Funny, charming and poignant, yet thought-provoking.
For eight years Bilal Hasham, his wife Mariam and his stepson Haaris have lived quietly and contentedly in the quintessentially English village of Babbel’s End, on the Dorset coast. By being prepared to blend in he has always felt accepted by the other residents, who never address him by his given name but instead call him Bill; he has been active in the community, serving on the Parish Council and always ready to help out fellow villagers. However, his mother Sakeena, who brought him up single-handedly following her husband’s desertion after the first year of their marriage, has never been able to understand why he chose to leave “multi-coloured” Birmingham where he was raised, to move to such a “white, white” village to open his accountancy firm. So, on her deathbed she has two requests to make of him – to look after her sister Rukhsana, his Khala (aunt) as she has always done, and to build a mosque in the village to acknowledge his commitment to Islam and his heritage. He was immediately able to promise the former, but Sakeena died before he could agree to the latter and, shocked by her request, is left struggling to know what to do. Finally, and much to Mariam’s horror, he decides he must honour his mother’s final wish but when he announces his intention to build a mosque, at a Parish Council meeting, most of the village residents are immediately up in arms! As people start to take sides it soon becomes clear that he has set in motion a train of events which will change him, his family and the village in ways no one could have envisaged.
It soon becomes clear that the villagers’ rather smug Christian-value tolerance and acceptance of this non-white family is threatened by the “threat” of a tangible exposure to another culture and religion. Following years of never experiencing any racial or religious hostility, Bilal and his family become the target of prejudice and bigotry from many of the people they had previously considered friends, and Haaris experiences bullying at school. Passions escalate still further when, following a fall, Bilal’s Khala Rukhsana moves in with the family; her traditional dress, along with her very limited English, appear to embody the very “foreign-ness” with which many residents are struggling to come to terms.
Although the author’s writing style is very light-hearted, the themes she tackles are dark and disturbing as she explores some of what it feels like to be different, to struggle to assimilate, to deal with prejudice, racism and bigotry. Through Rukhsana’s eyes she shows something of what it must be like for an immigrant to adjust to an alien culture, particularly if they are unable to speak the language and, through Bilal and Mariam’s, she demonstrates the ongoing struggles faced by first and second generation individuals who believe that they have done everything to assimilate and yet are still faced with prejudice and intolerance.
Through some of the village residents (an obvious example being Shelley, retired head mistress and Chair of the Parish Council) she explores the hypocrisy of those who claimed that their objections to the idea of a mosque are about preserving the village’s Christian heritage and English traditions and have nothing to do with racism or bigotry. She looks at how people cope with change, how they often react aggressively when feeling that their way of life is being threatened. However, by using other characters to demonstrate tolerance and a willingness to be supportive in difficult situations, she recognises that not everyone is resistant to change: some are able to manage this relatively easily, whilst others need time to reflect before being prepared to stand up for what is right.
With a light, often humorous, touch she exposes how, in the wake of 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, Muslims, are often immediately seen as a threat, and how prejudice, both overt and casual, permeates our society, often lying relatively hidden until “awakened” by something perceived as a threat to traditional British values. She manages to capture that it is often the insidious, casual type of prejudice which is more difficult to deal with because it is its very subtlety which makes it so much harder to challenge.
Although there were moments when I thought that the author came close to using stereotypical characterisations, for the most part I found that she just about managed to avoid doing that, so I found it easy to find each of her cast of characters credible and, for the most part, likeable! One of the most memorable for me was gentle Rukhsana who, with her quiet wisdom and innate tolerance, embodied the traits needed to reach out to people with different viewpoints and to unite fractured communities.
I found this a very “visual” book and, having initially wondered whether I was going to find it a rather too lightweight story, I really admired, and enjoyed, the way in which Ayisha Malik was able to combine compassion and humour (some of which was of the “laugh-out-loud” variety!) with a thought-provoking exploration of identity, faith, what it means to belong within a community, to struggle with divided loyalties, to be living in times of political uncertainty, the importance of tolerance and a willingness to adapt – just some of the themes included and which would make this a good choice for reading groups.
It soon becomes clear that the villagers’ rather smug Christian-value tolerance and acceptance of this non-white family is threatened by the “threat” of a tangible exposure to another culture and religion. Following years of never experiencing any racial or religious hostility, Bilal and his family become the target of prejudice and bigotry from many of the people they had previously considered friends, and Haaris experiences bullying at school. Passions escalate still further when, following a fall, Bilal’s Khala Rukhsana moves in with the family; her traditional dress, along with her very limited English, appear to embody the very “foreign-ness” with which many residents are struggling to come to terms.
Although the author’s writing style is very light-hearted, the themes she tackles are dark and disturbing as she explores some of what it feels like to be different, to struggle to assimilate, to deal with prejudice, racism and bigotry. Through Rukhsana’s eyes she shows something of what it must be like for an immigrant to adjust to an alien culture, particularly if they are unable to speak the language and, through Bilal and Mariam’s, she demonstrates the ongoing struggles faced by first and second generation individuals who believe that they have done everything to assimilate and yet are still faced with prejudice and intolerance.
Through some of the village residents (an obvious example being Shelley, retired head mistress and Chair of the Parish Council) she explores the hypocrisy of those who claimed that their objections to the idea of a mosque are about preserving the village’s Christian heritage and English traditions and have nothing to do with racism or bigotry. She looks at how people cope with change, how they often react aggressively when feeling that their way of life is being threatened. However, by using other characters to demonstrate tolerance and a willingness to be supportive in difficult situations, she recognises that not everyone is resistant to change: some are able to manage this relatively easily, whilst others need time to reflect before being prepared to stand up for what is right.
With a light, often humorous, touch she exposes how, in the wake of 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, Muslims, are often immediately seen as a threat, and how prejudice, both overt and casual, permeates our society, often lying relatively hidden until “awakened” by something perceived as a threat to traditional British values. She manages to capture that it is often the insidious, casual type of prejudice which is more difficult to deal with because it is its very subtlety which makes it so much harder to challenge.
Although there were moments when I thought that the author came close to using stereotypical characterisations, for the most part I found that she just about managed to avoid doing that, so I found it easy to find each of her cast of characters credible and, for the most part, likeable! One of the most memorable for me was gentle Rukhsana who, with her quiet wisdom and innate tolerance, embodied the traits needed to reach out to people with different viewpoints and to unite fractured communities.
I found this a very “visual” book and, having initially wondered whether I was going to find it a rather too lightweight story, I really admired, and enjoyed, the way in which Ayisha Malik was able to combine compassion and humour (some of which was of the “laugh-out-loud” variety!) with a thought-provoking exploration of identity, faith, what it means to belong within a community, to struggle with divided loyalties, to be living in times of political uncertainty, the importance of tolerance and a willingness to adapt – just some of the themes included and which would make this a good choice for reading groups.