In tough times for Muslims in public life, a cohort of secular Britons hailing from Muslim communities are challenging assumptions and extremism on all sides. This week, as a result of the Home Office scandal on the treatment of ‘Windrush’ immigrants, Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP was forced to resign.
Replacing her is Sajid Javid, former secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Britain’s first Home Secretary of South Asian heritage. It has been noted that Javid shares a remarkably similar profile to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Both of them are children of working-class bus drivers hailing from the Pakistani migrant communities that arrived in Britain from the 1960s.
While much is to be made of these two triumphant examples of an immigrant story in Modern Britain, both Javid and Khan are also united by their Muslim background. Khan professes as a practising Muslim and Javid practices no religion but both have borne heightened scrutiny in the public eye as prominent British Muslims. [Conatus News] Read more
