National News
15 MARCH 2021
Barnett Berates MCB's New Female Leader Fakhriya M. Suleiman, MA Global Media and Postnational Communication
January 2021 saw Zara Mohammed, a 29-year old trainee consultant from Glasgow, elected as the Muslim Council of Britain’s (MCB) first female secretary general. Talking about this milestone, Mohammed said ‘making history is a tremendous responsibility, but it’s very exciting to be a young female in this role, and I hope it will inspire others.’ On the day of the MCB’s announcement, mayor of London Sadiq Khan took to Twitter to say that this news was ‘terrific.’ The MCB was established in 1997 and boasts being Britain’s ‘largest and most diverse national Muslim umbrella organisation with over 500 members, including mosques, schools, charitable associations and professional networks.’ The MCB 'publishes reports, guidelines and resources to inform the mainstream discourse on British Muslims and to empower [its] member organisations across’ the UK. On 4 February Mohammed joined Emma Barnett on BBC 4’s Women’s Hour for an interview. During the interview Mohammed was repeatedly asked by Barnett ‘how many female imams are there in the UK?’ Barnett went on to ask that since ‘representing women’ was a key part of Mohammed’s new role and given that ‘female priests have been around for some time and we’ve seen the advent of female rabbis’ in the UK, ‘what is the picture for women leading prayer in Britain in Muslim communities?’
Mohammed responded by saying that she did not think it was her role, nor that of the MCB, to ‘adjudicate or examine that [aspect] of spirituality’. She went on to explain that the work the MCB does is more concerned with how they can serve ‘to benefit [Muslim] communities.’ ‘You don’t know? That’s fine if you don’t know. But it’s just quite striking that you can’t answer that question. [Although] I recognise [yours] is not a religious or spiritual role,’ Barnett retorted. According to the Evening Express, this Women’s Hour episode garnered the BBC 564 complaints. The BBC’s complaints report highlighted the recurring theme being perceived ‘bias against Zara Mohammed [and the] Muslim Council of Britain.’ For Gal-Dem Magazine’s Sabah Hussain, Mohammed was ‘subjected to a trough-full of ignorance from [a] presenter who clearly hadn’t adequately researched the topic of women in Islam.’ Hussein went on to say that ‘Barnett pandered to an Imperialist view that Islam should fit within the confines of what the West deems appropriate.’ Middle East Eye’s Fatima Rajina further anchors this episode ‘within a long-standing history by which Orientalists have presumed Islam to be an extension of Christianity and/or Judaism.’ For Rajina, Barnett’s ‘incessant questioning’ harkens to a ‘history of using Judeo-Christian framing as a normative standard against which to judge other faith traditions - a flawed premise.’ However, Douglas Murray of the Jewish Chronicle highlighted that since Blair’s Labour government ‘and all
governments since — [the MCB has] rightly [been] regarded as beyond the pale’ due to its ‘extremists links.’ For Douglas, Mohammed was evasive of questions surrounding female imams in Britain ‘because the answer is a big fat zero.’ He went on to argue that Barnett’s ‘reputation [is actively] being damaged [...] by [a] smear [campaign under the] allencompassing and deeply vague accusation of “Islamophobia.”’ Douglas concluded his ‘The Muslim Council of Britain should back off ’ article by saying that ‘equality means being treated in exactly the same fashion as the rest of us. And that includes having to answer the same difficult questions that anybody else would if they were sitting in the same chair.’ Writing in The Telegraph in 2014, Emma Barnett said that she ‘[grew] up in the Orthodox arm of Judaism’ but described herself as ‘not a particularly observant Jew day-today.’ In her article entitled ‘Can you really be an Orthodox Jew and a feminist?’, Barnett recounted that she had never seen a female rabbi until the age of 21. That same year during a BBC One to One discussion with Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild, Barnett said in Judaism ‘women aren’t treated unequally, they just have different roles to men.’ In light of this, and while she did feel that it was ‘hypocritical as a feminist’, she expressed ‘struggling’ with the ‘unusual’ concept of female rabbis - ‘it’s just not traditional’, she said. Speaking to The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood in March about the ordeal, while she was ‘really taken aback’ by the Women’s Hour interview that felt ‘particularly hostile and aggressive’, Zara Mohammed says she has ‘grown tenfold’ because of the experience.
Government Proposed ‘Free Speech Champions’ Met with Student and Staff Backlash
Increased legal measures surrounding freedom of speech may, ironically, result in ‘unfree’ speech, says SOAS lecturer. (Credit: wiredforlego via Flickr)
Deirbhile Ní Bhranáin, MA Media and Development Last month, the UK government announced its proposal to install ‘free speech champions’ in institutes of Higher Education. The measures, which the Education Secretary announced mid-February, aim to strengthen free speech and ‘end the practice of ‘silencing’ on campuses. The legislation proposes to introduce a ‘free speech condition’ to universities and other post-secondary education institutes for them to be able to access public funding. The Office for Students, England’s Higher Education regulator, would be granted legal power to impose financial sanctions for ‘breach’ of the condition. These legal duties also extend to institution management and Student Unions, who would have the power to ensure that lawful free speech is secured for members, academics, and visiting speakers. In addition to these measures, a ‘Free Speech and Academic Freedom Champion’ would be appointed to investigate
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potential breaches of the law. In a letter of introduction to the policy document, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson stated that ‘strong, robust action’ should be taken against breaches of free speech. The guidelines for protection of free speech, which universities would be encouraged to follow, are laid out in the policy document released on 16 February. These guidelines will ‘set minimum standards for free speech codes of practice’, and will ‘ensure’ that academic freedoms are upheld to a high standard. The proposal has been met with varying degrees of skepticism both within and outside the government. Labour shadow education secretary Kate Green commented that by proposing these measures, the government is initiating a culture war to distract from its recent failures. Several former education secretaries also shared their thoughts, with some former ministers voicing concerns about how ‘heavy-handed’ the policy seems. Others expressed concern that the government recognised identity politics as a popular issue and were now using it to
wage a ‘culture war,’ with one university chancellor expressing concern that this policy will set ‘the young people’ further against the government. Strong proponents of the proposition include a professor from Oxford University who stated ‘this policy paper by the Department of Education is a very welcomed step towards ensuring that viewpoint diversity is protected in British universities.’ On the other hand, The National Union of Students told the BBC that there is ‘no evidence’ of a freedom of speech crisis on campuses. Further, a spokesperson from the University and College Union, which represents university staff, contextualised the issue, speaking of how a failure to ‘get to grips with the endemic job insecurity and managerialist approaches’ are also a barrier to free speech, as it means that ‘academics are less able to speak truth to power.’ Dr Dina Matar, who lectures at the Centre for Global Media at SOAS, commented that ‘in assigning a free speech champion on campuses with reporting duties to government, the policy provides the opportunity for interference in university governance, [as well as] staff and students' lives. Worse, it might accentuate differences and promote an atmosphere of hostility and fear, a perfect recipe for 'unfree' speech and intimidation to flourish in digital echo chambers and filter bubbles.’ She went on to say that ‘ignoring these possibilities is short-sighted and dangerous.’ Speaking to VICE Magazine, Chloe, a student at UCL asked ‘why is this the priority in our current environment?’ She also said it is ‘so confusing that they’re pushing this now especially since no one’s at university right now. Most of us are either studying from home and we're not able to do events on campus anyway.’ The government will continue to work alongside the education sector to lay out the next steps for legislation.
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