Daniel Zylbersztajn's Counter Blog: Social Cohesion, Understanding and Community: Islamic Mella Kings Cross vs. Kentish Town Street Festival

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Social Cohesion, Understanding and Community: Islamic Mella Kings Cross vs. Kentish Town Street Festival

I attended two community street festivals today. One was in Cromer Street London, the other at Busby Place in Kentish Town. Both were supported by Camden Council. However the festivals could not have been more different.

Islamic Mella Cromer Street

.The intentions of the festival are honourable. The Muslim community of Kings Cross created the Mella to demonstrate Islam in the open and in a non-threatening and celebratory and peaceful way. It came to be after tensions in the past, including after the infamous events of a small radicalised minority. For a few years now a Mella, that is an Islamic festival runs in Cromer Street, a council housing surrounded street, that hosts also a community mosque. The Muslim population, mainly of Bangladeshi origin, but also of some Somali community members, accounts for probably between 25-40 percent of all occupants in the area and therefore represents a dominant group at Kings Cross.

About 30 or so stalls were there. They included book-shops, theatre workshops, a Discover Islam Exhibition and food and clothing shops. Present also were missionary groups like Islamic Aid and "charity" groups helping "brothers and sisters in Palestine and Gaza (sic)" (presumably not the Christian Palestinians). Present were however a few radical sections of the Islamic community including Hizb-ut Tahrir distributing leaflets for a caliphate in Europe. The others I don't know enough about such as a group called Dhawa.
The festival, which disallowed music not dedicated to prayers, but amplifying chanting and prayers over the speakers, attracted a large number of Muslims from the surrounding area. There were also a good number of non-Muslims passing through. The atmosphere was generally friendly, but there were visibly a number of younger men dressed in clothing that suggested adherence to very conservative Islam. I have no evidence if they subscribed to militant Islam, although in the case of Hizb-ut Tahrir the point has been made frequently by others (see wiki).
My main charge at the festival is that it disallowed organisation and participation by the many non Muslims in the area. Or at least I can say they were not present amongst the stalls exhibitors.

I would think it more beneficial to either run an all included street party for all citizens including the strong Muslim presence and representation. Or if the way to go is Islamic Mella only, reserve a public space that is not a community street, say Bloomsbury or Russell Square, or like the Camden with Mella, Regents Park. Running it in Cromer street in my honest opinion, creates dissonance, possibly against the organisers good intentions. Non Muslims may feel over-powered and alienated in a street that is just as much their own. Also the organisers must ensure that patronising and segregationist elements like militant Hizb-ut-Tahrir are not invited. Further input from other religious groups could be useful. A or several sessions attended by Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist and Muslim spokespersons in brotherly discussion may be of great interest to many. Camden has an Interfaith Forum and other interfaith groups.
The insular representation of Islam in a road that is everybody's and in the absence of a general street party for all is exactly that: inward looking and overlooking others. The road to understanding and tolerance is a two way street. Non Muslims should take steps to understand Islamic practice in an open and welcoming way but at the same time Muslims ought to take the same steps in meeting the other with the other.

Living in Kings Cross I have some relations with Bangladeshi neighbours (when I say Bangladeshi I include second and third generation members, and I do not exclude their Britishness) . I wished for closer relations in non Mella periods - I mean everyday. The reality is that overall the Muslim / Bangladeshi community lives insular without much or only casual contact to the others living there. One is alluded that somehow the general meeting grounds do not suit the Islamic way. As a father I don't see Bangladeshi community members in the Bloomsbury and Kings Cross play grounds for example, although there are nursery workers who are. However I also witnessed a lot of racist intolerable comments by non Muslim neighbours who spoke to me thinking I was a safe person to express these, being Jewish and "white," and to which I took personal offence.

In conclusion I do not think that the Mella is the way forward to understanding of Muslims unless it is tied in with a general street festival in which non Muslims have an organisational and participatory stake. This will also allow a wider crowd of Non Muslims to experience stalls like Discover Islam, who may not choose to go to an all Islam event.

Still as remarked if the Mella in its current form is to continue, I would advise it to move to a public space that is associated by no specific group of people.

What bothers me also is that the onus seems to be on the Muslim community to be open and inviting. It having been as mentioned often the receivers of racism and likewise white exclusionary racist views and actions, those who hold such views should also be subject to having to do something also to come closer to their objects of despotism. It is not good enough to talk about "them" without serious engagement with the other and self-reflection. Jewish British history teaches that many of the segregated life forms of Jewish life are the result of exclusionary projections by non Jews. An example are the beginnings of Jewish hospitals and schools in the 17th and 18th century which came to exist because Jews were not allowed in the Christian hospitals and schools.

Oh some praise, last but not least about the Islamic Mella. I liked some theatre play that emphasized Islamic scientific and philosophic scholars. Sadly the theatre acts were slightly imprecise (this was however made up by anyone visiting the tent Discover Islam). I understand that this is an important part of the rediscovery of Islam as it was, at the forefront of philosophical and scientific debates and in discourse with the non Islamic world. To those in the known it showed a clear distance to those amongst whom are both ignorant non-Muslims and some groups of fundamentalist Muslims, who believe that Islam is a closed fundamentalist religion. I really liked that, and signified this as superb acknowledgement. As said the playground for such theatre should be in more general arenas, where it can challenge and reach out much further.

Kentish Town Community Festival.

This was a festival owned by all members of the Camden community or communities if you wish, including those of Islamic faith. It was attended by council service stalls (unlike the Mella), community groups of all sorts, a fantastic Punch and Judy show, a yoga group, Reiki, Christian healing, tai chi, hip hop, citizens with mental health issues - you name it. There was rice n' peas, paella, the police, fire-brigade, and St Johns Ambulance. It was the kind of festival familiar to many, but being one on a central London Camden street, it was typical for Camden in its inclusion. It made everyone feel welcome and part of it and visitors could attend different stalls and have many and one conversations. Some space of this festival would have been greatly occupied by a Discover Islam exhibition.

I hope that Kings Cross will be like that one day, inclusive for all, including Cromer Street - Islamic Mella integrated!