DEALING WITH MERITOCRACY IN DEMOCRACY
479
Faced with intransigence, the democratic instinct is usually to appease.
Separate Muslim education has been allowed in principle, and the first two
exclusively Muslim schools are now open.
Iran, and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Libya, con–
tinue to sponsor groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Hizb ut-Tahrir and the
Al-Kifah Society, who all advocate Muslim separatism in Western coun–
tries. Banned in the Middle East, Hizb ut-Tahrir claims the right of free
speech in Britain in order to dedicate itself to a unified Islamic state in
Europe and beyond. Its meetings provoke violence. Its publications are
uncompromisingly imperialist, repeating the message-and this is a quo–
tation from a recent editorial: "Allover the world the twin evils of
freedom and democracy have wreaked havoc with people's lives."
Westerners who fail to mend their ways voluntarily will be forcibly converted.
It is hard to decide whether separatism of this sort has been contained
so far more by luck or by common sense. No British Muslim is known to
have made any attempt to obtain the immense reward offered for the
killing of Rushdie. There were no disturbances in schools, even in those
where Muslim pupils predominated. The Jama'at at-Tabligh emphasis on
spirituality encouraged the Rushdie affair to fizzle out inconsequentially,
exposing the extremism of the separatist groups.
The rising generation of immigrants is losing familiarity with the
country of origin, its language, and even its customs. "I had an arranged
marriage," a young woman writes in
Trends,
which decribes itself as
"Britain's Biggest Selling Muslim Magazine." Her specific case expresses
for many the sorts of strains inherent in an integration which is already
irreversible. Her husband will not let her study for a career. "I have tried
to discuss this wi th him but he has a hundred and one excuses ready. He
makes me cry but still he won't change his mind. I am very unhappy and
feel that I have sacrificed so much and given up my youth."
Recent Research on the Achievements
of
Ethnic Minority Pupils
is the title of
a publication in late 1996 by the Office for Standards in Education, another
of the myriad quangos which the topic of education attracts. This report
represents the line of the contemporary educational and academic establish–
ment in all its sincerity and confusion. Acknowledging that there is "little
indication of overt racism in relations among pupils," the report goes on to
insist that all racial groups must perform equally. Should this not be the case,
then racism is to blame, not culture, and above all not the individual himself.
White pupils in fact sometimes perform worst of all, yet the report
leaves the clear impression that the whole process of education puts Asian
and black students at a disadvantage. One telling figure: Afro-Caribbean
boys and girls alike are apparently between three and six times more likely
to be excluded from primary and secondary school-which today is the
