Special Issue: Youth & Policy is devoted to the critical study of youth affairs and youth policy and youth work. Muslim Youth Work THIS ISSUE, GUEST EDITED BY MG KHAN, FOCUSES ON MUSLIM YOUTH WORK Responding to Lives, not Events MG Khan Towards a National Strategy for Muslim Youth Work MG Khan Making a Place for Muslim Youth Work in British Youth Work Jonathan Roberts Muslim Girlswork: the Ultimate Separatist Cage? & Policy Youth Gill Cressey Exploring the Development of Jewish Identity in Young People Shelley Marsh French Muslim Youth and the Banlieues of Rage Karima Laachir Youth The Place of Doubt in Youth Work – a Personal Journey Bernard Davies Number Models of Muslim Youthwork: Between Reform and Empowerment Sadek Hamid British or Muslim: Creating a Context for Dialogue 92 Summer Rabia Malik Working Islamically with Young People or Working with Muslim Youth? Taniya Hussain Policy Alternative Visions: International Sporting Opportunities for Muslim Women and Implications for British Youth Sport 2006 & Tansin Benn and Aisha Ahmed Intervention for Transformation: Activities among Young Muslims of Britain Imran Mogra Muslim Youth Helpline: A Model of Youth Engagement in Service Delivery Number 92 Shareefa Fulat and Raza Jaffrey Summer 2006 Published by The National Youth Agency Eastgate House, 19–23 Humberstone Road, Leicester LE5 3GJ. Tel: 0116 242 7350. Fax: 0116 242 7444. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.nya.org.uk The National Youth Agency Cover 92.indd 1 25/8/06 12:26:16 y&p 92.indb 1 25/8/06 12:22:32 Editorial Group: Aylssa Cowel, Ruth Gilchrist, Tony Jeffsand Jean Spence Associate Editors: Janet Adams, University of Luton Priscilla Alderson, Institute of Education, London Judith Bessant, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia Bob Coles, University of York Bren Cook, Lancashire County Council Keith Cranwell, University of Greenwich Michelle Doyle, Youth Worker, London John Holmes, University of Birmingham Gill Millar, South West Regional Youth Work Adviser John Pitts, University of Luton John Player, Adult Learning Project, Edinburgh John Rose, Welsh Assembly Joyce Walker, University of Minnesota, USA Anna Whalen, Freelance Consultant Elizabeth (Elee) Wood, IUPUI-School of Education, Indianapolis, USA Tom Wylie, The National Youth Agency Published by: The National Youth Agency, Eastgate House, 19–23 Humberstone Road, Leicester LE5 3GJ. Tel: 0116 242 7350. Fax: 0116 242 7444 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.nya.org.uk Proofread by: CN Proofreaders Tel: 0191 581 2427 Copyright: The NYA, August 2006 The National Youth Agency supports those involved in young people’s personal and social development and works to enable all young people to fulfil their potential as individuals and citizens within a socially just society. We achieve this by: • informing, advising and helping those who work with young people in a variety of settings; • influencing and shaping youth policy and improving youth services nationally and locally; and • promoting young people’s participation, influence and place in society. ISSN 0262 9798 Material from the journal may be extracted for study and quotation with acknowledgement of the journal and author(s). The views expressed in the journal remain those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Editorial Group or The National Youth Agency. Whilst every effort is made to check factual information, the Editorial Group is not responsible for errors in the material published in the journal. Subscriptions: 0116 242 7427 Advertising: 0116 242 7480 Information for contributors: Inside Back Cover. y&p 92.indb 2 25/8/06 12:22:34 Contents Youth & Policy no. 92 Summer 2006 THIS ISSUE, GUEST EDITED BY MG KHAN, FOCUSES ON MUSLIM YOUTH WORK Responding to Lives, not Events MG Khan Towards a National Strategy for Muslim Youth Work MG Khan Making a Place for Muslim Youth Work in British Youth Work Jonathan Roberts Muslim Girlswork: the Ultimate Separatist Cage? Gill Cressey Exploring the Development of Jewish Identity in Young People Shelley Marsh French Muslim Youth and the Banlieues of Rage Karima Laachir The Place of Doubt in Youth Work – a Personal Journey Bernard Davies Models of Muslim Youthwork: Between Reform and Empowerment Sadek Hamid British or Muslim: Creating a Context for Dialogue Rabia Malik Working Islamically with Young People or Working with Muslim Youth? Taniya Hussain Alternative Visions: International Sporting Opportunities for Muslim Women and Implications for British Youth Sport Tansin Benn and Aisha Ahmed Intervention for Transformation: Activities among Young Muslims of Britain Imran Mogra Muslim Youth Helpline: A Model of Youth Engagement in Service Delivery Shareefa Fulat and Raza Jaffrey 1 Youth & Policy | Number 92 | Summer 2006 y&p 92.indb 1 25/8/06 12:22:34 y&p 92.indb 2 25/8/06 12:22:34 Contributors Muhammad G. Khan is a former youth worker and now lecturer at the University of Birmingham. Jonathan Roberts works in Middlesbrough at the University of Teeside teaching and researching youth work and community development work. Gill Cressey is a lecturer with the Community, Play and Youth Studies programme at the University of Birmingham. She has worked as a Women and Girlsworker in Birmingham. Shelley Marsh works as the Head of Social Welfare and Development (a project funded by the Department for Education and Skills) for UJIA Makor, the centre for informal Jewish education. Karima Laachir is a lecturer in Cultural Theory at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests focus on the issues of Muslim postcolonial Diasporas in Europe and post- war immigration and racism in Europe. Bernard Davies is a former youth worker and now a consultant. Sadek Hamid currently works in community development and is also researching for a PhD in British Muslim youth and religious activism. Rabia Malik is a systemic psychotherapist and a social psychologist. She practices at the Marlborough Family Service in London and is an honorary research fellow at the University of East London. Taniya Hussain qualified as a social worker in 1991 and then as a counsellor in 1993. She is currently employed as a Senior Social Worker for a South London Borough. Tansin Benn is Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Birmingham. Aisha Ahmad is a PhD Student at the University of Birmingham. Imran Mogra is a senior lecturer at the University of Central England, Birmingham. He is currently engaged in the training of Imams and Muallims (teachers) to enhance the educational provision in Mosque schools in the UK. Shareefa Fulat is the Director of the Muslim Youth Helpline. Raza Jaffrey is the Chairperson of the Muslim Youth Helpline. 3 Youth & Policy | Number 92 | Summer 2006 y&p 92.indb 3 25/8/06 12:22:35 y&p 92.indb 4 25/8/06 12:22:35 Special issue: Youth & Policy no. 92 Muslim Youth Work Summer 2006 Introduction Responding to Lives, not Events Lave and Wenger’s1 notion of communities of practice of learning as a form of social participation is interesting in what it sees as the key components of this form of learning and engagement. These are: • Meaning: how we consider the world as meaningful and how we then articulate it. • Practice: the resources, frameworks and roles necessary for collaboration and action. • Community: the way participation is defined and recognised as competent. • Identity: how learning informs and affects who we are and become in our communities. But what happens when the resources are not available? Or the conversations taking place continue to remain unrecognised or not acknowledged by the professional enterprise that you are committed to and believe in? What happens when what you experience or see is rarely represented in the professional domain? For example, what has been the coverage in Young People Now of the effect of the Kashmir earthquake or from the current events between Lebanon and Israel on the social mobilisation of young Muslims? What are the effects of the constant vilification of who you are on the self esteem of Muslim young people in Britain? This absence of representation may be argued as legitimate due to capacity, but ultimately the narrative and perspective presented is a matter of choice. This is not a ‘go’ at Young People Now; the absence of alternative narratives in the youth work public spaces is not just the remit of YPN. Today’s multi-ethic and religious Britain has in its midst a number of narratives that could enable a resonance of informal education and youth work with its diverse communities. Their absence is our loss. Which narrative is chosen to support these values, principles, foundations appears to be a matter of ideological preference. For most young people religiosity is a choice activated by whatever circumstances are presented by life, or not as the case may be. This is no longer necessarily so for Muslim young people; here it is activated by an Islamaphobic discourse that does not allow this to be either latent or private. Youth work is particularly prone to internalising a discourse such as Islamaphobia, presented on the back of securing and protecting values/principles and cultural rights against an aggressor absent of all these. This weakness exists because these are its foundations, what attracted and hopefully will continually to attract those who want to ‘make a difference’ or y&p 92.indb 5 25/8/06 12:22:35 ‘be of service’. But such idealistic intentions can make missionaries of all of us. The articles presented here are from individuals involved in ‘communities of practice’ whose insight can be overlooked, either through their position in institutional hierarchies or within the politics of representation that exist in the relationship between the State and the Muslim communities. They present experience, reflection and analysis intended to inform policy and the practice of all who work with young people.