Seeking Identity in London

“We came to London, ‘cause in Göteborg (Sweden) there wasn’t much for Muslims”, the young man in his 20s was telling me. “Here we have more opportunities to practice our religion”, He went on to say.

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The young man’s name was Kamal [1], a devout Shia from a Khoja community in London [2]. He was born in Sweden. His family immigrated to the UK when Kamal was 11.
Boshar - Kamal’s brother, sitting next to him - was listening to our conversation with a smile on his face. Boshar, aged 28, was a Computer engineer, working for a British construction company in London.
He told me how his co-workers reacted to his refusal of drinking beer. "They found it odd", Boshar said with a smile on his face. “The most important thing is to make them sure that your refusal is not ‘cause you don't care about them. But because your faith has obliged you not to drink alcohol”, He continued.
Their father, hereafter Mr. Bhojani, was an Indian who immigrated to Uganda in mid-60s with his parents. During the ruling of Uganda's brutal dictator, Idi Amin, they, among many other Indians, has immigrated to Europe. Mr. Bhojani's destination was Sweden.
Mr. Bhojani also had a daughter. Her name was Fatima. She was 16 years old and was going to school in London.
As a European born teenager it is not always easy for her to wear Hijab. “Sometimes school kids make fun of me”, she said. “They thought I had a problem with my hair that I cover it with scarf”.
But it is not always the case with Bhojani family. Boshar and Kamal also gave me many examples of understanding people who respect and care about their beliefs.

***

Boshar, Kamal and Fatima are known as Third-Generation immigrants. “The First generation is made up of people who initially came to Europe to
work. They are now aged 60 or more. The Second generation is made up of the children of those people. They were born outside Europe and came at a very young age, or they were born in Europe. They are aged between 30 and 50. The Third generation is made up of the children of the Second generation. They were born in Europe and they are less than 30 years old” [3].
These Third-Generation girls and boys, all are growing up, going to school, socializing, making friends and working in Europe. Still the only thing makes people call them Europeans is their place of birth.
They stick firmly to their ancestral and familial values. They develop their distinctive identities, far from what western societies, where they’re living in, expect them. They defy the common rules of society to distinguish themselves from mainstream currents.
They reproduce their “selves” in the collective identities of their communities. Religion, here Islam, is a mighty source of preserving their cultural and communal identities.
But it is not always, as some Western commentators inclined to say, a source of fundamentalism and radicalism. Both these phenomena diverge considerably from what I described as an identity seeking process in a postmodern world of uncertainties.


[1] For privacy matters, names are not real. Also any direct clue to their real life has been changed.
[2] Khojas are a (mostly Muslim) community that are mainly concentrated in South Asia, but due to migrations over the centuries have spread to many parts of the globe.
[3] Moniquet, Claude (2005). The radicalization of Muslim youth in Europe: The reality and the scale of the threat. European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. Available from: http://www.cpt-mi.org/pdf/IslamicExtremism_EuropeMoniquet.pdf