the Central Women's Association, organised a £30-per-head fundraising dinner for Bosnian relief. Four hundred guests attended the dinner, which was held in a West End hotel, drawn mainly from the diplomatic and business communities. A total of £45,000 was raised at the event (Q News 06.05.94).

The text of an open letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations was printed by the Daily Awaz (02.05.94) calling for an immediate end to the arms embargo on Bosnians. The letter went on to call for an invitation to be issued to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to send troops to Bosnia to defend their fellow Muslims and for a general military resistance to Serbian oppression. Finally, the resignation of the Secretary General and his staff was called for should the UN be unable to meet these demands. The letter was signed by "over 100 prominent members of Britain's Muslim community".

A letter was sent to the Prime Minister, and published in The Guardian (14.05.94), calling upon him to act to ensure the security of a flight from Sarajevo to take Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj. The proposed flight was in danger of being cancelled as its security could not be guaranteed. The letter was signed by prominent Muslims and church leaders.

Dr Mustafa Ceric, the President of Ulama in Bosnia, was the guest speaker at the meeting of the Muslim Parliament in London on 8th May. In his speech, which was reported at length in the Daily Jang (13.05.94), Dr Ceric expounded vividly the "legalised genocide" which was taking place in Bosnia and called for his people to be allowed to arm themselves so that they can resist. A full-page interview was published by Q News (13.05.94) in which he placed the Bosnian crisis in the context of Islam in Europe and the possibilities of living in a multi-religious, multi-cultural society.

The Ahmadiyya Moslem Association in Wandsworth had used hired trucks to convey shipments of supplies to Bosnia in the past but their plans to send ten trucks with 40 tonnes of food and medicine were thwarted when there were difficulties with the trucks' insurance given their destination. The Association responded by realising all their savings and buying a second-hand four tonne truck for £4,000. The plan now is to use hauliers to ship the relief aid to the closest "safe" base and then transport it into the Bosnian heartland with their own truck and personnel. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 1/2]

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Developments on halal meat control

The appeal by Dr Kalim Siddiqui, the leader of the Muslim Parliament, to Muslims to stop buying "halal" meat unless they were sure that it is genuine (see British Muslims Monthly Survey for March and April 1994) has had some success in Birmingham at least where some butchers are reporting sales down by 25% (Birmingham Evening Mail 06.05.94). The Muslim Parliament's Halal Food Authority is advertising for inspectors to help in the regulation of the trade. The inspectors will be provided with a car and remunerated at between £12,000 and £18,000 pa.

One of the biggest meat producers in the country is the Halal Food Company of Birmingham which is reported to control around 40% of the halal meat trade. They currently slaughter 800,000 sheep per year in abattoirs in Birmingham and Thirsk. This figure is likely to rise to around one million carcasses directly (Sunday Telegraph 15.05.94). The Halal Meat Company prides itself on being impeccably halal in its slaughtering processes and maintains its own team of inspectors (Birmingham Post 16.05.94). The Halal Food Authority would like to pay for its activities by putting a surcharge of £2 per head on each carcass. For the Halal Food Company this would mean an annual bill of at least £1.6m. The Company feels that the HFA might be necessary to regulate unscrupulous traders but that its activities are already guaranteed as halal.

The Halal Food Company is set to expand in two significant ways. It wants to make a major drive to export halal meat products to continental Europe and plans to introduce a new range of value-added products for the halal market including "halalburgers", sausages, kebabs, chicken nuggets and samosas which it would market through established supermarket chains. It is hoped that a deal can be struck with the burger giants McDonald's.

Dr Abdul Majid Katme, the president of the Islamic Medical Association, has issued a warning to Muslims in Britain to avoid eating beef due to the prevalence of BSE ("mad cow disease") which "has resulted from feeding the "vegetarian" animals meat and offal of other animals" (Q News 20.05.94). He informs Muslims that "This disease destroys the brain and nervous system, which is not only fatal to the animals but most probably to humans too". He explains that animals which are fit for human consumption must be fed a vegetable diet in accordance with the law of God and thus Muslims should avoid milk, eggs and meat which has been produced by unnatural feeding methods.

School caterers in Loughborough, County Direct Services, have been praised for their efforts to serve a range of traditional Indian and English halal dishes to schools in the area. This followed a public meeting staged by the caterers in concert with the Loughborough mosque at which parents, leaders and governors were invited to inspect and sample the range of meals on offer. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 2/3]

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Internal divisions in Middlesborough

An election was held to decide the ruling committee for the Jamia Mosque, Waterloo Road, Middlesborough, in an effort to end the long-running dispute (see BMMS for May, July, August and November 1993 and April 1994) but the only candidates were from the United Muslim Council who were returned unopposed. This led the other faction, the Islamic Council, to seek a court injunction overturning the election. This was granted by the court pending a fuller hearing. At that hearing, which was held on 10th May, the judge ordered that fresh elections should take place on 29th June under the supervision of the Electoral Reform Society. In the meanwhile, a temporary committee was to be set up with two members from each of the opposing parties. The temporary committee must comprise people who have not served on a mosque committee before or held office within the opposing groups (Middlesborough Evening Gazette 11.05.94).

The dispute reached a new impasse with the resignation of the mediator Zafar Ali Shah. Mr Shah was imam at the mosque from 1976 until he retired in 1987 and was respected by both sides. His resignation has been prompted by the Islamic Council (also known as the Cleveland Islamic Society) refusing to accept the results of the election of 8th May and also accusing him of being partial towards the United Muslim Council.

The question of the misuse of the grant from Cleveland County Council has been resolved (see BMMS for September 1993). The Council made a grant of £38,300 for repairs to the roof of the mosque. It transpired that the work was done for some £10,247 less than the estimate and so the remainder of the money from the grant was used to pay part of the price of a new £18,900 carpet for the mosque. When the Council found out about the misuse of its grant, it decided to reclaim the money. The Council report made it clear that they had received full co-operation from the mosque committee who repaid the money once it was established to everyone's satisfaction that it had been given for a particular purpose only and that did not include replacing a carpet. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 3/4]

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Short Reports

Conference on Caliphate

Hizb ut Tahrir (see BMMS for January, February, March and April 1994) has organised a conference on establishing the Caliphate which will be held in the Wembley conference centre in August. The conference was the subject of a significant article in the Sunday Telegraph (29.05.94) which set the tone for its report with the opening sentence: "Radical Muslims from around the world have been invited to converge on London's Wembley Arena [sic] by an Islamic party which wants to turn Britain into an Islamic state". The report went on to paint an exaggerated picture of the organisation having taken over mosques and Islamic societies "throughout England and Wales, including the copper-domed central London Mosque in Regent's Park". Concern about the meeting was recorded both from Jewish groups and "pro-Western" Arab embassies. The conference organiser, Omar Bakri Mohammed, was reported to have told the authors of the article that he receives "his orders from an underground leadership committee located in the Middle East".

Redbridge Councillor Alan Weinberg and the Redbridge Police/Community Consultative Group is to ask the Attorney General why no action has been taken against Hizb ut Tahrir activists who have been involved in the distribution of "anti-semitic literature" (Wanstead and Woodford Redbridge Guardian 26.05.94). The group held a meeting in Ilford Town Hall and leaflets were distributed in Ilford High Road earlier this year (see BMMS for February 1994). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 4]

BBC2 Public Eye

The television documentary in the BBC2 Public Eye series (20.05.94), which concentrated on the drift away from religious practice amongst Muslim youth and the increase in drugs-related crime within the same group in Bradford, was noticed by various newspapers with a note of concern. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 1]

International Business Ethics

An interfaith group of scholars and business people, under the patronage of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Hassan of Jordan and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, has concluded five years of discussions by presenting a Declaration on International Business Ethics which is built around four ethical principles drawn from the Abrahamic faiths, viz. justice, mutual respect, stewardship and honesty. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 4/5]

Cardiff/Yemeni links

Radio Wales broadcast two programmes exploring the links between Cardiff and the Yemen. A century ago, coal from Wales was in demand to fuel the ships of the British fleet and a coal bunker was established in Aden. This attracted Yemeni workers locally and then they joined the crews of ships as stokers, hence the origins of the Yemeni community in Cardiff. The contemporary and historical links were portrayed in the reciprocally named programmes Tiger Bay to the Roof of Arabia and Roof of Arabia to Tiger Bay. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 5]

Racial monitoring, Birmingham

Following a study by the Royal Town Planning Institute which indicated that there might be racial discrimination at play in the consideration of planning applications in Birmingham, the City Council has brought forward a scheme closely to monitor the processing of such applications. In addition to the monitoring scheme, there will be a series of compulsory race awareness courses, seminars and workshops provided for the city's planning staff. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 5]

Volunteer gravediggers, Walsall

Muslims in Walsall are in discussion with the local council in an effort to find means to allow Muslims to be buried at weekends and public holidays without putting an undue burden on tax-payers. The proposal under review calls for Muslims to nominate a cemetery registrar and to have people from their community trained as grave diggers so that they could perform these tasks outside normal cemetery hours. The Muslims involved would be volunteers thus saving the council from the considerable expense of having cemetery workers on stand-by for out-of-hours funerals. Discussions are continuing (Sandwell Evening Mail 29.04.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 5]

Building enterprise workshops

The Pakistan Muslim Centre in Sheffield has made application for planning permission to build enterprise workshops on its site in Woodbourn Road. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 5]

Panorama complaint upheld

The former headteacher of Carlton Bolling College in Bradford and five former pupils lodged a formal complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission about the way in which the school was presented in the notorious BBC TV Panorama programme Underclass in Purdah which was shown on 29 March 1993 (see BMMS for April 1993). The Commission found that the programme had been unfair in its portrayal of the school in three ways: firstly, it made no attempt to contrast poor examination results at the school with other schools in similar circumstances; secondly, the gap between the high proportion of Muslim children and the low proportion of Muslim staff was exaggerated; and thirdly, the former headteacher was distortedly portrayed as being unwilling to accept a share of the responsibility for pupils' problems (Bradford Telegraph and Argus 23.05.94).

The judgement has been welcomed by some Muslims, e.g. an editorial in Q News (27.05.95) which expressed pleasure that complaining had been seen to have some effect but looked for a more thoroughgoing appraisal of attitudes to Islam amongst BBC staff and the introduction of Muslim journalists, producers, researchers etc., but others have said that the judgement was "window dressing" (Sher Azam, Q News 27.05.94). Abu Bashir, the president of a Bradford Bangladeshi organisation who helped the students to formulate their complaints, said that, "More people ought to have put these specific complaints to the Commission... The trouble is they didn't know who to complain to" (Q News 27.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 5/6]

Saudi flag on burger bag

There has been consternation over the use of the flag of Saudi Arabia on a special World Cup football promotional bag which is intended to be used by customers to transport their food away from the McDonald's store and then be thrown away, thus the bags are bound to end up in a common dustbin or even thrown in the gutter. The problem is that the flag carries the words of the shahada [the central statement of faith in Islam], which are from the Qur'an and as such must be treated with the greatest respect and, should the paper on which they are written be in need of disposal, it must be disposed of with a degree of dignity. In many Muslim countries there are special refuse collection services which cater for the disposal of printed paper containing Qur'anic verses. Following negotiations between the McDonald's company and the embassy of Saudi Arabia, the offending bags have been withdrawn and disposed of with dignity. They will be replaced with bags which do not bear the Qur'anic verse. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 6]

Racial abuse hotline

A new hotline has been introduced for victims of racial abuse in Coventry. It is being run by the Coventry Anti-Racial Harassment and Attacks Network which says that attacks have increased markedly in the last six months. It is hoped that 20 volunteers can be recruited to staff the hotline which hopes to be able to expand until it can offer a 24-hour service in the major community languages. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 6]

Is female circumcision Islamic?

The issue of female circumcision or female genital mutilation has been widely debated recently with firm stances against it being taken by Amnesty International, the International Monetary Fund and many leading women activists as well as television programmes in Britain focusing on Somali women. It is to be the discussed further in an autobiographical book by Aman entitled The Story of a Somali Girl, Bloomsbury, which is due to be published on 23rd June. The many facets of the issue were discussed in a full-page article by the international newspaper, the Guardian Weekly (22.05.94). This covered exploitation by those who sought to make money out of providing the operation, the ridicule to which circumcised women are subjected in British hospitals and the dangers of driving it underground in Britain so that people send girls back to Africa to have it done. The London Black Women's Health Project is holding a two-day conference on the subject in July entitled Change Without Denigration at which Dr Zaki Badawi of the Muslim College will "deliver an address emphasising that FGM [female genital mutilation] has no foundation in Islam". [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 6]

Health care and the elderly

A day-seminar on Health care and the elderly in Walthamstow was told that chronic heart disease and high blood pressure are 30% higher amongst people from Asian heritage than amongst the white population according to a report in the Daily Jang (03.06.94). The seminar went on to investigate some of the possible causes of this situation, which is often related to stress which in turn is frequently reported amongst minority communities due to racism and unemployment, and possible means by which trust could be established to help tackle it. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 6/7]

Conflict at Luton Mosque

The conflict in the Muslim community in Luton concerning the control of the Central Mosque (see BMMS for January and April 1994) shows no signs of abating. There have been warnings from the secretary of the Islamic Society, which supports the rejected imam, Maulana Abdul Aziz Chishti, that there will be further violence if the dispute is not settled (Dunstable Gazette 27.04.94). The forthcoming elections are not expected to settle the dispute as the Islamic Society does not agree that the composition of the ruling committee is a matter which can be decided by election. In the words of its secretary, Wilayat Hussain, "This mosque is a trust. People are chosen to sit on trusts on the basis of their integrity, honesty and hard work for the community. You can't simply elect any old Tom Dick or Harry to carry out such responsible roles" (Q News 20.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 7]

"Muslim Deaf Group"

The Deafview page of Teletext is sponsored by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) and carries a regular feature "Looking at Organisations". On 31.05.94 it featured the Muslim Deaf Group (see BMMS for April 1994), which is based in Leicester (tel. 0533 551929). It noted the difficulties faced by deaf Muslims which include the shortage of imams who can communicate in sign language and the fact that Muslim organisations do not produce information for deaf people. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 7]

Youths hire cars for races

Police in Manchester orchestrated an operation against youths from Asian families who hired high-performance cars from rental companies using false documents and then raced them on public roads during the early hours of the morning. In two raids, coinciding with the Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha, a total of £200,000 worth of cars were involved and 32 youths from Manchester, Edinburgh and London were detained. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 7]

Muslim's book denounced

A Muslim writer from Cardiff, Anwar Shaikh, claims to have received death threats and to be the subject of fatwas issued against him following the publication of his book Eternity which is "a philosophical work which examines Judaism, Christianity and Islam" (Wales on Sunday 29.05.94). Mr Shaikh, a retired property developer, has been likened to Salman Rushdie and has apparently been denounced in mosques throughout Britain. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 7]

Spiritual leader visits Britain

Syed Mohammed Jilani Ashraf Kichhouchhavi, from Lucknow in India, is currently making a tour of British mosques where he is regarded as an important spiritual leader. His spiritual and pacific teachings attract followers, not only amongst Muslims, but also amongst Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 7]

Muslim centre receives grant

The Muslim Resource Centre in Coventry received a cheque for £7,350 from the BBC Children in Need appeal fund to set up a creche to look after the children of women who want to follow part-time courses in the centre. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

"Healthy Careers" in Bradford

"Healthy Careers" is a training package developed in Bradford by a partnership of National Health and employment training groups which aims to promote jobs within the health service for people from the minority communities. It was launched and heralded as a major new initiative by Baroness Cumberledge, the health minister. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

TV actor experiences racism

Ahsen Bhatti, who plays the role of Dr Rajesh Rajah in the television series Cardiac Arrest, was interviewed in the Sun (26.05.94), where he spoke about the racism which he had experienced in growing up in Nottingham where his parents ran a corner shop. He had also experienced physical attacks and his white girl friend had been abused as a "Paki lover" when she walked out with him. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

Lord Latif of Harpole

Abdul Latif, a Bangladeshi-born restaurateur from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, decided that he "didn't just want to be Abdul Latif anymore - that's the Islamic equivalent of Joe Bloggs" (Q News 27.05.94), so he paid £5,500 for a redundant title which was originally created by William the Conqueror in 1086. From now on he will be Lord Latif of Harpole. He commented to reporters, "When I came to Britain I couldn't even say hello to the milkman, but now, I'm part of high society. It's a great honour." The title does not carry a seat in the House of Lords. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

Muslim magistrate appointed

Bradford celebrated the appointment of a Muslim teacher who had received her education there, Kauser Mirza, being appointed to sit as a magistrate in the London south eastern division. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

Report on women and health

According to an Equal Opportunities Commission report, women from ethnic minority communities are suffering double discrimination on account of their sex and their ethnic origins. Unemployment amongst white women is recorded at 6% compared to 16% amongst minority communities. Amongst highly-qualified women, the unemployment rate for white women is half that for women from minority communities. The report indicates that the problem will get worse unless action is taken as the traditional areas in which minority community women work are decreasing. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8]

Race attacks, Newcastle

The increase in racially motivated attacks against people from Asian heritage in Newcastle-upon-Tyne was investigated by The Independent (30.05.94). The report indicated that in the Elswick area of the city 20% of the population are from ethnic minority communities with a high proportion from the sub-continent. The communities in the area have become more polarised with houses dropping in value and becoming unsalable. Many houses are boarded up and others have elaborate security measures. The Shahjalal Mosque has been fitted with steel shutters to doors and windows after a petrol bomb attack and repeated stone-throwing incidents. Security guards had to be hired to protect worshippers attending the mosque during the month of Ramadan. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 8/9]

Increase in drugs abuse

The question of the increased incidence of drug abuse amongst young people from Asian families was noted in the Glasgow newspaper, the Daily Record (23.05.94). The impact of parental control was the subject of conflicting views. Some commentators held that parental control positively suppressed the rise in drug abuse whilst others posited the theory that parents were so engrossed in their business activities that they had too little time to exercise parental guidance over their children. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9]

EU beef distribution

Islamic associations in Blackburn have been responsible for organising the city's distribution of free tinned beef from the European Union stockpile (see BMMS for January 1994). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9]

Money for X-ray equipment

Elderly Muslims in Leicester collected £171 to present to the Lord Mayor of Leicester's appeal for X-ray equipment at the Royal Infirmary. The presentation was made at Eid ul-Adha celebrations. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9]

Continuing education for women

The Accrington and Rossendale College promoted a seminar on educational opportunities for women aimed at informing local women from Asian families about the possibilities for continuing education leading either to self-improvement or as a route into the employment market. Several such women who have benefitted from courses took part in the seminar to encourage their peers to consider the opportunities on offer. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9]

Amputated leg buried

An Arab cancer patient had to have a leg amputated in a private hospital in Glasgow. In order that the leg should not be incinerated, as is the normal practice, it was buried by members of the Glasgow Islamic community (Edinburgh Evening News 11.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9]

United Muslim voice

The call for Muslims to unite behind a common organisation issued by the Home Secretary (see BMMS for March and April 1994) led to the setting up of a National Interim Committee for Muslim Unity and a working party following a meeting called by the UK Action Committee on Islamic Affairs over the May Day weekend in Birmingham (Daily Jang 13.05.94). The aim of the committee is "to build functional unity around the common issues facing the British Muslim community to provide a common voice for their expression". The working party was charged with consulting widely with national, regional and local Muslim associations with a view to drawing up an agreed framework which would be discussed at a later meeting. The Convenor of the UKACIA, Iqbal Sacranie, was appointed Interim Convenor of the new committee.

Although it is reported that there were 55 Muslim groups represented at the Birmingham meeting, several prominent groups were not there including the Muslim Parliament and groups representing women, youth and "indigenous" Muslims. This led to some critical comments in Q News (13.05.94) where the absence of these groups was held to question the validity of the undertaking. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 9/10]

Race and Elections

Professor Muhammad Anwar, from the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations in the University of Warwick, is soon to publish a new book entitled Race and Elections: the participation of ethnic minorities in politics which will be available by July from the Centre (University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL) in their Monographs in Ethnic Relations series. Anwar's research shows that although only about 6% of the population of England and Wales is from the ethnic minorities, the fact that 70% of them are concentrated in the London boroughs and metropolitan districts makes them a significant electoral force. Based on their statistical representation, there should be 35 MP's from minority communities instead of the current six. The figures for local councillors are even more noteworthy as there are over 100 local government wards with 43% or more of their population drawn from minority communities yet there are only about 360 councillors out of a total of 23,000. A truer representation of minority presence would be about 1300 councillors. Anwar believes that none of the main parties has yet succeeded in integrating their minority constituents into their structures and he welcomes the positive action taken by the Labour Party to bring more women into parliament as a pattern which could widen the representation of minority communities. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 10]

Profile of Muslim youth

Following on from comments on the young Muslims of Tower Hamlets and Muslim youth in general, Q News devoted two pages to a profile of the condition and prospects of these young people from within (06.05.94). There was resentment against the crass media stereotyping of the community which is acknowledged to be especially badly hit by unemployment and bad housing. Education was seen to be the route out of these disadvantages and attention was drawn to a book by Hasina Zaman entitled Routes and Beyond, Voices from educationally successful Bangladeshis (1992). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 10]

Muslim rap group

An Edinburgh-based Muslim rap group, the "Cufic Poets", has attained a degree of success and acclaim over the last two years with their songs extolling the Scottish Asian perspective through which they attempt to explore some of the Islamic values which they feel are lacking in their wider society. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 10]

Fire brigade replace light bulb

The Gloucester fire brigade came to the rescue of Muslims at the mosque in All Saints Road when the light bulb at the top of the minaret needed changing and they could not reach it with a ladder. Firemen went up to the top of the minaret with the help of a turn-table ladder and repaired the light in time for it to be switched on for Eid ul-Adha. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 10]

The Dowager Lady Birdwood

The 80 year-old Dowager Lady Birdwood, who was recently sentenced to three months in prison (suspended for two years) for distributing a booklet likely to stir up racial hatred, was interviewed at length in the Daily Telegraph (04.05.94). Her comments displayed her disdain for people of colour and her desire to ensure that there is no intermingling of races. Multiculturalism was seen as a Communist-Jewish conspiracy and Muslims came in for singular attention as they are "breeding like flies". In the end she expects there to be a world battle for power between Muslims and Jews "over our dead bodies". The interview did not portray her in a credible or flattering light. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 10/11]

"Women-only" swimming

A swimming baths in Oxford has had to switch its Saturday "women-only" swimming session to Thursdays so that it can ensure that an all-female staff will be available. The session is popular with local Muslim women but its very existence has been challenged by a local man who has referred to European court judgements. Some local people have indicated that they regard the re-scheduling of the session as a minority ruling the majority. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

English tests for taxi drivers

An all-party committee of MP's has recommended an English language test for taxi drivers as part of proposed legislation to tighten up on private hire cars. Private hire drivers in Birmingham, where there is a high incidence of drivers from Asian families, are said to be worried as many, especially the older ones, have a limited command of the language. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

Lecturer alleges racial discrimination

A case has been brought before an industrial tribunal against Manchester University by one of its lecturers, Dr Asif Quereshi, alleging racial discrimination in the way that he has been treated with regard to his own status and promotion and in general with regard to recruitment for a vacant post. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

Dress codes at work

The issue of dress codes in employment was explored in an article in The Guardian (12.05.94). The complexities of the question were apparent. It appears that employers can insist that women employees wear a skirt provided that the regulations for men are "comparable" in their restrictions. However, a Muslim woman won a case before an industrial tribunal (Malik vs British Home Stores 1990) when she defended her right to wear trousers to work on religious grounds. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

Celebrating Eid ul-Adha

The celebration of Eid ul-Adha was reported from many communities around the British Isles. These included Ashton under Lyne, Bolton (a five-day festival in the greyhound stadium), Brent (where there was a large multiracial gathering in Wembley), Bradford, Cambridge (Muslim children sang an Eid song on local radio), Edinburgh, Halifax (local hajjis [people making the hajj pilgrimage] were noted and details of the pilgrimage were described), Keighley, Leicester, Luton, Manchester (two-day festival taking up the UN Year of the Family theme), Rochdale and Southampton (the local UK Islamic Mission president was profiled). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

Training translators for the NHS

Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust has teamed up with Bradford Task Force to run courses in Asian languages for potential translators to work in local hospitals to improve the service which they offer the community. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 11]

Sunrise to appoint Muslim scholar

In an effort to recapture their Muslim listeners and after the controversy about insulting remarks about Muhammad in a broadcast on 13th February (see BMMS for February and March 1994), Sunrise Radio (London) has announced that it will retain the services of a Muslim scholar to give regular programmes on the life of Muhammad. This has not pleased some Muslim listeners who have complained that the company's chief executive, in whom they have little confidence, will choose the scholar and that they will have no say in who should speak in the name of Islam on such a crucial question. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12]

Meeting of Muslim Parliament

The two year-old Muslim Parliament held its eighth session in London on May 7th/8th with 100 members present. A major focus of the meeting was a review of the progress to date of the Halal Food Authority. Other topics for debate were the place of Muslim independent schools, which were seen to be a drain on the limited resources of the community, Muslim Tutorial Schools and the plight of Muslims in Bosnia. The leader, Dr Kalim Siddiqui, spoke at some length about the record of the Parliament in achieving goals which others only spoke about and the institutional and business links with overseas Muslim communities. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12]

Anti-racist march, Manchester

Manchester Unity Committee, Manchester Trades Council and a newly-formed anti-racist group called Racial Attacks and Harassment in Manchester (RAHIM) organised a march through the city centre to draw attention to the increase in racially motivated attacks in the area. Four wreaths were carried to remember four Muslims who had been killed in racial attacks during the past eight years. Figures for racial attacks in 1993 show that they numbered 576 compared to 404 in 1992. This indicates that the Greater Manchester area has the highest incidence of racial attacks outside London (Q News 13.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12]

Inter-religious harmony, Southampton

A picture of inter-religious harmony was painted in an article on the work of a youth centre in Southampton where a variety of young people meet to relax together. The project includes Muslims, who are hoping to build a purpose-built mosque in the area, and Sikhs, who have recently completed the renovation of a former Salvation Army citadel (Southern Daily Echo 12.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12]

Imam takes woman into prison

An imam, who was a regular weekly visitor to Belmarsh Prison in Woolwich, took a young woman into the prison with him supposedly as his assistant on one of his regular visits. The purpose of the visit was to allow her some time alone with her recently married husband who is in the prison serving a sentence for drugs and weapons offences. The woman was not stopped, searched or questioned because the warders "relied on the imam's word" (Sun 05.05.94). As a result of the incident, the prisoners were all confined to their cells for 24 hours whilst a thorough search with dogs was carried out to ensure that nothing untoward had been brought into the prison. The imam has been banned from visiting the prison again. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12]

Shortage of female consultants

The shortage of female gynaecologists and consultants from minority communities was raised by a correspondent in Preston (Lancashire Evening Post 11.05.94) who reported that she had to travel outside the area to consult a woman gynaecologist. This led to a response from the local NHS Trust which reported that 10% of the local population is from minority communities whilst they make up 15% of their consultant staff. It was noted that only 10% of consultants are women but there were no women applicants for the two gynaecological posts advertised during the past nine years. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 12/13]

"Let's kick racism out of football"

The CRE, in conjunction with the Football Player's Association and the Football Trust, has launched the second phase of its "Let's kick racism out of football" campaign. The Football Trust, which was set up by gambling concerns to tackle social problems associated with football, contributed £50,000 to the campaign which will fund a magazine intended to recruit young people to the project which will be the focus of an awareness-raising national event on one of the fixture Saturdays next season. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13]

Women Conservatives

The Muslim Conservative Women's Association in Huddersfield arranged an "East meets West" evening when 80 women from the local community met and exchanged views and insights from their respective cultures. Several local politicians attended and ideas on Islamic and Western political thought were exchanged as well as anecdotes about trans-cultural experiences. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13]

Interfaith roundup

A Muslim and a Jewish family have been the prime movers behind establishing a multi-faith peace garden in Boston. The Nottingham Christian-Muslim Forum meeting on 3rd May discussed various economic theories. Speakers were Ibrahim Lawson and Roy McCloughry. The annual Inter-Faith Council breakfast in Bury took as its theme this year "Forward in Harmony". Speakers included Christians, Muslims and Jews and the breakfast was attended by 150 people including local civic figures. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13]

Chemist alleges racial discrimination

An industrial chemist, Dr Iqbal Khan, was dismissed from his senior research post with a chemical company two years ago and then re-employed by the same company as an assistant with a £6,000 pa reduction in salary. This led him to bring a case before an industrial tribunal alleging racial discrimination and unfair dismissal. The case was supported by the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union which successfully negotiated an out of court settlement with the company by which Dr Khan was given damages of £15,000, promoted two grades in his present post and assured that he would be considered for promotion. The company has also agreed to bring in advisers from the CRE to help with drawing up recruitment guidelines (Daily Jang 13.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13]

Islamic Conference, Burnley

Burnley College played host to an Islamic Conference at which people who were interested in Islam were invited to listen to a variety of speakers and enter into questions and discussion with them. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13]

Converts to Islam in Wales

People who have found meaning in their lives by converting to Islam were profiled in the weekly newspaper Wales on Sunday (08.05.94). One imam from Cardiff reported that he was receiving about six new converts each month who ranged from people who had married Muslims, through students, to Muslims who were rediscovering a faith which they had rejected. The process of conversion and the cultural difficulties with friends and families were explored through the accounts of people who had made the transition. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 13/14]

Asian youth conference

The "first ever Asian youth conference" is reported to have been organised by the Pehchan project and held in the Indian Community Centre in Nottingham (Daily Jang 06.05.94). The conference attracted people from various faith communities to discuss a range of issues including employment, justice, health, education, housing and families. The aim of the conference was to help young people to share resources to combat racism and cultural barriers. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 14]

Dealing with drug abuse

Three Department of Health leaflets which advise parents on dealing with problems of drug and solvent abuse have been translated into ten community languages to make them more accessible to minorities in Britain. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 14]

BCCI: Virani gaoled

Nazmu Virani, the Ismaili Muslim businessman who was once reckoned to be Britain's leading Asian businessman and amongst the country's richest people, was found guilty of false accounting and providing false information to the BCCI's auditors. The chairman of the £650m hotel and leisure group, Control Securities, was found guilty of signing a series of false documents which wrongly claimed that his chain of businesses owed money to the BCCI which gave the auditors the impression that the bank's finances were much healthier than they were in reality. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

In line with the terms of a deal worked out between the rulers of Abu Dhabi and the banking regulatory body in the United States, the former chief executive of the BCCI, Mohammed Swaleh Naqvi, who had been held in Abu Dhabi since 1991 and is awaiting sentence following a court case there over the collapse of the bank, was sent to the US to stand trial for fraudulent banking activities. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 14]

Rise in racial violence

The Newham Monitoring Project has reported that "Racial violence [in the area that it monitors] rose dramatically in terms of incidence and intensity in the last year" (Q News 20.05.94). Figures show that they dealt with 232 cases of racial harassment in 1993/4 compared to 198 in 1992/3. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 14]

Muslims and homosexuals

The article in the London Evening Standard (05.04.94) which explored the apparent pressure being brought to bear on Muslim girls in Tower Hamlets to wear the hijab (see BMMS for April 1994), provoked a response from Gay News (01.05.94) which focused on Muslim attitudes to homosexuals. It was noted that meetings discussing gay rights on university campuses were attended by Muslim questioners who sought to disrupt meetings on "progressive topics". The homosexual community was called upon to monitor this situation carefully. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 14]

Positive image of Muslim women

Following on from the Islamic Exhibition staged by Muslims in Trowbridge (see BMMS for January 1994), a Muslim woman of Moroccan family was profiled by The Wiltshire Times (28.04.94) in an effort to promote a more rounded image of women in Islam. Stress was laid upon the equality of women within Muslim society and the "statement" which was proclaimed by the wearing of hijab. The need for Muslims to improve their public image by adopting a higher profile was stressed by the woman, a management consultant, who pointed out that founding an image of Islam based on "extremists" was as misleading as basing an image of Christianity on the activities of Christians in Northern Ireland. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15]

Women in adult education

The Asian Women's Resource Association in Halifax staged a fashion show as part of Adult Learners' Week which was aimed at attracting more women from the Asian community into adult education. Many of the garments on display had been made by women working at home and they included examples of batik, embroidery, mirror work and sequin and bead work. It was hoped that this would boost the confidence of the home workers so that they might re-evaluate the contribution which they could make in passing on their skills to younger women. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15]

Muslims and community centre

The Pakistan Association in Leicester narrowly escaped being prohibited from using the Moat Community Centre for non-payment of rent. The County Council had to issue an ultimatum which was met with days to spare. There has been an element of tension over the use of the centre by Muslim groups which has led to conflict over alleged use as a mosque and a sit-in demonstration over closure during the Christmas vacation (see BMMS for December 1993). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15]

"Switch on to English"

The "Switch on to English" radio series, which was developed by Bradford and District Training and Enterprise Council and has already been used by 1400 people of Asian heritage in Bradford (see BMMS for October 1993), is to be given a wider audience with the hope that it will reach up to half a million listeners. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15]

Racist property salesman?

A London property salesman, based in the multi-racial Harlesden district, was interviewed on London Weekend Television where he said that he refused to "deal with Somalians, Nigerians and Algerians, 'cos its aggravation" (Q News 06.05.94). The man's employers suspended him for a month and dissociated themselves from his remarks. The three nationalities referred to "form the bulk of the estimated 8,000 refugees" in Brent and so the remarks were taken up by the Brent Islamic Forum where they were interpreted as being directly anti-Muslim, which interpretation was echoed in the Q News report. Concern was expressed that the CRE had not begun an action against the man. "What further proof does the CRE need that this person is a racist bigot - a big T-shirt saying `I hate all non-white people especially if they are Muslims?" [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15]

Yemeni/English family, Sheffield

The fighting in the Yemen has brought attention to Muslims from that country in Britain. The Sheffield Star (13.05.94) featured a long article on the children of an English woman who had married a Yemeni in 1956 and had ten children. Five of them, including three girls and two boys, had been taken back to Yemen by their father in 1972 as a result of his fears that they were losing touch with their Arab culture. The other five children grew up and remained in Britain. Both boys subsequently made their way back to Britain with the help of Yemeni travellers but the girls remained there where they were married into local mountain village families. The woman was divorced from her husband in 1974 and lost touch with her daughters. The children's father died in 1993 and four of the children went to the Yemen to seek out their sisters. Now the girls have made contact with their mother and asked to return to Britain but have been told that they will need to apply for British citizenship. The family now face the financial burden of trying to raise the funds to bring the girls back to Britain. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 15/16]

Oldham drug smuggler sentenced

A 20 year-old Oldham man, of Pakistani origin, has been sentenced to six years imprisonment and sent to a young offenders' institution after he was found to have £270,000 worth of heroin on him when he arrived at Manchester airport on a flight from Pakistan where he claimed that he had been given the drugs in a special waistcoat by a Pakistani policeman. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 16]

Muslim MP for Sparkbrook?

The Boundary Commission has now reported on changes to the parliamentary constituencies in Birmingham The impact of this on the possibility of a Muslim being elected to represent the safe Labour seat of Sparkbrook is noteworthy (see BMMS for April 1994). It has been decided that the current constituency of Birmingham Small Heath will cease to exist at the next general election. The voters will be divided amongst neighbouring constituencies with a significant proportion going to Sparkbrook. This will serve to increase the Muslim electorate in the new Sparkbrook constituency. However, the current MP for Small Heath will be without a seat to fight at the next election and will have a strong case to be selected for Sparkbrook. This will militate against a Muslim being selected for the seat. When the former Small Heath MP, Denis Howell, retired the present MP, Roger Godsiff, was selected after a closely fought contest with Councillor Muhammad Afzal, who has been mentioned in connection with the vacancy at Sparkbrook. Godsiff was selected in preference to Afzal on the strength of considerable union support. Since that time, the Labour Party has moved to a system of "one member, one vote", decided to take positive action to increase the number of women MP's and changed the relative representation in selection procedures between the unions and the local constituency. This means that a repeat selection battle between Godsiff and Afzal would be difficult to predict, without mentioning the other candidates who are likely to offer themselves for selection like Councillor Najma Hafeez. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 16]

Promoting anti-racist images

The leading advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, has linked up with the CRE to promote anti-racist images through publicity campaigns in Britain. The CRE is contributing only £40,000 over three years with the bulk of the money hopefully being provided by companies who want to be seen promoting equality of opportunity. The Saatchi aim is to create a climate where discrimination based on race and colour is rendered unacceptable through the weight of social pressure in the same way that smoking and drink-driving have been ostracised. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 16/17]

Muslims favour breastfeeding

Dr Abdul Majid Katme, the president of the Islamic Medical Association, noted National Breastfeeding Week by taking an advertisement in Q News (20.05.94) calling on all Muslims to join in marking this celebration of a practice prescribed by the Qur'an. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 17]

Oldham housing policy

The formal report by the Commission for Racial Equality into Oldham's housing policy, which found that it had exercised a policy of directing families of Asian origin into poorer quality housing (see BMMS for January 1994), has been disputed by Oldham Council. The Council has commissioned two independent reports which have called into question the methods used by the CRE in reaching its conclusions. Accordingly, it has asked the Home Office to expunge the slur.

The CRE claims to be mystified by the Council's attitude (Daily Jang 06.05.94) as it was kept fully informed during the two years that the study was conducted and co-operated fully with the research. The CRE has conducted 57 such formal enquiries since 1977. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 17]

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Updates

Education

Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

The Kuwaiti government has made a grant of £1m to fund scholarships at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. This will enable the Centre to offer funding to research projects which would otherwise be prohibited on economic grounds. The Kuwaiti move is seen as a result of the Prince of Wales' speech at the inauguration of the Centre in which he criticised the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq which occasioned the invasion of Kuwait and thus the Gulf War.

The Centre, which is currently housed in temporary wooden buildings and hopes soon to embark on the building of a permanent structure, has been asked to co-operate with two adjoining colleges, St Cross and Brasenose, both of which have plans to develop neighbouring sites, in an effort to produce a harmonised development scheme for the entire area. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 17]

Racism in schools

Prof Gajendra Verma of Manchester University, who served on the Swann Committee in 1985, criticised the lack of action against racism in schools in a BBC2 regional programme Close Up North (12.05.94). He noted, "If you are white, middle class, Protestant and male you will do extremely well. But if you do not meet these criteria, then you will have very little chance of succeeding in the system". In its report, the Manchester Evening News (12.05.94) commented "Multi-culturalism had been pushed to the sidelines due to the emphasis on the National Curriculum, the increasing autonomy of schools and the lack of government will". The situation in Oldham was regarded as being better where an Inspectors' report praised the positive multi-cultural approach across the whole curriculum. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 17]

Muslim girls and school uniform

A decision by the governors of Bretton Woods School, Peterborough, to allow Muslim parents to dress their daughters according to their religious principles and culture has sparked off a considerable row in the local press. The school specified that all clothing must be in the designated colours but gave flexibility over style. The Director of Education for Cambridge County Council whole-heartedly supported this move in a letter to the press (Peterborough Herald and Post 12.05.94) where he said, "I am writing to express my full support for the proposal to allow girls to wear dress appropriate to their religious beliefs. Indeed failure to recognise cultural differences might constitute unlawful indirect discrimination under the Race Relations Act, 1976. To avoid this a recent draft circular from the government recommends `that it should be possible, for example, for Muslim girls, who are required by their religion to cover their legs, to wear appropriate clothing in school uniform colours'. In its handbook for the inspection of schools, the Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools stresses the importance of having school policies that are `flexible in cases of social, linguistic or cultural needs'." [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 18]

School assemblies, Birmingham

The dispute over the provision of Islamic collective worship as an alternative for Muslim pupils in two primary schools in the Perry Barr district of Birmingham is moving towards a tentative resolution (see BMMS for January and March 1994). A private survey of Muslim parents at the Birchfield School indicated that 97% of them wanted Islamic worship. The parents' right to choice in this matter has been supported by the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education (PACE). A temporary solution has been reached at Birchfield School by which Islamic collective worship will be provided by members of the local Muslim community at the school's expense on four mornings per week as from 1st June. The situation at the other school, Canterbury Cross, has yet to be resolved. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 18]

Muslims and Sex Education

The whole issue of Sex Education is hotly discussed within society from governmental levels, through educationalists, to parents. As part of this discussion the Muslim weekly Q News contributed an editorial on the subject (06.05.94). It set out in detail the important place which education about sexual matters holds within the Qur'an and Islamic tradition, then turned to the issue of current trends in Sex Education. "Where modern educators go wrong is when they concentrate on the physical aspects, touching fleetingly on the emotional side and ignore the spiritual altogether." It concluded, "Perhaps no greater jihad awaits our community leaders - Imams, Maulanas, Shaykhs, Ulema, and parents - than being engaged in the debate on sex education. Equipping our young ones with the necessary armour of Islamic knowledge to deal with the issue of sex is not a matter of choice: it is a matter, literally, of life and death". [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 18]

Muslim boys' school, Leicester

Plans have been approved to convert former brewery offices in Loughborough Road, Leicester, into a Muslim boys' boarding school catering for up to 120 boys aged 12 years and over. The project is sponsored by the Leicester Dar ul-Uloom and will concentrate on religious education plus the National Curriculum. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 18]

Kuwaitis visit IT department

Two senior representatives from the Kuwait Department of Education visited a Gloucestershire school as part of a government-arranged visit to see how computers were being used in education in Britain. This is part of an inter-governmental plan to support the Kuwaitis in rebuilding their educational system after the Gulf War. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 18/19]

Blackburn school seeks to opt-out

A petition has been signed by 200 Muslim parents at the Beardwood Secondary School in Blackburn requesting that a formal ballot be held to test whether there is a will for the school to opt-out of LEA control and become grant-maintained. The idea has been opposed by governors in the past but under government regulations, if 20% of the school's parents petition for a ballot it must be held. That proportion has been achieved by the Muslim parents and so a ballot must now be staged. The parents think that by going grant-maintained the school will be able to improve its standards and give their children a better education. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 19]

National Curriculum review

The government has published draft proposals for a review of the National Curriculum and invited all interested parties to submit comments and suggestions in the period up to 29th July. This prompted a Q News editorial (13.05.94) calling for Muslim educationalists to take up the challenge of making a response covering all areas of the curriculum based on Islamic principles. The editorial pointed out that much of the Islamic contribution to state education has been confined to the Religious Education question which has succeeded in reinforcing the general Western approach of dividing the curriculum into "secular" and "religious" subjects. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 19]

Bradford Muslim Girls' School

The governors of the Bradford Muslim Girls' Community School are to launch an appeal for £215,000 to refurbish the new building which they have acquired from Bradford LEA on a peppercorn rent (see BMMS for October 1993 and January, February and March 1994). Between £25,000 and £30,000 have been pledged to date but £100,000 will be needed to make the building habitable ready for the proposed occupation in September of this year. The remaining £115,000 will be needed to complete the work.

The school has applied to the DfE for voluntary aided status. This application has the backing of local and national politicians, the LEA, the local community and church leaders. The two-month statutory period for local consultation ended on 26th May and no objections were lodged. A meeting between school leaders, LEA officials and the DfE is scheduled for early in June. The local MP, Max Madden, has been pushing the DfE for an early response so that the future of the school can be secured. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 19]

Education trust for Karachi

Rizvi Alig, a London-based Pakistani who spent much of his life working for the DES, has sunk almost all his superannuation money into founding an educational trust in Karachi. The trust will offer 50 scholarships each year for both male and female students at Karachi schools and colleges. Mr Alig is reported to have been inspired by the example of Mohammad Ali Jinnah who donated his estates to further education in Pakistan. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 19]

Bristol single-sex schools to close

Avon County Council education committee has approved a plan to close the last two single-sex schools in Bristol and to amalgamate them as a mixed school as from September 1994. The plan has now been forwarded to the Secretary of State for Education for his final approval. The merger has been occasioned by falling rolls at both schools. Local Muslims are opposing the closure of the single-sex schools as their daughters will now have to attend the new mixed school or commute to Bath which still has a girls' school. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 19]

Independent Schools' RE

The new RE syllabus recommended for use in independent schools in Britain, which includes the study of major world religions in addition to Christianity, was launched on 24th May. It recommends that Christianity plus two from a list of five religions, including Islam, should be taught but leaves the balance between the amount of time devoted to each to the judgement of the individual school based on their particular circumstances. It is recommended that RE should have a total of around 5% of curriculum time. The chairman of the group who drew up the syllabus, the Revd. Peter Jackson who is chaplain at Harrow, said, "We do not believe that the term `religion' means much unless its diversity is appreciated" (Daily Telegraph 25.05.94). [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 20]

Further difficulties at St Philip's College

St Philip's Sixth Form College, Birmingham, which was at the heart of a dispute last year over facilities for Muslim students to pray (see BMMS for September and October 1993), has been in the news again with yet more controversy. The problems focus around a difference in perception about the function of a Catholic College in a multi-faith city. The staff have seen their function as providing a multi-faith, multi-cultural education within a Christian setting but some traditional governors want the college to close in its present form because it does not have a sufficiently "Catholic" atmosphere because so many of the students are from other religious traditions or none. The Principal has been suspended following a number of disagreements with governors (The Independent on Sunday 22.05.94) and staff have been threatened with disciplinary action. Now the Secretary of State for Education has ordered a full top-level enquiry headed by Sir John Caines, the former permanent secretary at the DfE. It is thought that the Secretary of State might use his powers to remove governors from their control of the college. The earlier plan to re-establish the college on a new site, that formerly occupied by a Church of England school, has collapsed after the Further Education Funding Council decided that it would not pay for such a move. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 20]

Batley madrassah approved

After protracted negotiations and in the face of considerable opposition (see BMMS for March and April 1994) the planning authority has finally approved plans to use a former residential house as a madrassah for up to 25 people for a period of two years. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 20]

Multicultural school link-up, Blackburn

The entire roll of 30 pupils from a tiny village primary school in the rural Ribble Valley were guests of a multi-cultural primary school in Blackburn where the vast majority of children are from Asian families. This visit was part of a two-way pupil exchange which in turn forms part of a series of interactivities between the schools during the past year. The pupils have experienced the difference in lifestyle and culture between the two communities from which they come. The visit to Blackburn was timed to coincide with Eid ul-Adha so that the village children could celebrate with their Muslim hosts. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 20]

Mixed dance class

The Muslim boy, who has been away from school in Slough for two months after refusing, on Islamic grounds, to take part in an aerobic dancing class in which boys and girls danced in the same room (see BMMS for April 1994), has returned to the school in question after the matter was resolved following a prolonged series of meetings between the boy, his parents, the headteacher and governors. The dance class is not timetabled for the boy's group this term and it has been agreed that in any future dance lessons, the boy will be allowed to dance behind a modesty screen which will shield him from the girls' sight (Slough & Langley Observer 06.05.94). In commenting on the incident, the Muslim weekly Q News (20.05.94) noted that none of the other Muslim parents in the school, which is reported to draw about 70% of its pupils from families of Asian heritage, objected to the dance provision or supported the lone Muslim objector. This led Muslim educationalists to comment on the lack of parental and community support which they faced when trying to argue for Islamic principles to be respected in educational provision. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 20/21]

Mosques

Bradford

A derelict Grade II listed building which was formerly a club has been awarded planning permission for conversion into a centre for use by overseas students and the home community in the Claremont district of Bradford. The £400,000 project will include five flats for student use, recreation facilities, classrooms and assembly halls. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21]

Bradford

Following a site inspection by members of the planning committee, permission has been given for the proposed extension to the Tawakkuliah masjid in the Manningham area (see BMMS for January 1994). There was a division of opinion amongst councillors as to the suitability of the design which one held to be of "air-raid shelter architecture" whilst another thought that the proposed dome and minaret would be attractive. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21]

Cardiff

After seven years in planning, the Yemeni community centre has finally been completed and opened next to the Butetown mosque. The project cost a total of £265,000 which was raised by contributions from the local community, a Yemeni businessman and through grants from the city council, county council and the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. The centre houses education and recreational facilities as well as an assembly hall. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21]

High Wycombe

The Jamia Rehmania Educational and Cultural Trust has applied for planning permission to convert a former pub into a Muslim community centre. The pub has been closed since 1991 and has been subjected to vandal and arson attacks during the interim. The present owners, Grand Metropolitan, intended to re-open it until a serious fire there earlier this year. Planning officers are recommending that the application be approved but Muslim leaders are waiting for a final decision before making any further comment. There has been some concern locally that the building will only serve part of the community in the future and that an additional community centre might draw public funds away from existing projects. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21]

High Wycombe

Two years ago, outline planning permission was given for a £1m mosque project to be built in Bowerdean Road. The plans call for a prayer room, lecture facilities, a library, mortuary and sports facilities. An appeal has been launched calling for local people to contribute a minimum of £100 each. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21]

Halifax

Planning permission has been granted for a two-storey building next to the Madni Mosque in Gibbet Street. The building would serve as an over-spill prayer hall during major festivals and as an educational centre throughout the year. The sum of £59,000 has been raised over the last few weeks to enable the project to be started. The estimated cost of the finished building is about £350,000. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 21/22]

Leicester

In spite of an adverse recommendation from planning officers, planning permission has been granted for the building of a two-storey education and community centre in the Highfields district (see BMMS for December 1993). The Muslim Welfare Trust received considerable public support from local residents and politicians. The planning officers' objections had been based on the loss of recreational amenities currently on the site and fears that the new building would dominate other buildings in the area. Permission is subject to an agreement on parking arrangements. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

Oldham

A new purpose-built mosque, the first of its kind in the town, has been opened in the Glodwick district. It cost £500,000 and was built by a non-profit-making firm of builders. It contains a prayer hall, mortuary and three classrooms. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

Oldham

Plans for two mosques were turned down by the planning committee. The first was in Stuart Street where the local Bangladeshi community wanted to convert two houses in a terraced block into a mosque. It was felt that there would be too much disturbance for neighbours with early morning prayers in such a confined area. The second proposal was to convert two terraced houses in Lees Road into a mosque but it was felt that there was already too much traffic congestion in the area. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

Stevenage

A decision regarding the controversial plan to build a mosque in the Pin Green district has been postponed until the end of June (see BMMS for December 1993). There has been considerable local objection culminating in a petition delivered by a local Conservative councillor to the MP. This resulted in a referral to the Department of the Environment which decided that the local council should be the relevant competent authority. The planning committee met on 26th April and decided that the issue was of such moment that it should be decided by the higher Environment and Development Committee. This does not meet again until 22nd June. It has been noted that this is after both local and European elections. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

Swindon

The provision of a suitable site for a mosque in Swindon came a step closer on 23rd May when the policy and resources committee of Wiltshire County Council decided in favour of selling part of the site in the North Star district to the Muslim community at a price well below the current market value (see BMMS for August and September 1993 and April 1994). The plan must now be approved by the Environment Secretary who must agree to the sale of council land at a reduced price. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

Wakefield

Roof girders have been laid in place on the first purpose-built mosque to be erected in Wakefield. The project has been two years in the building to date and has cost £95,000 so far. To complete the project will take a further estimated £300,000 and an appeal has been launched to the whole population of Wakefield to join in fund-raising. When completed the mosque will serve not only as a place for prayer but will also contain classrooms, a mortuary, communal rooms and offices for advisory services. [BMMS May 1994 Vol. II, No. 5, p. 22]

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