***
Scene: Starbucks.
Present: large numbers of teenagers doing what teenagers do these days – playing with mobile phones, flirting, flitting from table to table. Some are sat in the corner in pairs enjoying young love – one couple even enjoy a surreptitious snog. Others are firmly positioned in groups of boys and girls eyeing the opportunities across the aisle. Girls show off their latest shoes, bags and bangles. Boys chunter about football, cars and, of course, girls.
Nothing unusual about this of course. Perfectly normal teenage behaviour. But for one thing – these kids don’t fit our stereotype. They are Asian. But there’s not a single hat or beard on the boys, not one is in a shalwar kameez with short legs and none of the girls is even wearing a headscarf, let alone a hijab. These are ordinary kids with normal aspirations – good jobs, nice house, decent car, a happy relationship. They are not tomorrow’s terrorists. They are not the thin end of a militant islamist wedge. They are just Bradfordians.
…perhaps we can start treating them as such?
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