The Narrow Prism
of Security

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For the past few years, for most Pakistanis about the only legal way of immigrating to Britain has been by marrying a British citizen. As with most facilities, this has been open to misuse and as often happens when a facility is misused, it is those who use it for genuine purposes who stand to suffer. With steps now introduced by the British government, It is going to be more difficult to marry a spouse in Pakistan and bring him or her here to the UK. The measures are said to be to prevent forced marriages, but the net effect of it all will be to make make life more difficult for all those marrying a Pakistani, forced or not.
Under the changes introduced by the Home Office now, the age at which someone can apply for a marriage visa will increase from 18 to 21. Statistics apparently show that 30 per cent of the cases dealt with by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit involved victims aged between 18 and 21.

The five key proposals announced are to:
l raise the age of sponsorship for a marriage visa from 18 to 21;
l ask foreign spouses to enter into an agreement to learn English before they come to the UK;
l introduce a power to revoke leave to remain where there is evidence that the marriage route has been abused;
l require all sponsors to register their intention to marry overseas before they leave the UK; and
l ensure through a code of practice that specialist teams can identify vulnerable people at risk of forced marriage.
Most of the steps mentioned above have little or nothing to do with forced marriages and are generally designed to make it more difficult for British Pakistanis to marry people in Pakistan and get them over to the UK. The requirement to enter into an agreement to learn English, which has nothing whatsoever to do with forced marriages, is likely to cause the most problems. People who come from rural communities in Pakistan will find this requirement particularly hard to fulfil for it is not going to simply be a question of giving an undertaking and then forgetting about it. Soon after their arrival, an agency will check if they are fulfilling their promise. If they are not, their leave to remain in the UK could be cancelled.

Border and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said: “British citizens have the right to marry whoever they choose. But we want newcomers to succeed in our society and sign up to the standards we have in common. That means freedom, not being forced to marry someone, and it means newcomers quickly acquiring a command of English, with consequences for those who break the rules.'' All that is very good. What it does not explain is how the scores of newcomers from Eastern Europe now flooding into the UK, often not with enough skills in English to ask the time of day, are going to succeed in British society. The other, somewhat controversial step taken by the British government has been the setting up of a panel to perform the rather ambiguous task of “reporting on Islamic beliefs in British life”. What is going to be the purpose of such reporting is unclear and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has already expressed its apprehensions about the move. The task has been given to Cambridge University who have been asked to create an independent board of academic and theological experts, including 20 leading Muslims, to compile a report on “Islamic beliefs in relation to life in modern Britain”. If you are looking for a definition of the typically British slang “airy fairy” you would be pushed to find a better one than that.
The idea is to crack down on extremism and radicalism, which pious intention all such initiatives are endowed with, but it is not easy to decipher just how this noble aim is to be achieved. A government spokesperson said: “It (the panel) will look at things like the veil, about being both Muslim and British and whether Muslims can feel confident in voting and engaging with society like that.” Surely, it should be upto the individual to decide whether or not she feels confident in a veil; how can a panel decide on her behalf? Perhaps more to the point, why should it be necessary to ask a panel to decide on her behalf? Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has also said that under the new initiative, young Muslims will be taught citizenship in mosque schools, where many young Muslims of primary school age go for Qur'anic lessons after normal school hours. Trials of the new lessons will begin in several cities at the start of the new term in September. The MCB has expressed “deep reservations” at the announcement of the board. The Secretary General of the MCB, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said: “In a country where the state is largely neutral on theological matters, and where no other similar arrangement exists for other minority faiths, such an initiative will inevitably be met with skepticism and mistrust. For too long now, British Muslims have been viewed by this government through the narrow prism of security. British Muslims – like all citizens – have every right to peacefully disagree with government policies if they wish and they do not need to be “re-programmed” by a government approved list of theologians.
What perhaps makes all this a bit more worrying is the fact that it all seems to be coming with the government’s popularity in a state of deep – perhaps terminal – decline. If there are any explosions to be heard in the near future, they will most likely be the breaking of the sound barrier by the hurtling journey of the government’s popularity southwards rather than terrorist bombs. That is a situation which usually convinces politicians that it is time to hit the cheap popularity tricks bag, and Muslims at the moment are no one’s favourite people in the West. The extent of Labour’s troubles may be judged by the fact that they lost an important by-election in Glasgow on July 24, in which they failed to defend a majority of over thirteen and a half thousand. The loss of Labour's third safest seat in Scotland will create new doubts at Westminster over the Prime Minister's future. The result, if repeated at a general election, would see Mr Brown lose his seat, along with a slew of Cabinet ministers. And as if to provide the icing on the cake, as Labour was being hammered by the Scots at Glasgow East, its mauling at the hands of Tories continued unabated in council by-elections south of the border. In a shock result, their candidate Mehfuz Ahmed gained a seat at Westminster City Council's Church Street ward - the first time Conservatives have won there.
Change is in the air, not just in Pakistan but here too in Britain.n