'Who do we think we are' should not be designated to a particular week because that would be quite unfair. The diverse cultural identity of Britain cannot be pegged to a particular date. Finding our past and our origins should be an ongoing feature of learning as it will engage pupils and carers to look more closely at their own history in the broader context of world history. A word of warning, finding out about your past hurts. Somewhere in your past, a relative may have been treated extremely unfairly and this will impact on your own feelings and sense of belonging. Social injustice has also occurred to Catholics as well as Jews and people born in other countries or other cultures.

WDWTWA week occurs at the end of June, which has this year been designated as Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. There is clearly a tie in between the two. Here in Essex we are holding an Open Day at our Traveller Education Resource Centre btween 10 and 3 on Wednesday 25 June. The centre is in Braintree at the Alec Hunter Humanities College. CM7 3NT. All welcome, please contact me for travel directions.

Muslim Ghettoisation: "We live in a shrunken world and millions of people are on the move; one of our biggest challenges is how we learn to live in proximity to difference – different skin colours, different beliefs and different way of life. According to a study by COMPAS, Muslims born and educated were given the impression of outsiders. The perception among Muslims that they are unwelcome in Britain is undermining efforts to help them integrate into wider society. Most of them say that they have experienced race discrimination and religious prejudice. Muslims and Islam are promoted as fundamentalist and separatist by the western elite, which have a negative impact on community and social cohesion. The number of racist incidents occurring in the London Borough of Redbridge’s schools have reached their highest levels since records began. A City or a locality, where Muslims are in majority is a ghetto. There is a tendency for people of similar backgrounds to live together in neighourhoods. The term”ghettoisation” is inappropriate. The original ghettos in Europe during the middle ages were set up by law to confine the Jewish population to one area of a city. According to research by an Australian academic Muslim communities in Britain are being increasingly ghettoized in a trend that sets back hopes of assimilation by years. Britain has now eight cities in the top 100 most ghettoized cities. The people from the Pakistani community in Bradford and Oldham and Leicester had trebled during the decade. A report by an academic Dr Alan Carling stated that Bradford risks becoming a front line in the global clash between the West and Islam. But Islam and Muslims do not clash with the concepts of pluralism, secularism and globalisation. The native flight from Bradford’s inner-city wards showed clear evidence of an increase in segregation in the city since 1991. Native parents are avoiding sending their children in state schools where Muslims and other minorities are in the majority. The dominance of Pakistani Muslims in the city has meant that Bradford has become bi-cultural. Immigrants are the creators of Britain new wealth, otherwise, inner cities deprived areas could not get new lease of life. The native Brits regard such areas as ghettoes. Integration is not religious and cultural, it is economic and Muslims are well integrated into British society and at the same time they are proud of their Islamic, linguistic and cultural identities, inspite of discrimination they have been facing in all walks of life. According to UN, 80% of British Muslims feel discriminated. They are less burden on social services. Immigrants made up 8.7% of the population, but accounted for10.2% of all collected income tax It is often quoted by the Western media that Muslim schools ghettoizse the children, and even lead to their radicalisation if they are not integrated. There is no evidence that faith schools lead to a “ghettoized education system. In British schools, pupils are encouraged to focus too much on their similarities rather than their differences. The integrationist approach merely results in Muslims feeling that their faith, language and culture is not respected." Written by Iftikhar Ahmad London School of Islamics, 63 Margery Park Road, London E7 9LD. The london School of Islamics is an Educational Trust, Established in 1981. Email: info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk Website: www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk Tel/Fax: 0208 555 2733 / 07817 112 667 Submitted in response to Sir Keith Ajegbo's article titled 'These days people are on the move" http://www.wdwtwa.org.uk/news/55/these-days-people-are-on-the-move.html DISCLAIMER The views and opinions expressed in the commentary featured above are the writer's own and do not represent the views of either the Who Do We Think We Are (WDWTWA) consortium of partners (Royal Geographical Society with IBG, the Historical Association and Citizenship Consultant Paula Kitching) or the project's funding body, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). If you would like to comment on the content of this article, please send a response via the WDWTWA Blog (Have your say) or email the Project Coordinator, c/o C.Dixon@rgs.org.