Plural Identities

Young people eh?

I have moments when I stop taking the whole migration/integration/plural identities line of thought I promote in this blog seriously and think, well, maybe it's just a phase of alienation that young people go through, regardless of what country or religion they belong to.  This too shall pass.

I mentioned this in a previous post with respect to previous worries about the alienation of young Afro-Caribbean British as evidenced by the riots in the 1980s.

Robbie Millen, deputy comment editor on the Times also takes this line, in reaction to the Policy Exchange survey which came out this week, saying that young Muslims wanting apostates to die are no different from the Punks of his youth.  The survey, in case somehow you missed it (Daily Mail front page headline "A Generation of Outsiders") found that forty per cent of Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 said they would prefer to live under sharia law in Britain, but 'only' 17% of over-55s would.  This survey was wrongly described by some as therefore showing that Muslims in Britain are becoming more radical.  Obviously you would need similar surveys from 5, 10 etc years ago as comparators before you could make such a claim, if indeed it is merely a generational difference in attitude. This mistaken interpretation is also made by Christopher Caldwell in today's Financial Times.

What is more worrying about the Policy Exchange survey, and why the popularity of Islamic fundamentalism amongst young people and concerns about the integration of Muslim immigrant populations should be seen as more than a passing phase, is that such a significant number of older Muslims want sharia law, or think terrorist attacks are justified.  And also that so many non-muslims, including those on the left (see Nick Cohen's new book which apparently we have no chance of buying now until the second edition hits the shops) think 'they have a point', or 'we had it coming to us'.

I often try to think of parallels with the Aum Shinrikyo cult, who successfully killed 12 and injured hundreds more with poison gas on several underground trains in Tokyo, near to where I was working and living at the time (1995).  They claimed to have Buddhist/Hindu roots and even (to this day) have a global network, but you don't notice mainstream Buddhists saying they 'have a point' or Japanese people saying 'we had it coming to us'.  There is definitely a case for looking at how the cult members became so alienated, particularly one taboo, little talked about aspect, which is that the leader Shoko Asahara and many of his followers were 'burakumin' or from the so-called 'untouchable' class of Japanese, but ultimately they were 'just' murderous nutters.

Haircut unplundered

I'm looking forward to seeing 'Starter for Ten' (although on current working mum form it's likely to be only as an inflight movie or some time next year on pay per view) for the  not very profound reason that I too started university in 1985, which is when the film is set.  But this publicity photo bothers me - unbelievable though it may seem in this current long hair hegemony, most of us girls wore our hair short then, with lots of gel.  Scarves would not be dangling round the neck but wound in the hair.  And BIG earrings.  And either no make up or very obvious make up - kohl eye liner, bright lipstick, loud eye shadow.  Think Bananarama, Madonna, Yazoo.

I've double checked via Google to make sure my memory is not faulty and it's not.

"Young women wore wild earrings, often long or of peculiar design. Shoulder length earrings often contrasted with hair that was chin length or shorter. "

While we're on the subject of long hair hegemony, an American friend of mine, who has recently moved from the Netherlands to Surrey, told me she knew she was going to like me because I had short hair, like her. She was feeling very alienated by the universal long blond hair that all the middle aged mums in Surrey seem to feel is de rigeur.