emerging themes

The themes for the focus group sessions in our first year of work were devised with the Mile End Community Project (MCP), but there was often overlap between topics. For instance, a conversation about schools would lead to a conversation about employment and aspiration.

Talking about being in prison is still a sensitive subject and only discussed among certain members. Over a period of months we explored different discussion points, using standard questions to prompt a discussion, as well as using film, and more interactive exercises. A number of organisations MCP has worked with in the past have made promises about work or work experience but not followed through. As a result there was and remains a need to ensure the group trusts Maslaha’s motives and understands that positive results may not be instant. Over the course of two years, the dynamics between Maslaha and the group have very much become more open and trusting.

We believe that in order for the criminal justice system to be able to work effectively, there needs to be a broader understanding of these issues affecting young Muslim men. Such an understanding would facilitate more appropriate sentencing, which would in turn lead to a greater chance of re-offending not occurring.

We are currently carrying out a focused scoping exercise examining how the criminal justice system is failing to deliver an appropriate response and how criminal justice decision-making can be more effective in responding to offending by young Muslim men. You can read more about this here.

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family

Your parents just tell you to go to school. You never communicate to your parents.
The term family can refer to blood relations; it can also, in this context, refer to friends too. Family therefore is a broad group of people who support each other. This is also extended by the sense of 'brotherhood' in Islam, expressed by some of the young men. 

The main points that came out of our discussions on family are:
  • lack of communication with parents/families
  • lack of understanding between the older and younger generations in terms of context and growing up in a very different world to parents
  • absent fathers and the impact this has
  • the importance of family/parental support for supporting aspirations
  • the role (or not) that family members play in being role models for their children
  • economic struggle
There is sometimes an expectation, sometimes a need, that the children support the family financially. 
Your parents might need money, and you might see that growing up and that happens mainly in Asian families - if you see your mum struggling you want to help. In white families, when you are old enough, you get out.
The socio-economic situation of many families means they live in cramped housing, providing an incentive for young people to leave the house, as well as to earn money.
Now we can’t find a job, people end up lying to their parents saying they’re working, so they need to do something to keep busy, stay out all day. Probably drug dealing, working on the streets to take money home. 

People are out because they've got nothing to do at home. If you live in a three bedroom house, mum’s watching the TV downstairs, someone else watching TV upstairs. 

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school

All the naughty kids got the free trips. Teachers didn’t believe in us.
A recurring theme spoken about by each of the young men was feeling let down by the education system. The sense that schools had 'given up' with the naughty kids, and the residentials and free trips afforded to them had, in the end, caused them further setbacks in terms of employment and making a living. There has to be a recognition of how much persistence is takes from their side to create change from this position. 
Low teacher expectation is increasingly being documented and shown to have a huge detrimental effect on pupils [1]. Low expectation is based around stereotypes of cultural backgrounds [2]. The group reported their experiences of being pigeonholed based on siblings who attended the school previously.

Lessons didn't always resonate in the way they were taught, as well as the content. Cultural diversity and local context is broadly not well-reflected in school curricula and this has been shown to raise engagement and aspiration [3].
Another recurring theme from school is the lack of practical skills - life skills for the real world as well as practical trades - away from the emphasis on 'academic' subjects. It is important to note that they actively want this. 
I was thrown out of school in Year 10, sent to PRU [Pupil Referral Unit] for getting into fights. Basically for eight months, I did nothing at that PRU.  I needed to do something that was more practical like learn about apprenticeships. It’s not like I was stupid, I just couldn’t sit still in the classroom. I eventually ended up in remand for ten days. 

It’s something that should have been taught in school. Don’t understand why they never taught us business in maths. Like take this pound, this is how to make it into two. 
Although most believe they were to some extent failed by the education system, at same time they reiterate that if they were to do it all over again with more appropriate support - they would want to study hard.
You start bunking from year 7; when you’re younger you see other people doing it, older people - it starts with the little things. If you were to rewind, I’d go back to school, I’d be a boffin.

moving forward

As a result of these findings, we worked with the young men in MCP to create a practical intervention for schools that, based on their feedback, would be useful and inspiring for pupils.

You can read more about our pilot workshops in two schools in East London here.
Read more about the group's suggestions and recommendations here. 

[1] See e.g. Minority Ethnic Pupils in the LSYPE, DCSF 2007 and Minority Ethnic Attainment & Participation, DES 2003
[2] Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils, DES 2003
[3] See e.g. ibid and Muslims in the UK: Policies for Engaged Citizens, OSI 2005

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employment

People who are legit and with money don’t come and talk to you. People who are on the streets in their Ferraris come and talk to you. The drug dealer is always wearing fresh clothes, fresh trainers - this is something I want too.
Common career aspirations amongst the group consisted primarily of working in construction, creative industries, youth work, or none/unsure.

Drive and ambition do exist, but many members of the group complained about struggling with how to turn their ideas into practice, a struggle which often lead to frustration and a loss in motivation.
In the end it was often drug dealers who showed them this 'how' and 'invested' in them - lack of alternatives and constructive support meant the same outcomes were repeated.
I got so many ideas but I wouldn’t know how to put them into a plan. Young people don’t know who to turn to. People might know about stuff like the Princes Trust, but they don’t know what it does, they think it’s for youth clubs.

You can get a three year guaranteed income from university students [looking for drugs]. It’s like you’re your own boss. Where as if you’re working in retail, you gotta get up, get shouted at by the boss everyday. You’re used to having money; it’s a millionaires life innit.
The group unanimously agreed on the difficulty in practice of finding employment with a criminal record. The recent law change around disclosure has sought to improve this situation.
When you’re older, employment is on everyone’s mind. If you go to a job centre and they put ten people forward for a job, if you’ve got a criminal record 100% you’re not gonna get the job. 
The issue is clearly not a lack of will, ambition or imagination:
For me it’s something [social/creative business] I’ve always liked – this [project] is a perfect opportunity; the first real opportunity. 

I chose it [my career idea] because I love working with young people and I want to help them too; support them – don’t have to be making money, I'm doing good deeds out of it too. A good thing is to help people get recognition for their work. 
Throughout our focus group discussions there was a strong sense of having been, and continuing to be, let down, with empty promises and support failing to materialise. This cycle needs to be broken. 

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religion

You follow the older kids; you start becoming independent when you’re beginning 11, 12. I didn’t look at religion inside but I saw my friends and I went deeper into the deen (faith).
For many of the group, religion ties in with all the other aspects discussed – employment, identity. It underpins and runs through their lives. It is also very much related to family – in this way parents can be seen as role models; people who follow the ‘deen.’

For most who have been in prison, they have viewed and experienced religion as a force for good, sustaining them and helping not to re-offend, on release. It has become a strong part of their identity, a very personal, meaningful journey rather than just for showing others that they’re a ‘good Muslim.’
When you are praying in your cell, you feel that connection; if you go to mosque you might go just to show other people but in prison you are just you in your cell.
The positive testimony we heard from the group around the value of faith as a both a support network and also an incentive and encouragement not to re-offend upon release, sits in sharp contrast with the current climate in the UK where being seen to be Muslim, or becoming 'more religious' is seen as a warning sign and a cause for concern. 

We will be taking this forward in our recommendations as an important part of how the Criminal Justice System is currently failing young Muslims by stigmatizing them further and failing to engage with the values and frameworks that resonate with them when attempting to come up with solutions.

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identity

Do you know Osama bin Laden? Do you know where he is?
Attitudes of post 9/11 Britain manifest in an immigration officer's question to one of the group, on arrival to England in 2004. The family had arrived from a country buckling under civil war, collapse of infrastructure, corruption and natural disaster.

They were asked the questions solely by virtue of the fact that they were Muslim - yet there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. 

Identity for these young men has been shaped externally by world and national events and attitudes, as well as internally themselves, and their families and community. 

Stereotypes play a large role in the daily lives of these young men. It led them to produce a short film and range of clothing called HoodForts, to challenge the assumption that all they are is a bunch of 'hoodies.'
You start doing normal things, playing football. Everyone got bored. In year nine or ten, something crazy, everyone started buying cars. And then it was just one crime after another.
Throughout the discussions on identity, the following main points emerged:
  • Tied up with appearance, having ‘things’ – trainers, clothing, vehicles etc.
  • Tied up with hierarchies amongst their family, friend and enemy groups
  • Tied up with geography – the street or estate they come from
  • Those seen as role models when younger were the older guys with cars, often dealing drugs, making money
  • Religion is a part of identity for some, but not all, and this tends to emerge as they grow older
  • Underpinning everything is how they view themselves, individually and as a group; how they think others view them; and how others do view them
The group has done numerous projects to explore the latter point. In particular, one of the group chose to focus on the supposed distinction between being 'British' and 'Muslim' - are you one, or the other, or both, or which one first? His work can be seen in the Individual Project gallery. 

What else was there to do? You were always trying to cause a problem that’s more interesting. You even wanted to get chased by the police. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
An attitude began to emerge that there was nothing to do, no opportunities given, nobody giving them anything. Mental barriers about what was possible exist for many reasons; a culmination of everything within these pages. 

All of the group have grown up with their friends being involved with the criminal justice system on a regular basis. This impacts also on those who are 'out,' from both an identity and health point of view. A theme we will engage with as the project develops involves mental and emotional health: how mental health of young people is overlooked within and around the criminal justice system (in terms of e.g. PTSD and depression, seeing and experiencing gang violence, losing friends etc.), and how this may act as a further barrier to employment, aspiration or simply being able to live a well and healthy life. 

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