Setting a Good Example in 1593

I found a link at Chapomatic to an interesting article:

"Modernizing the Muslim world. The following is an edited transcript of Bernard Lewis's talk at the Grano lecture series last Tuesday on the role of women in the Middle East. "

Here are a few highlights:

"I would like to begin with two quotations from the very rich Muslim literature commenting on these changes. My first comes from 1593. This is recorded by an imperial historiographer. A new English ambassador arrived in Istanbul sent by Queen Elizabeth. The first thing the historiographer commented on was the ship on which the ambassador arrived. He writes with obvious bewilderment, "This is a ship that travels thousands of miles and carries 83 guns, besides other weapons." English ships were built for the Atlantic, and they are therefore bigger, stronger and more manoeuvrable than the Mediterranean ships of the Muslim world. "



His other point is even more astonishing, and he says with palpable bewilderment, "This ambassador comes from a country which is ruled by a woman who rules her inherited realm with complete power." He doesn't draw any inferences from that, nor did anyone else for some time to come.













There was an article in the Sunday Times magazine this past Sunday 7 May 2006 with a list of statistics, not provided in the internet article so I'll have to type them out.

Muslim Factfile - from Annual Population Survey 2004 ONS, 2001 Census, ONS, Annual School Census 2004, ONS - although most recent, some of these statistics will have been effected by September 11th and last year's July tube bombings on the 7th.

Housing and Households:
- Muslim and Buddist Households are the least likely to be homeowners
- Muslim households are the most likely to be living in social rented accommodation - rented from a council or housing association (American version: projects)
- 32% of Muslim households were living in overcrowded accommodation in 2001

Education:
- In 2004 a third (33%) of Muslims of working age in Great Britain had no qualifications - the highest proportion of any group (I'd love to see this broken out by male/female)
- Muslims and Sikhs born in the UK are more likely than those born elsewhere to have a degree or equivalent qualification

Employment:
- In 2004, Muslims had the highest male-unemployment rate in Great Britain at 13%, about three times the rate for Christian men (4%)
...among older men of working age, Muslims also tended to have the highest levels of inactivity, largely owing to ill health
- The unemployment rate for Muslim women in 2004 at 18% was about four times the rate for Christian and Jewish women (4% in each case)
- In 2004, nearly 7 in 10 (70%!!) Muslim women of working age were economically inactive, compared with 4 in 10 women of working age in other groups

Health and Disability
- Muslims in Great Britain has the highest rates of reported ill health in 2001 (figure not given)
- Muslims also had the highest rates of disability
- Almost a quarter of Muslim females (24%) had a disability, as did 1 in 5 Muslim males (21%)

There are about 2 million Muslims in Great Britain, or just a tiny minority of 3% but it is interesting to see the details broken out like this. Wonder why the Sunday Times didn't include this page of the magazine in its on-line version?