The Rise Of ISIS

To understand how this terrible group came out and how it has grown so powerful over the last years, you need to understand the story behind its rise, which leads you to decades before ISIS even existed.ISIS-Iraq

In 1979 the sovietunion invaded Afghanistan to defend a dectator in its conflict with anti-communist muslim guerrillas, which we by the way also read about in the book “Thousand Splendid suns”. Young men from middle-east came to join the war, also referred to as Mujahideen (this is also mentioned in the book). Many viewed the situation as a religious struggle, and from there, some developed extremist views.

Among them was a well educated young Saudi-Arabian named Osama Bin Laden. Also in

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On the left: Abu Mudab Al-Zarqwavi, to the right: Osama Bin Laden

Afghanistan was a semi-literate former street thug from Jordan who calls himself by “Abu Musab Al-Zarqwavi”. These to young men  did not get along at all. Infact, they were considered as enemies. They created their groups by the names we know today as Al-Qaida and ISIS. On september 11, 2001, Al-Qaida attacks America. As a result, the U.S invades Afghanistan, Bin Laden traveles to Pakistan, and Zarqwavi, on the other hand, flees to Iraq. 2 years later, The U.S does something that transforms the middle-east and sets the stage for ISIS.

Saddam Hussains secular, mostly sunni dictatorship disbans Iraqy army. Thousands of sunni iraqy soldiers were now angry and unemployed, and therefore joined the surgency. Jihadist groups were also sunni. See, this is repeated the soviet-afghan war, and again they went in to fight. Zarqwavi was among them. His group eventually became Iraqs most ruthless. He especially attacks Shia, which creates a war between Sunni and Shia. However, in 2004, Zarqwavi becomes a jihadist superstar. Al-Qaida, on the other hand, were isolated and weakened, which attens to boost his image by forming a line known as “Al-Qaida in Iraq”.
Never the less, in 2006, Iraq sunnis rise up against Zarqwavi and the U.S killes him with air strike.

Over the next years Al-Qaida in Iraq is largey defeated, and finally in 2011, the U.S leaves Iraq.

In 2011 the Arab Spring spreads across the middle-east. In Syria, dictator Assad, cracks down violantly on protestors, which leads to people fighting back. This leads to a civil war. Assad fears that the world will go against him, therefor he releases jihadists in large numbers in Syrian prisons, making it harder for people to fight back.

Back in Iraq, what little remains of Zarqwavis  so called group “Al-Qaida in Iraq”, is still allied with Al-qaida, but is now known as The Islamic State of Iraq. The group is leaded by a scholar named Abubakr-al baghdadi.  In 2012, Baghdadi sends attackers to Syria to start a new Al-Qaida branch to fight along side the rebels. Baghdadi attacks a series of prisons in Iraq and frees former jihadists and recruit new ones, which leads to ISIS growing stronger and becoming more powerful.

In april 2013, Baghdadi announces he is taking control over all Al-Qaida allied forces in Syria and Iraq. His group expands into Syria, and the group becomes “The Islamic State in Syria” , also shortened to ISIS.

Al-Qaida ,on the other hand, rejects Baghdadi’s announcement, and in 2014, the two jihadist groups were at war.

ISIS grows stronger and stronger, which is not really hard to understand because the dictator in Syria, Assad, is tolerating its rise. The reason behind his tolerance is because it devides enemies within Syria, and also because the former powers are too busy focusing on ISIS now to worry about Assad.

By June 2014, ISIS has build an army in Syria and it launches a military invasion in Iraq. The Iraqy army, which I mentioned about earlier, was weakened by corruption, fought with little faith. Many sunnis in Iraq were tired of Shia dominating the country. Therefore they tolerated ISIS arriavle. Within days, ISIS controlled third of Iraq and a large part of Syria.

Thousands of muslims, mostly from middle-east and Europe, went down to join the group. Some joined for religious reasons, while some were just disillusioned and angry and feel that ISIS gives them answers and a purpose.

Sources: Read More

Slumdog Millionare

Slumdog Millionare is a british movie made in Mumbai, India. Desbite the fact that most indian movies do not reach out to the whole world, this movie is the worlds largest film productions.

The movie takes us in to the Indian culture. More pricesly, into how the industry is changing in the country. The movie is about a poor eighteen year old boy named Jamal who lives in the slum, which is also known as the ghetto. He participates in a show called “who wants to be a millionare?” and tries to win the big award, 20,000,000. The purpose of participating is not to win, but to find his love, Latika by appearing on the show she likes to watch.

slumdogThroughout the movie, we get a glimpse of how the indian life is, but most importantly, the relationship between a girl and a boy. Since Jamal knows all the answers to the questions, the producer behind the show assumes he is cheating, and therefore notifies the police. The police tries to confess him, but at the end of the confession, they understand he did not cheat and let him go back to the show. On the final question, he is allowed to call a friend. He calls the only number he got, which is his brother’s, but surprisingly, it is Latika who picks up the phone.

The main characters in the movie are Jamal, Latika and Salim. They experience ups and downs together . Salim is playing the role as the boss because he is the oldest among them. The relationship between Salim and Jamal is not good. As abvious as it could be in the movie, there is a contrast between these two boys. Salim is the harsh one, while Jamal, on the other hand, is the nice one. The producers have been really clear about how the characters are going to develop throughout the movie.

slumdog (1)

The producers use retrospective techniques, which means we get to see the present as well as the past. In the beginning of the movie, when Jamal is asked questions from the show, the scene suddenly shifts to where he was 5 years old running around in the slum. By using this technique, it creates suspense and curiosity for the audience. Also, the child versions of him, Salim and Latika are very similarily to grown-up versions in the way they act. We see that Salim, who was harsh and mean as a child, was also harsh as a grown-up.

The main suspence is showed through the game show,”Who wants to be a millionare?”. The climax is when Latika is watching Jamal on TV and understands that the one Jamal is calling for help, is Salim. What Jamal do not know is that Latika has his phone.

Dev-Patel-Freida-Pinto-Slumdog-Millionaire

Jamal and Latika

The themes in this film is love, betreyal, destiny and relationship. The betreyal is to see between the two brothers, and the love between Jamal and Latika. Destiny comes in when two people meet after being saparated for several years, not only like Jamal and Latika, but also like Jamal and Salim.

In my opinion, this movie is very good and the story has a strong message to the audience around the world, to be aware that cultures can also be very extreme. As shown in the movie, people are living on the streets, so called “slum dogs” who live in the slum. One contrast to find between the system in India and Norway, are the police. In the movie, the police brought Jamal in because they thought we was cheating on the show. In Norway, this situation would not have taken place. As shown in the movie, people behave more aggressively twoards each other over there than in Norway for example.

 

SOURCES:

IMDB– Written By Fox Searchlight Pictures

Slumdog Millionare (movie) Released in 2008. Director: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandaan.

HIV/AIDS

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus. If this virus is left untreated it can lead to the desase AIDS. This desease is the final stage og HIV infection.

For over 20 years, the HIV/AIDS disease has destroyed lives and devastated countries around the globe. Among all the causes of deaths around the world today, AIDS is the fourth-leading one, caliming over a million of lives a year. Accoarding to the Centers for desase Control and Prevention, around 1 million in the U.S are currently living with HIV. Only 25% of the them are recieving ongoinHIV AIDSg medical treatment.

Unfortunately there is no cure for HIV nor AIDS, however, there are effective antiretroviral treatments that have been available since the mid 1990s. If this medicine gets taken right away, everyday, it can prevent the chance of transmitting the virus to others. It can also dramatically prolong the lives of people with HIV.

Because of the deaths rates caused by HIV/AIDS, scientists have researched where this virus is coming from and what can be done to prevent it. In the beginning of their research, scientists claimed they had come to a conclusion and identified a type of chimpanzee in Central africa as the main source of HIV virus in humans. They believe that humans got transmitted of this virus when they hunted for these types of chimpanzee for meat and came into touch with their infected blood.

Today, accoarding to nationalGeographic, scientists say that the virus did not start its life in chimps. Instead, it was seperate viruses to begin with, jumping from different monkey species into chimps.

When it comes to transmission of HIV , the most common methods among humans are unprotected sex with an infected partner, sharing needles with an infected person and pregnancy and birth.

 

Also, there are ways to find out if someone is infected by this virus. Once the immune system weakens, a person infected with HIV can develop symptoms such as lack of energy, fevers and sweats, skin rashes or flaky skin, short-term memory loss and mouth, genetical or anal sores from herpes infection.

 

From a social point of viw, the epedemic began in a cloud of fear, because very few knew how the desease was spread. This led to discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. Despite the efforts, people with HIV/AIDS were fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes and denied access to medical care and social services. In response, publiv health officials worked as best as possible to provide the general public with the right information about the desease.

Sources:

National Geographic News– By Stefan Lovgren in June,12,2003

Global Health Strategies

 

Aids.gov– Last revised: 12/31/2015

Gun Violence

Gun violence is violence comitted with the use of gun. Right now America is confronting an epedemic of mass shootings. The country has already started its long election season, and gun laws will be a major topic during the 2016 presidental election.  An example of mass shooting took place in a community college in Roseburg, Oregon where ten people got killed and seven people injured.

Lets take a look at where the top 2016 presidental candidates stand on gun control:

Donal Trump, the presidental candidate who’s all over the media nowadays, said on his website that he actually supports the right to bear arms. He claims that it’s all about self-defense. This might be the least shocking thing coming from Trump, compared to other shocking things he has been saying lately, for example that muslim should be banned from the U.S.

Fortunately, there are some presidental candidates who disagree with Trump. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state has expressed the importance of ending gun violence at an event in lowa. At the event, she promised to fight to balance the second amendment to prevent tragedies, such as the mass shooting in Roseburg and Virginia. Clinton also tweeted right after the shooting in Roseburg, where she tweeted to call for gun control.

Even though Hillary Clinton and Donal Trump have said their opinions about gun control, many republician presidental candidates have tried to avoid offering any policy solutions and risking the National Riffle Association’s wrath. One of the candidates that have been extra quite is Jeb Bush. His response to the mass shooting in the community College in Roseburg was literally “stuff happens” . In detail, he said “Look, stuff happens and the impulse is always to do something about it but it’s not neseccarily the right thing to do”

So to really know wether strong gun control is going to solve the gun violence problem in the U.S, we can compare the U.S with other countries who has strong gun control. Here is a data showing the gun death rates in US and Australia:

gun control

As we can see, America has way higher gun deaths than Australia. We can also see that the low gun death rates in Australia has a strong connection to strong gun control. Since the United States has the highest rate of gun voilence per capita among developed countries, it is therefore in my opinion neseccarily to have strong gun control.

Sources:

Hillary Clinton on gun control  – http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_Gun_Control.htm

Donald Trump on gun violence

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/second-amendment-rights

Jeb Bush on gun violence

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/jeb-bush-oregon-campus-shooting-stuff-happens-214386

Data on Gun Deaths in America and Australia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gun_Deaths_by_Year,_Australia,_America.pdf

 

Agnostic, not Atheist

(This post may ot may not fit in this blog, but I really wanted to write about my thoughts so I was like, if I write it down here in English it might be okay. Also it’ll help improving my writing skills!)

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Picture: Azquotes

Lately I’ve been ovethinking, researching and talking with other people about this thesis question; Does being Agnostic make me an Atheist?

Lets take a look at what these words mean: An atheist have lack of believe in God’s existence due to the lack of evidence supporting religious vertues. Atheism is NOT a religion nor is it a belief system. Saying Atheism is a religion is just as stupid as saying bald is a color, or health is a desease.

While Atheists are clearly saying there’s no God if there’s no evidence supporting that belief, Agnostic on the other hand have a different view. An Agnostic netiher believes nor disbelieves in God. It simply means that you shall not say you know or you believe in something which you have no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. An Agnostic is however prepared to believe in God if there is scientific proof of spiritual exictence that supports its beliefes.  That’s why it really bothers me when people thing being Agnostic is the same thing as being an atheist. However I do understand that because of the small gap between these two it’s therefore easy to assume that both goes under the same category.

Just like me, many other people are born into a family with beliefes. Since you’r born in that family the chances are you’r likely going to follow your families path. In my opinion, I believe nobody should blindely follow a religion without studying it and really know what the religion emplies. I also disagree with parents who badtize their newborn babies or pracise any religous beliefes on children who have no idea about their religion. Instead, the children should decide by their own when they grow up if they wanna change their beliefes or practise upon the one they already have.

I really don’t like to label myself, or put myself in a sort of category. I’m an open minded person who is willing to see things from an other point of view. The moment when someone attaches you to a philosofy or a movement, they assime all the baggage and all the rest of the philosofy that goes with it, to you. And when you want to have a conversation with them where you want to share your opinion, they will believe that they already know every important thing there is to know about you BECAUSE of that association. That’s really not the way you want to have a conversation. Personally i’d like to explore other peoples ideas and share my own, rather than assign a label to it and believe I know what’s going to happen in advance. I’m curious about believing in someone’s existence without any scientific proof. Never the less, I do respect other peoples beliefes and their right and freedom to practise upon it. All I would like in return is that my opinion about religion also gets respected equally as others

I’m in a place right now where the word Agnostic defines my beliefes best, and I often experience that people look at it in a very negative way. Often when I try to have a conversation with people with different beliefes than me, they jump up to a conclusion that since I don’t believe in God, I’m going to hell. I find this “conlusion” very funny because I have never in my life denied God’s existence. The only difference is that, I’m not saying he exists either, but how can I? On what behalf of proof can I say that God exists? none so far. See, I said “so far” which means that later in life  if science can proof God’s existence or any spiritual existence, I’ll change my beliefes. This is how being Agnostic basically works; we don’t believe nor disbelieve in God. We just keep our mouth shut until we have any evidence supporting our beliefes.

At the end I just want to say that, even though I don’t believe in a religion, I do find peace. I do good to others because I belive human beings can be good with and without God. I believe gratitude is better than praying because gratitude makes you value everything you already have, while praying only makes you ask for more. I’m not afraid to think, and if I’m going to “hell”, then at least I’m going because I’ve been 100% honest with myself.

 

Sources: Just my brain.

 

Beasts Of No Nation- Analysis

A couple of days ago, we watched the movie “Beasts Of No Nation” in our IE class.

maxresdefaultThis movie is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and based on a novel with the same name. It’s about a boy named Agu (played by Abraham Atta) who finds himself in the middle of a civil war in Africa.

Even though the movie is shot in Ghana, the film is supposed to take place in an unnamed and unspesific country in Africa, just like in the movie. I believe it is so the readers are aware that this is not taking place in only one specific country or one spesific place. This is happening in many many other places. Thousands of child soldiers are illegally serving in armed conflict around the world.

Abrahams performance in this movie is probably the best kid performance I’ve ever seen. And the things he has to do wich you would never picture him doing in the beginning of the movie becomes quite shocking.

When the movie first introduces Agu, his friends and his family, you understand that all though these children and these people are living far away from us, in the other side of the world from us and they don’t have the best resources as we do, they’re still like us. We see Agu and his friends playing around with a TV, and since that TV doesn’t have a screen or anything, they call it an imagination TV and making it a 3D TV by dancing and acting behind the screen. We see Agu picking on his older brother and messing around just like any other any other little brother, and his older brother picking on him more than he should, just like older brothers do. You really get that “at home” feeling while you’re watching the beginning of the movie. You feel like Agu’s family is a loving family. But once the conflict starts to introduce itself, you never get that warm happy feeling in the rest of the movie.

The commandant controlled Agu by many ways. He played with his emotion, wich was in my point of view the main way of controlling him. The commandant told him that they are going to kill those who killed his family, that they were going to take revenge. He also told him that Agu was like his own son, and that he will protect him like a father. Another thing he told Agu was he will bring him to his mother, wich was complete false. The commandant had to intension to bringing Agu to his mother, and why would he anyway? He didn’t wanted to loose Agu as a solider.

Despite playing with emotions, the commandant also controlled him by drugs and food. Once Agu started taking drugs he became addicted to it, and how could he get more? By staying with the soliders. And if he decided to leave, he knew he would starve to death. By stying with the commandant at least he knew he was getting food.

Agu doesn’t have any control of his life as a s

Another thing to point out is that this movie is realistic. There are so many children, some where, right now that have no other choice than to become a solider. Kids that are supposed to go to school, play sports and enjoy childhood are being victims to this horrible things.  I really loved this movie because it’s realistic to the problems in the real world. I used to say poor people in poor countries live in bad conditions, without really thinking to myself what it meant to live in bad conditions in a poor country, or how it’s actually like to be poor and not have same human rights as others. My point is, by seeing movies like these, or documentaries it really helps to get a better picture of the reality, how this REALLY are.

Sources:

Beasts Of No Nation- Movie

New York Times– By A.O Scott – published Oct,15.2015

NGO- HumanRightsWatch

It’s difficult to choose one NGO among the hundreds og NGOs in the world, but I still managed to choose the one I believe  is a very good and an important organization.

HumanRightsWatch is an organization made up by around 400 staff members worldwide. What makes this organization so different from most of the other NGOs is that it’s nonprofit and nongovernmental group. The reason why this organization chose to not accept government funds or support from any private funder is to ensure their independence.

its staff consists of human right experts (including journalists, lawyers and country experts).  The organization was established as early as in 1978 by the creatoin of Helsinki Watch and it’s especially known for its accurate fact-finding, effective use of media and impartial reporting. HumanRightsWatch publishes over 100 reports each year and highlights on human rights condition in 90 countries.

humanrights

What they do to bring a change 

HumanRightsWatch meets with the United Nations, governments, financial institutions, regional groups (African Union, European Union) and corporations and press for changes in policy that supports human rights and justice worldwide.

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In 2011, Peter Bouckaert (staff member/ emergencies director) Interviewed refugees from the war in Syria at the Turkish border.

the goal with researching and interviewing victims is to gain  enough information about repeated human rights violations or an incident so they can create a precise picture of what happened. HumanRightsWatch seeks to those who are directly involved with the abuses: victims and witnesses. By doing so, they develop the recommendations they adress to governments for redress of human rights violations.

There are some challenges Human Rights Watch face when it comes to their research.

Many of the countries they have to do research in are so called “closed socities” such as North Korea and Iran. It means that these countries close their borders for their research. Challenges that may arise in these “closed socities”  are identifying victims and witnesses, identifying rights violations, and identifying recommentations and solutions.

However, even without crossing the borders, Human Rights Watch are still able to interview with victims and witnesses. These interviews usually happen through phone and online communication.

All in all, Human Rights Watch defines the rights of people in 90 countries around the world and bringing perpetrators to justice.  An organization that is standing on it’s on feets without government funds nor any private donation since 1978.

Sources:

Human Rights Watch

 

Brussel under attack!

On Tuesday, Brussel was hit by a number of explosions, and all the signs were pointing towards a terror attack. The explosions first rocked Zaventem Airport, followed by more than one blast near the Malbeek metro station, which is the city’s Europeen Quarter. The first news about the explosions got out through social media; eyewitnesses had published pictures ans statuses on social media about the terrible events.

As many as 130 people were injured becuse of the blast and 31 people are confirmed dead.

metrostation brussel

(The terrible scene outside Maalbeek metro station shortly after the explosions. Picture: http://www.politico.eu/article/in-pictures-brussels-under-attack/)

Even though it was a very shocking event for many people, and many countries are still thrilled over the situation in Brussel, for the citizens  in Brussel or anyone who had been closely observing the city over the past years it didn’t come as a huge surprise.  While the capital in Belgia had been known as the centre of Europeen culture and politics, the capital’s reputation had been watered because of the links to terror and extremism;

Some might remember from the news of the attacks in Paris in November 2015. The last surviving participant from the attacks that killed around 130 people, Abdeslam (26) was a French citizen , but he was born in Brussels and also lived there with his family. For many months it was known that Abdeslam had traveled back to Belgium, but only recently (a few weeks ago)  the Belgium athorities captured him. While discovering the last surviving terrorist from November’s Paris attack was a success, it also appeared to show that the number of people involved in the attacks might have been been larger. There were also signs that Abdeslam and his network were planning more attacks.

Salah-Abdeslam-(1)

(Abdeslam Salah (26) suspect in the attacks of Paris recently detained in Belgium)

On one hand, a wave of relief swept to Brussels and Belgians security service Abdeslam was detained, but on the other hand his arrest is just a footnote in the larger battle againts Europe and terrorism accoarding to CNN

People have been questioning why it took so long to arrest Abdeslam. “How could a suspect be on the run after the worst attacks in Europe in our modern era,” people were asking.

After the attacks in France, Abdeslam left Paris and have gone underground in Brussel for around 124 days, therefore the trail seemed to have gone cold (until recently ofcourse). Both French and Belgian investigators came to a conlusion that Abdeslam might have managed to return to Syria and both athorities were surprised that he was in Brussels.

While the rise of ISIS, almost 500 citizens in Belgium have traveled to Iraq of Syria in order to fight with them, which makes Belgium the biggest known exporter of foreign Islamic state fighters in the whole Europe. While many of them who went to these countries to support and fight for the Islamic state either died or never came back, around 100 fighters did return back to Belgium.

There are definately links between the attacks in Paris and the recently attacks in Brussels. Accoarding to CNN, ten men are in custody in Belgium because of alleged links to the Paris attacks

Sources:

 

Girlhood..Not Motherhood

child marriage- school projectEach year, about 15 million girls become child brides. It is  really terrifying to know that at the end of today another 30,000 young kids will have been robbed of their childhoods, taken away their rights on education, and set on a dangerous path that often lead to poverty and servitute.

The reason why child merriage is a hidden yet a very big crisis is because the victims are way too young (even as young as eight or nine) , poor and most of them are female. these young girls are at greater risk of experiencing life threatening complications in pregnancy and childbirth. It’s breaking the human potential and reinforcing gender inequality on a global scale.

As we in the western countries find this totally wrong and a taboo, some cultures and countries do find it acceptable. I believe they find it acceptable because of their lack of knowledge and education. Countries such as India, Bangladesh and Nigeria has the highest number of child marriages. In India, 47% of the girls are married before they turn 18, even though (accoarding to Prohibition of Child Marriage Act PCMA) the legal age for marriage in India is 18 for girls and 21 for men.

Factors

In many cultures and communities girls are seen as an economic burden for the family, and by marrying her away the economic burden and the responsibility gets transfered to her husband.

When it comes to India, (wich has the highest percent of child brides) class and caste affects the expectaions and norms around the role of women and girls. In many communitites, girls are seen as a property of her father and then her husband. She only have a few roles; a daughter, a mother and a wife.

Dowry is also a factor with prices often increase the older the girl gets, wich is why families living in poverty marries their daugher while she’s very young.

In Bangladesh, the factors of child marriages includes poverty, the need to protect their daughters from harm, including sexual harassment. Not only protect them but also secure economic and social security for them.

But What Does Childbride Mean For These Girls?

It means denying girls their education, health and choice of when and whom to marry. The chances are very high that these girls will describe their first sex as forced.

These girls are likely to drop out of chool and is also a barrier to international development goals. Educating girls is not only very important, but their education also creates many good and positive outcomes for poverty reduction and for economic development. Lack of schooling becomes a hindering for their preparation for adulthood.

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Accoarding to International Center for Research on Women, this chart shows us countries and the precentage of young girls who marry by 18 by their years of schooling.  As we can see, girls who have a higher level of schooling are also less likely to be married as kids. This leads to a conclution: Education is a fundamental solution to the problem. Women who are educated marry later. Keeping girls in school and out of marriages will also save lives.

SOURCES:

GirlsNotBrides http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/where-does-it-happen/

(ICRW) –Prohibition of Child Marriage Act

United Nation Population Fund- http://www.unfpa.org/child-marriage

Girlsnotbrides http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/what-is-the-impact/

Care International UK, http://www.careinternational.org.uk/fighting-poverty/empowering-women-and-girls/ending-early-child-marriage

By Gordon Brown

 

Multiculturalism in UK

Multiculturalism is defined as a nation that consists of  two or several cultures. So it basically means a society with cultures, including ethnic minorities, living together side by side. Britain is often regarded as multicultural society. The UK has welcomed newcomers for centuries. For example, there are over 1 million muslims in Britain, mostly asians.

Also the Irish people have come to UK for many many years, looking for job. After WW2 Irish people had to take factory jobs, and since Britain couldn’t get enough workers to work in the new Health Service the employers also looked to former colonies and Commonwealth countries.

colonization indiaEarly in the year 1600s to middle of the 1900s Britain colonised and took controll over India. India was a jewel in Britain’s crown and they had a lot of benefits from colonising a country with a population on 300 million. Today the indian culture is influenced by Britain. The British brought their medical skills, administrive and legal system into India. Political and social reform in India was achieved as a result of the European political rules that Britain brought to India. There’s no doubd India is influenced by Britain.

Living in a multicultural society with people with different perspective and traditions makes people communicate with each other. We get to know that just because something is different, does not nececcary  mean it’s wrong.

Immigrants have become a source of diverse and knowledge all over the world. Many immigrants in Britain have increased innovation, creativity prosperity. Today Britain has so many different ethnic resaurants, grocery stores and clothing stores. The schools develop cross-cultural lesson plan, which broadens all children’s understanding of the world.

However, we can’t unsee the fact that if there are benefits with  a multiculutral society, then there are also some disadvantages. Accoarding to the 2013 NatCen British Social Attitudes survey, almost 30% British people report that they have some feelings of racial prejudice in Britian.  But what does that mean at a time and in a country where one in five people identify with an ethnic group other than white British?

Racism in Britian isn’t just about the white British hating on other ethnic groups or the opposite. People from other cultures and ethnic groups often becomes ethnocentic if they aren’t integrated good enough in the society, which means that they place their own culture in the centre of the universe. This leads to racism and culture conflicts.

 

Sources:

Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism

The Guardian- http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/19/does-the–have-a-problem-with-racism

BBC-http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm