Sayeeda Warsi könnte bald britische Integrationsministerin sein
Der Vorsitzende der britischen Konservativen, David Cameron, hat Sayeeda Warsi in seine Schattenkabinett berufen. Die 36jährige soll „Communities Secretary“ werden – Integrationsministerin. Sie wäre damit die erste muslimische Ministerin in einer britischen Regierung, sollte Cameron die wahl gegen Brwon gewinnen (wonach es im Moment gerade nicht aussieht, aber was sind Umfragen wert).
Nach Sarkozy, der mehrere Frauen muslimischer Herkunft in die Regierung holte, darunter Rashida Dati und jüngst auch Fadela Amara, die Gründerin der Frauenrechtsorganisation „Ni Putes Ni Soumises“ (weder Huren noch Unterworfene), wollen auch die britischen Konservativen den Kampf um die Migranten-Wähler und das Thema Integration aufnehmen. Frau Warsi hat sich entschieden gegen Zwangsheiraten engagiert, die sie als unislamisch brandmarkt.
Attraktive junge Frauen mit „Migrationshintergrund“ (kann bitte jemand ein neues Wort erfinden!), die Multikulturalismus und Leitkultur miteinander verbinden: Gut so! Warum schläft die CDU? Wo ist die law-and-order-Türkin, die für die Konservativen hierzulande die Integrationsdebatte führt?
Kommt Europa doch weiter? Vielleicht ist der Multikulturalismus ja doch nicht gescheitert, wie wir allzu schnell immer wieder sagen?
Ein paar Auszüge aus einem Artikel vonn Sayeeda Warsi, den sie anläßlich der zeitgleichen Gerichtsverfahren gegen den Nazi Richard Griffin und den Islamisten Abu Hamza verfasste:
But the choice is not between a single mono-culture and wholesale separatism. We are forging a multicultural society that with each new generation redefines the terms of acceptance.
Perhaps I could use my own life as an example.
My parents were immigrants – they arrived in the 1960s, they worked in factories. Perhaps in their minds they were only visitors. I am a proud second-generation British Muslim, born and brought up in Yorkshire, as is my daughter, who incidentally attends a faith school – a Christian one – and receives her Islamic teaching at a madrassa in the evenings.
My definition of integration is different to that of my parents, and I presume different to what my daughter will define in her generation.
I was born in Britain, it is my home , it’s the only place I’ve ever known. I’m a Yorkshire woman, I am British, and I am a Muslim. I see no contradiction, but there are still a small minority who do as I found out when I stood as a Conservative candidate in my home town.
Most people I encountered on the doorstep took me at face value. But I also met two extremes. Some were typified by the white man who shouted ‘F*** off Paki’, and encouraged me to ‘go home’. Others, mostly male, first-generation Muslims, questioned whether it was proper for me, as a Muslim woman, to enter public life, despite the fact that many of them had probably voted for a white female MP for the last fifteen years.
Yet throughout history, Muslims across the world have successfully assimilated into the differing cultures of the countries where they have settled, until there is no longer a dividing line between their national identity and their religious one. There is no reason why that should not be the case in Britain.
The Muslim community in Britain is no longer a Diaspora but a settled British Muslim community and should identify itself as that. Let me say it again (for it cannot be said too often): Yes one can be both British and a Muslim.
…
Yes, we need to continue the debate about integration. And we need to have that debate in a healthy, robust way – not sweeping it under the carpet or – equally dangerous – allowing it to take over our entire identity in the way that it has with some Muslim groups.
But the onus of integration is not just on ethnic minorities; it is on all of us to accept differences, respect each other and embrace diversity.