Introduction

They are different from us. Some of the things they do are a bit strange, and we don't talk to them much. On the whole, they don't cause trouble, but you can never be too careful ...

It doesn't matter who "they" are. Minorities - ethnic, religious and others - can be found in every country of the world and people are usually wary of them. Some minorities are distrusted, feared, even hated. Others are simply ignored.

The official attitude in much of the Arab world is to ignore them. If the existence of minorities is acknowledged at all, it is rarely discussed in public - and then only to declare how harmoniously everyone gets along.

The roots of this attitude lie mainly in history. Most Arab states, in the form we know them today, were created during the last century and their boundaries were determined - sometimes quite arbitrarily - by imperial powers. Successive Arab governments have had to grapple with the resulting problems, attempting to weld various tribal, ethnic and religious groupings into nations.

The special Arab concern with national unity is therefore understandable, but unity is often confused with uniformity. Sweeping minorities under the carpet and pretending that differences don't exist can only lead to trouble: it produces a false sense of security that sooner or later will evaporate.

Real national unity does not rely on make-believe uniformity; it is achieved by addressing minority issues openly and honestly, and dealing with any problems that are identified before they become serious. Real national unity is also achieved not just through avoidance of discrimination but through inclusivity - ensuring that minorities have a proportionate role (neither subservient nor dominant) at all levels of national life ... politically, socially and economically.

The minority issues faced by the Arab world are not unique, however. Similar problems arise even in the old-established countries and this means there are plenty of examples of successes or failures elsewhere that can be drawn upon when deciding how to deal with them.

An effective approach seeks to achieve a sustainable balance between the demands of national unity and the rights of minorities, and between integration and multiculturalism. Unfortunately, there is no simple one-off solution: minority issues have to be addressed from many different directions and kept under permanent review, as can be seen from the case of my own country, Britain .

Britain , sometimes referred to by foreigners as " England " (which is actually only a part of it), is officially known as "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" - a rather long-winded title reflecting our historical path towards national unity.

England was once itself a cluster of small kingdoms and became a single entity in the 10th century AD. England 's union with the neighbouring country of Wales was completed in 1536. Union with Scotland came in 1707 and Northern Ireland formally joined the union in 1921.

Today, the Scots represent about 10% of the total British population while the Welsh account for about 5% and the Irish 2%.

Over the centuries the dividing lines have become blurred, and my own case is not untypical: one of my grandparents was Scottish, my mother's family name is Welsh, and my first name comes from a heroic Irish king who fought off Viking invaders from Scandinavia .

Despite their long cohabitation with England , the Scottish, Welsh and Irish minorities have preserved many of their cultural traditions - food, music, dance, etc - and Scotland retains its own separate legal system, even today.

We also have our linguistic differences. In Wales , many of the people speak Welsh in preference to English, and of these some 30,000-40,000 speak only Welsh. Gaelic can also be heard in everyday use in remoter parts of Scotland , while tiny numbers elsewhere in Britain speak other ancient languages such as Cornish and Manx.

In religion, Britain (nominally at least) is a Christian country. We used to be Roman Catholics until the 16th century English monarch, Henry VIII, had a quarrel with the Pope, switched the country to Protestantism and made himself head of the Church of England. Some citizens disagreed with that and refused to abandon Catholicism; their loyalty to the king became suspect and for several centuries afterwards they were persecuted or discriminated against.

The Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and the Catholics are what might be considered our "old" minorities, in contrast to the "new" minorities that have arrived in Britain since the Second World War, mainly from far-flung parts of our former empire - India, Pakistan, Africa and the Caribbean. These people have brought their own cultural traditions into the national mix and, in many cases, their own religion - with the result that Islam is now the second biggest religion in Britain, with well over a million believers.

Problems experienced during the last half-century or so have not just involved the new minorities but the old ones, too. Some have been dealt with well, others badly.

The Northern Ireland conflict - essentially between Protestants who want to remain in the United Kingdom and Catholics who identify with the Irish Republic in the south - is a lesson in how not to handle minority issues, though there has been progress towards resolving it over the last few years.

Less well known, but perhaps more instructive, are the success stories in Wales and Scotland , both of which experienced growing nationalist sentiment from the 1960s onwards.

In Scotland , the issue was partly fuelled by the discovery of oil and gas off the Scottish coast. This, according to the nationalists, meant that Scotland was providing the government in London with a disproportionately large amount of revenue and getting disproportionately little in return. The solution was to devolve some of the powers of central government to a newly-created Scottish parliament, allowing local decision-making on matters that are specifically related to Scotland .

In Wales the main issue was the decline of the Welsh language, which many viewed as a vital part of their cultural heritage. This was addressed by increasing the use of Welsh for official purposes: road signs in Wales appeared in both languages, government announcements relating to Wales were issued in English and Welsh, and so on. In 1993 parliament approved a law formally declaring Welsh a "language of equal status" with English (though not an "official language").

These and other measures appear to have satisfied most people in Wales - they certainly took the heat out of the nationalist movement. By 1997, when the government held a referendum on the creation of a Welsh assembly, many had lost interest. Welsh voters approved the assembly by a tiny majority of only 50.3%, and half of them did not bother to vote.

Unlike Britain 's old minorities, which are geographically based, the new minorities - mainly blacks and Asians - are dispersed throughout the country, though they tend to be found mainly in cities, where urban poverty and its resulting social problems complicate the issues of ethnicity and religion.

To some extent the British authorities have been forced to pay attention to the new minorities because of occasional urban riots and various cases of discrimination that attracted publicity. But they have also been concerned to avoid a repetition in Britain of bad experiences that have occurred in other parts of the world.

One particularly important change has been in the way the police approach crime among ethnic minority groups. Poor young blacks had begun to regard the police - often with good reason - as a source of white racist oppression. Fortunately the danger was recognised and the police began a campaign to recruit from ethnic minorities, as well as weeding out racist officers. It has been a slow process, but it is beginning to get somewhere.

At the same time, the police have made great efforts to educate their officers about minority groups and to train them to handle minority issues sensitively. Among other things, this involves developing good relations with the leaders of minority communities and consulting them regularly - not just when difficulties arise.

A similar approach can be found in most areas of government, at both local and national level. New employees at the Foreign Office, for example, are now given "Islamic awareness" training which includes a visit to a mosque.

The Foreign Office, whose staff used to be all white, almost entirely male and from a uniform social background (wealthy and educated at Oxford or Cambridge ), has also begun recruiting people from minority groups. This effort began to pay off a few years ago when, for the first time, the Foreign Office was able to send a Muslim consular team to Mecca to assist any British Muslims who got into difficulties during the Hajj.

Another important development, which has helped to change perceptions among the wider public, is the increased visibility of people from minority backgrounds in the media, in entertainment, in sport, etc. Television soap operas, for example, regularly include characters from ethnic minorities, and the producers are careful not to portray them in a negative light. None of this is intended to suggest that Britain has achieved perfection in its treatment of minorities, though with the exception of the long conflict in Northern Ireland it has probably been more successful than many countries. We have certainly come a long way since the 1960s when people used to claim that having a black family move into the house next door would bring down the value of your own property.

According to a recent survey by the Washington-based Pew Survey Center , 63% of Britons believe that our black and Asian minorities have a good influence on the country and only 26% believe they have a bad influence. This picture is very different in France , where a majority - 51% - have a negative view of the North African minority, and in Italy , where 80% have a negative view of Albanian minority.

It is possible to draw several conclusions from the British experience which are applicable elsewhere - and that includes the Arab world. As a starting point, it is important to address minority issues openly, in public. Trying to sweep them under the carpet only makes matters worse in the long run. Even when there appears to be no problem, it pays to consult the minorities themselves. This can highlight issues before they have fully developed, allowing them to be dealt with more easily.

Anti-discrimination laws are essential, but they have to be accompanied by other action such as awareness training for government officials and more general education for the public. Employers, whether government or private, also have a responsibility to safeguard against discrimination in the day-to-day workplace, or in their procedures for recruitment and promotion.

Most of the effort in Britain so far has been in response to various problems, but that is only part of the whole picture. There is a growing awareness that minorities are not merely a potential source of problems but also a potential source of richness - both cultural and economic.

The new buzzword is "diversity", which means going beyond equal rights and anti-discrimination measures to celebrate the existence of minorities and the contribution that they can make to society.

This is not just a matter for governments. In business, for example, it means taking a special initiative to recruit, retain and develop employees from diverse social backgrounds.

A recent study for the European Commission looked at 200 companies in four European countries and found that diversity policies brought tangible benefits. "Companies who implement diversity policies ... to encourage a mix of races, sexual orientations, religions, physical disabilities, ages and sexes within the workplace can expect benefits in the short and long term," the report said.

Among the benefits identified were improved competitiveness and innovation, better access to new markets, greater customer satisfaction, lower absenteeism, retention of highly talented staff and a generally enhanced corporate image. That ought to be a sufficiently enticing list to make any company boss look at diversity policies seriously.

As yet, diversity policies are not very widespread but the indications so far are extremely positive and they point to a future in which minorities, far from being feared or ignored, are valued for what they can offer. 

Brian Whitaker
March 10, 2004

This article was originally written for the Tharwa Project website.