Hard to Reach Communities: Living in the UK, and Issues Facing British Muslims of Kashmiri Heritage Born & Bred in the UK more

Hard to Reach Communities: Living in the UK, and Issues Facing British Muslims of Kashmiri Heritage Born & Bred in the UK By Owais Rajput Doctoral Candidate Bradford UK Format of the presentation ‡ Why most of the time British Muslims (Kashmiri) are labelled in the media as ³Home Grown Radicalised´ Muslims ‡ Processes to Radicalisation‡ Design and delivery processes so far used by authorities in De-Radicalisation processes in UK & EU ‡ How many British Muslims (Kashmiri) are there in the UK? ‡ How many British Muslims (Kashmiri) are there in the EU? ‡ Where are most British Muslims (Kashmiri) living, in UK cities? ‡ Why are they in those areas? ‡ Originally, where did they come from? ‡ Religion in Mirpur AJK before the division of State of Jammu & Kashmir in 1947 ‡ Religion amongst British Diaspora (Kashmiri) in Britain through the generations ‡ What now and in the future? In my presentation my focus is on British Muslim Communities living in UK and my main focus is on the British local community from Kashmiri heritage, as most of the time they labelled in the media as ³Home Grown Radicalised´ even they are the forth & fifth generation born & bred in UK. Why only this community always problematic and highlighted in the media? We need to focus on Processes to Radicalisation in UK, in local communities again particularly in Kashmiri community. We also need to focus on design and delivery processes so far used by authorities in deradicalisation processes and so far results and why we need to change those design and delivery processes, especially when we focus British Diaspora from Kashmiri heritage, forth & fifth generation born & bred in UK. After English language, Pahari language is the second largest spoken language in this country. Question is how much policymaker, civil society in UK knows about this HARD TO REACH community¶s true needs in the UK as well as in other EU countries? We don¶t have accurate figures on Kashmiris in Britain because in the ethnic monitoring system they are not recognised as such. Again we have Black, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and so on but in British censes we missed those who are second largest language speaking, I mean Pahari speaking British Kashmiri Diaspora. However, estimates from different sources show that at least two third of British Pakistanis are actually from the Kashmiri part Mirpur under Pakistani control, so called as µAzad Kashmir¶. Again in DE-RADICALISATION processes why authorities using wrong design & delivery process on this hard to reach community? That design & delivery process might be workable with British Diaspora from Pakistani heritage due to their locality needs but totally rejected by British Diaspora Youth of Kashmiri heritage, particularly in last ten years UK & EU authorities wasted huge amount of money on these tests on British Kashmiri local community with no results. After ten years experiment British Diaspora with Kashmiri heritage still severely high in number in street crime, gangs, trans-national crime, organised trans-national crime, more radicalised even if we go to UK prison services, 80% out of 100% Muslim prisoner are from British Kashmiri Diaspora, large majority are forth & fifth generation born & bred in UK. All we did in counter terrorist activities, no successful terrorist attacks after 7/7, which is achievement but not that big enough because on other hand radicalisation has grown on severe level more & more in this HARD TO REACH COMMUNITY LIVING IN UK & EU, just because of our wrong counter terrorist short term approaches. We need to do more research on true needs of this hard to reach community and we need to focus on long term solutions with long term projects. Migration from this part (AJK) of Kashmir was started in late 19th century and through the two world wars with chain migration started in 1960s. Today there are five generations of British Kashmiris settled in all major cities and towns across Britain with largest population in Birmingham over 100,000 followed by over 60,000 in Bradford. Large numbers of British citizens of Kashmiri heritage are also living in Leeds, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oldham, Preston, Nelson, Blackburn, Accrington, Luton, Peterborough, Walsall, Walthamstow Forest, Ilford East London, Slough and other major cities of the UK. My research focus will be on what was the role and nature of religion and religious relations in µAzad¶ Kashmir before the invasion of Pakistani tribal in 1947 and the flight of non-Muslims. How the generations that migrated to Britain from Mirpur Azad Kashmir and born here see their attachment with religion and what are the possible local and global sources of radicalisation within this community. I will conclude with some suggestions about the changes in approach towards Kashmiris within the wider British Muslim Identity that in my view would be useful for community relations and British society as a whole. My findings and suggestions will be useful to our policymakers, government bodies; NGO¶s including Educational authorities in UK & EU and can be used as a tool to set-out our future¶s true policies for De-Radicalisation processes within British Diaspora from Kashmiri heritage. To set-out De-Radicalisation processes we really needs to understand the real issues and true needs with cultural dimension with in ³HARD TO REACH COMMUNITIES´ living in UK in 21 century. In this presentation I am just focusing on British Muslims from Kashmiri heritage, migration to born in UK (First generation to fifth generation). Conclusion: Key issues needs highlighting is that the level of Radicalisation among Kashmiri Diaspora community as compare to other Muslim communities has increased in last decade due to the continuous denial of their National Identity in the ethnic monitoring systems and nonrecognitions of their ethnic and cultural heritage in the U.K. Generally Kashmiri Diaspora Community is hard-working, entrepreneurial and their family structures are very closely knitted. They organised themselves on self-help basis more than any other Black and Ethnic Minority community in U.K. Traditionally Muslim Kashmiri Diaspora community are predominantly following Sufism and less vulnerable to extremist radicalisation due to their strong network and influence in majority of Mosque / Islamic centre management committees. There is a need to build on these positive strengths and a comprehensive appreciative research to explore capacity issues among Muslim Kashmiri Diaspora community will help in developing sustainable programmes to strengthen the existing mechanism among Kashmir Diaspora community to deal with emerging challenges of radicalisation. References: 1. Ballard R. Published in Economic and Political Weekly. (1991) pp. 513-517, THE KASHMIR CRISIS: A VIEW FROM MIRPUR (http://www.casas.org.uk/papers/pdfpapers/kashmir.pdf); 2. Ballard R. Published in New Community, Volume 11. (1983) pp. 117-137, The context and consequences of migration: Jullundur and Mirpur compared (http://www.casas.org.uk/papers/pdfpapers/jullundurandmirpur.pdf); 3. Wikileaks (01/02/2011) & wikileaks (03/02/2011) 4. 5. Lewis, P. (2007) Young, British and Muslim. 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