The Possibilities of Privilege

Yesterday, I went along to the Oxford & Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, London to a networking/social event held by the Oxbridge Muslim Alumni. The OMA has had a storied history going back about a decade with several well-intentioned management teams lasting an enthusiastic couple of years before life caught up with them and the OMA had to take a back-seat. As a former Secretary, it happened to me too*.

Mingling as we did yesterday, surrounded by the very tasteful interior decor of the O&C Club, it was quite easy to recognise that every single person in the room was in an uncommon and closed-off position of privilege. Everyone I spoke to seemed comfortable. Perhaps not happy but firmly comfortable and assured. Naturally, each person will have their own issues, but certainly with the environment and the atmosphere, it was several worlds away from the Children of Adam homeless food project that I help out with.

Privilege is a tricky beast to control and can be used for positive or for negative. We've seen very recently with the release of the Panamanian Mossack Fonseca Papers just how much privilege and access can be used to preserve that privilege for a select few. When a lone miser, who has been blessed with the light of a candle and doesn't use it to help others if they can, the world may not notice. But when many candles are hidden away, the world becomes a much darker place for everyone. Inequality has existed in all previous societies and, given scarcity of economic resources, will probably always exist. But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying to make a difference.

Which brings us back to OMA and other similar networks/communities. I had a really enjoyable evening reminiscing about university life with old friends, making new friends from the Other Place and I was very pleased to hear that the access and mentoring dreams of the previous incarnations of OMA are still strong in the new committee.

It's an excellent use of initiative to set up these kind organisations and I strongly believe they should do the best they can to help and develop their members but that in the long term it's vital to help others gain access to that privilege. When you've seen the abyss and you've seen the summit, it'd take a very cold soul to insist that people shouldn't be helped to climb to the top. To paraphrase from Spiderman - with great privilege comes great responsibility.

* The year was 2010 and I was innocent, fresh-faced, bright-eyed, had left Cambridge only the year before and was determined to try and continue the community that I'd gotten so involved with when I was Vice President of the University Islamic Society. My involvement lasted 3 up-and-down years and ended when I moved away from the hub of all things important (London).

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Learning and Commitment through Arabic

I returned to term 3 of my Arabic evening class on Monday this week. Several weeks had passed since the end of the previous term and despite my best intentions to revise and study all the material we'd worked through so far, I went to class without having opened the satchel-bag I use to carry my study material. I also happened to be running late.

A quick chat with a couple of my fellow students reassured me that I was not the only one hoping our teacher would go easy on us and as it happened we spent most of the lesson going over what we had studied previously. Given her experience as a teacher, I'd be quite surprised if our lack of diligent studying came as a surprise! Long story short, I survived and lived to post about it on Facebook.

I had reason to regret my lack of study the very next day. On Tuesday, I went along to a networking event organised by the PWC Muslim Network hoping to gain information and advice which might help in my efforts to start a Muslim network at my current employer. After the customary introductions and speeches reviewing the world economy and the state of the Middle East, there was a brief Q&A session with the guest speakers, followed by a buffet dinner and the networking.

Having eaten and drunk a decent amount of caffeine, my initial post-work lethargy had receded and I was in a networking state of mind. I chatted to some strangers and played the ethnicity guessing game (which is always a nice ice breaker), I made some new acquaintances and had some traditional Oxbridge banter with an Oxonian I came across and also sought out the PWCMN committee members from whom I was hoping to acquire valuable information and insight into the challenges of setting up a professional network. 

While doing my rounds, however, I stumbled upon a group who were chatting merrily away when I heard one of them mention Arabic classes. My interest aroused, I elbowed my way into the conversation and said something like "Ahlan" in my best arabic, hoping to dazzle them with my linguistic brilliance. It turned out the group was mostly Arab and fluent in Arabic. They were very gracious and we glossed over my very limited Arabic and rapidly moved on to more conventional networking conversation.

All in all, a fairly productive evening as I did made some good connections which should help in my Muslim network effort. But mostly I came away feeling that my awkward encounter with Arabs had highlighted my novice status and that any sort of learning should be done with serious intention and serious effort and serious commitment. Anything less and I'm doing myself a serious disservice. 

Previous post: Brussels 

No fancy title today.

For most of today I was avoiding the details...

Next post: The Possibilities of Privilege
Yesterday, I went along to the Oxford & Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, London to a networking/social event held by the Oxbridge Muslim Alumni. 

Brussels

No fancy title today.

For most of today I was avoiding the details of today's explosions in Brussels. I read about it on a few WhatsApp groups early this morning when it was just hitting the news and my immediate thought was "Oh no, not again". It is definitely sad news whenever anything like this happens and being closer to home it obviously got a lot more press attention than the Istanbul bombings only a few days earlier.

As the day wore on I did glance at headlines every now and again and on each occasion the death toll rose. Initial reports came out as 13 dead which was later revised to 23 and now stands at 30+ with a significant number more with injuries.

However, alongside the death toll, the level of rhetoric appearing in headlines was also rising. As the news spread across the world I saw reports about US Presidential nomination candidates making misguided and uninformed claims and comments from media personalities known for their hate-mongering. A lot of it was very predictable as each sought to milk the horror for their own benefit.

It did take a while for the facts to settle down and very early on I remember seeing a comment on a WhatsApp group lamenting reports that "Arabic had been heard". The obvious connection, though not stated explicitly, was that Arabic was heard therefore it must be Islamist terrorism. The question that gave pause to my mind was that while it may well be true, whoever witnessed it must have recognised Arabic and for that to happen they had to have understood what was being said? But if that were the case they'd have been able to say what was being said. No one seemed to know what had been said - just that Arabic had been heard. Or was it simply a case of a witness heard something shouted in a language he/she didn't recognise and felt that it sounded like Arabic and put that out to journalists?

Be that as it may, the terrible events have now been claimed by IS, another in a series of attacks they've made on the world.

Beyond the immediate pain of the victims and their loved ones, the saddest part is that we'll all end up suffering. While walking up a stairwell at work I overheard a group of women discussing how they felt unsafe being in London and later on a company-wide email was sent out stating that additional security protocols had been implemented given our location in the centre of London between two very busy train stations.

As time wore on and no new blasts were reported, life carried on though with a detectable increase in anxiousness in the everyday person as those who seek to divide us pushed hard to break our wall of human unity. The only solace and sliver of hope to take from today is that for the most part the wall held strong and people came together to help the immediate victims but also to condemn those who would exploit the situation.


Previous post: Bearing Witness
I was fortunate enough today to witness a man accept Islam....

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I returned to term 3 of my Arabic evening class on...

Bearing Witness

I was fortunate enough today to witness a man accept Islam. I turned up as usual to my regular Wednesday Qur'an study circle to find three strange men sitting at the back of the room. I smiled, mouthed hello and then promptly forgot about them. I continued to forget about them until the imam, Ajmal Masroor, called them over and explained to the rest of us that the middle of the three men was actually here to convert/revert to Islam.

Immediately I was excited. I'd seen recordings of declarations of faith and heard about them and have friends who've done it but in 27 years of hanging around Muslims I hadn't seen one myself! I took out my phone to make notes on the proceedings. In hindsight, the soon-to-be Muslim probably thought it was the height of rudeness for me to be texting on my phone during such a huge moment in his life. But that didn't occur to me and I wanted to remember what happened and prepared to note down extensive detail. I knew the procedure was quite straightforward but I was still surprised to see how simple it was in practice. My notes were as follows:

• State name.
• Confirm no coercion.
• Say the shahada* - repeated after imam.
• Welcome to Islam.

*This is the Islamic declaration of faith "ašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾilla (A)llāh, wa ʾašhadu ʾanna Muḥammada(n) rasūlu (A)llāh", which means: "I testify that there is no god except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

And just like that, in the space of 20 seconds, the man had gone from an agnostic to a Muslim, from a stranger to a brother. We all gave him a hearty hug, congratulated him and welcomed a new believer to the fold. Shortly after which, the three men took their leave and departed. And that was that. (In the fullness of time, the man will receive a Certificate Of Conversion from the mosque as "proof" but that's something to hang on the wall, not an official or necessary document.)

Amazing to experience and amazing to be a part of and something I'll not forget soon. However, it did make me think about the profound nature of declaring faith. Words are easy to say but to internalise the meaning of declaring belief in God is a whole different ballgame and something that needs serious work and effort.

After the man had declared his faith, the imam pointed out that Islam and the Qur'an took 23 years to be revealed and perfected so while he should make an effort, he shouldn't rush to make changes to his life that would be immediately burdensome. A gradual approach, one step at a time will be more productive, have far more longevity and help to make the belief more concrete and will, in the fullness of time, save his soul.

Previous article: To Brexit or not to Brexit?
The referendum announced last week by the British Prime Minister....

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For most of today I was avoiding the details of today's explosions in Brussels...

To Brexit or not to Brexit?

The referendum announced last week by the British Prime Minister David Cameron immediately led to lines being drawn and allies being sought in the corridors of power. 23rd June is the date which means we'll have a lot more sniping and political manoeuvring as individual politicians decide which side they want to support and we'll have a lot more 'analysis' from media types who try and explain why so-and-so has decided in what way they have.

Image taken from here

If you're into this sort of thing it makes for fascinatingly great reading/listening as individual and personal ambitions override, get conflated or get confused with national responsibility. Almost like a real-life Game of Thrones except there's an even wider range of characters and plots are even more convoluted. Naturally, it's expected that politicians and business leaders will make noise over the issue but it seems like everyone and their mother will want their view heard. Just today we had some scientists who want to stay in and some who want to get out.

In many respects the arguments for and against are very similar to those we heard in the Scottish Independence referendum. Very simply Leave the Union and it's all either uncertain or a reclamation of our nation or stay in the Union and prosper as you have been or be forever bound to your foreign overlords. In the Scottish referendum the Stay campaign won and life generally continued as before except in a moment of panic the British government proposed to implement a whole raft of policies which would benefit Scotland - though as I write I'm unsure if these have been followed through. I suspect not entirely.

I expect similar for the EU referendum. Up until now David Cameron has been using the threat of Brexit to help in re-negotiating the treaty that keeps the UK in the EU. Having now concluded the negotiations he has to deliver his side of the bargain and keep the country in. So he'll make his case and the Leave campaign will make theirs and with every passing day the arguments will become more and more hyperbolic and doom-mongering and end up confusing most of the populace who will get annoyed and I think will end up voting along two lines:

• Stay in for continued economic security.
• Leave and bravely reclaim your country.

I'm not seeing these are correct claims (we saw them used in the Scottish Referendum as well). We'd probably have just as much continued economic security outside the EU and we'd still have to deal with Europe for trade and politics even if we did leave. But I think it's too much to ask for the average voter to care enough to read every single viewpoint and come up with a reasoned and balanced view. People vote for government (or at least have a government) so we don't have all have to deal with the politics of power and can free up time to be productive instead. Either way, there will be lots of spin on both sides as each attempts to persuade but it's worth remembering that since neither side actually knows what the future holds it's all a lot of bluster and bluff and people saying what they think is best - not what they know is best. I fully expect that after the vote people on different sides will point to events that happen and use them as proof their side was correct - hindsight is a wonderful thing.

So anyway, I'm calling a 65-35 vote in favour of staying in. From what little I've seen and read of the world, I'd say people care more for their perceived economic status than their perceived independence. As yet I'm undecided which one I care more about but certainly I'll be voting!

Make sure you register to vote.

Previous post: Tax and Google

Tax and Google

On 2 February 2016, Alphabet (Google's parent company) overtook Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. Valued at over £320 billion it's an absolutely huge company with fingers in a huge number of pies around the world. However, this extraordinary achievement was overshadowed in the UK with Google's ongoing tax avoidance saga.

In a very quick nutshell: Google recently agreed a tax bill of £130million with the UK taxman (HMRC) to cover underpayment for the past decade. No sooner had this been agreed than it was treated as an outrage by many groups. Two major reasons were cited - that it was still an underpayment given the scale of the company's activities in the UK and it was rumoured to be a significantly lower figure than that agreed by Google France with the French taxman.

This past week the head of Google Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was hauled in front of the UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee to answer questions question about Google's tax arrangements. Judging from all the press reports it seems it was quite a fierce grilling but didn't actually get anywhere to persuading Google to cough up and pay a bigger bill. There was some bluster and weak attempts to make it look like Google was a nice fluffy company which wasn't trying to avoid paying tax but Google's main argument was more or less "we're paying what we are required to pay by the laws that are in place and we've agreed the figure with HMRC".

The line of defence is pretty robust. However they've gone about it and whatever clever accounting methods and legal practices they've used, they've come to an agreement with the tax collectors/investigators and the company intends to pay that figure. The government can enforce a tax payment - it is not a charity that is raising funds thanks to its donors' better nature. Those who presume to rule in government have set the tax system and it's on them to enforce compliance. If the tax system is complicated enough that sharp accountants can find loopholes and legally avoid paying tax then that is a problem with the tax system not with the company that's trying to reduce its' tax burden.

If the government is unhappy with its tax receipts it can change the tax system - though it will then have to live with the consequent effects on how businesses and people change their behaviour, for example by moving their trading centres to different countries. Changes are starting to happen - there are now moves within the EU to clamp down on the avoidance privileges enjoyed by international companies who have been using the different tax systems in different countries to their benefit. And since the whole EU is being coordinated together on this companies can;t simply hop from one country to another to get around the change. Seems to me like a good move and a far more effective way to ensure companies pay an acceptable* level of tax than lecturing them on how immoral they are for avoiding tax.

* Acceptable to the tax collectors. Whatever level they do pay someone somewhere is going to be unhappy!

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Previous post: Free English lessons are a good thing

Free English Language lessons are a good thing

Image taken shamelessly from here

A large number of feathers were needlessly ruffled on Monday following David Cameron's announcement of English Language lessons for Muslim women and those arriving in the UK on spousal visas.

My Facebook newsfeed and various WhatsApp groups were full of outrage, vitriol and anger that the Prime Minister was providing money for free English Language lessons. The absolute cheek of it! People were posting their personal accounts of how "my mother/father knew little English and look how successful I turned out" as though their personal experience meant something and generally condemning the idea of free education for those who could benefit from it as a terrible thing.

You might have guessed by now that I think the reaction was ridiculous and misdirected and missed a fundamental point about politics - very rarely does anyone say what they actually mean.

The BBC article on the story (also with audio to an interview where he explains his position) begins as follows:

A £20m fund to teach Muslim women in the UK to speak English will tackle segregation and help them resist the lure of extremism, David Cameron says.

While there was no "causal connection" between poor English and extremism, language lessons would make communities "more resilient", Mr Cameron said.

And later on in the article:

The PM acknowledged cuts had been made to free language classes for immigrants during the last Parliament, but said the new £20m fund was "more targeted". 

As mentioned above, some of the outrage was from people who had personal anecdotes of success despite coming from families with little English. I've used "despite" rather than "while" because I think it'd be detrimental to not speak the language of the land you live in.

Taking pride in not knowing something seriously annoys me. Coming from a mathematical background it's hugely irritating when people are proud of not knowing Maths or being able to do simple arithmetic. I frown upon ignorance in the life skill there and I will frown upon people who take pride in ignorance in essential communication. Pride in ignorance is ridiculous and should be shunned wherever it raises its ugly head.

Other parts of the outrage was directed at the conflation of poor English and extremism. I can understand the outrage here - it's blatantly nonsense to think that poor English leads to extremism. This is explicitly pointed out in the second quoted paragraph by Cameron himself - a point which seems to have been missed by most people.

So why would he say that it's to fight extremism and then contradict himself? Either because he's an idiot or because he's a politician and he knows what he's saying doesn't make sense but also that the media will report the first bit and give the contradiction less air-time. And if it's reported as being an anti-extremist policy he'll have a much easier time of gathering support for an initiative that will help a much maligned group of people.

If he'd come out and said simply "we've cut £45m from the ESOL budget a few months ago but we made a mistake and the government will now allocate £20m funding to give free English language lessons to immigrants and Muslims so they can have greater opportunity" the reaction would have been favourable in the Muslim community but sadly toxic across much of the media and electorate. No politician in their right mind is going to take that approach.

So what has happened?

In a nutshell - what has happened is that Cameron has been quite politically astute. In an era of budget cuts, he has secured £20m of funding aimed at teaching Muslim women and immigrants (who speak other languages) to read and write English. And by claiming it's for anti-extremism purposes the only people who are upset about this is the Muslim community that will end up benefitting the most from the fund - the Muslim community could do with the extra education.

Another interesting observation is that it seems the excuse of extremism cuts two ways. Call a policy anti-extremist and most of the electorate won't bat an eyelid and if no one's paying attention then you can, at least politically, do whatever you like. There's no denying that most of the time the anti-extremism label doesn't help but it seems that in the odd case it can actually lead to a benefit.


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