On January 30 2017 the new American president Donald Trump introduced a Travel Ban on 7 Muslim-majority countries including Iran and Syria, categorizing the people as ‘terrorists.’ Many have expressed an extreme concern as the President is legitimating the discrimination of Muslims by classifying them as to having potential to carry out terrorist activities with their religion only as the reason. Not only does it worsen the marginalisation of the Muslim immigrants coming into the United States, but it is also expected to heighten the conflict between the Muslim population and other religious groups in the country. Will this approach gather momentum in the UK, or will there through physical distance, be more awareness of the need to celebrate diversity?
On the one hand, much like the oppression of the Muslims in the United States, the problems of living harmoniously regardless of the people’s ethnicity and religion have been deteriorating in Britain after having voted to leave the European Union. According to a BBC documentary, ‘British, female and Muslim,’ the number of physical assaults being committed against Muslim women has been exponentially increasing since Brexit which indicates the rise of xenophobia within the country. Moreover, the main concern is that the growing isolationism and the egocentricity of different groups of Britons and the global citizens might worsen in a few generations’ time with the manipulation by the media, attacking certain groups of the members which would as a result divide society further.
Despite this apparent growing xenophobia, at Surbiton High School there was a Chinese-new-year celebration on 25th January as the continuation of the annual event that has been taking place for years to celebrate the Lunar New Year although it did not happen last year. The school staff who organised this year’s celebration had hoped that it would provide opportunities to experience Chinese and Korean culture to the students.
The celebration was very successful with hundreds of the students visiting Mary Bennett House where it took place. One of interviewees said that she had a ‘great’ time where she could familiarise herself with Chinese and Korean culture. Therefore, different events like this will encourage various cultural interactions between students which in fact would be a better method to promote more tolerant and understanding society than just highlighting the need to accept immigrants and giving one-way education to do so.
Cindy Kim, Surbiton High School
