Tyneside Islam

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33253, 16 June 1973, Page 12

Tyneside Islam

It Is a misty winter morning at the mouth of the River Tyne, on England’s north-east coast. The foghorn booms out from the lighthouse as the ship passes on her way into harbour. Many of the crew will come from the Tyneside town of South Shields — and some of those, despite their broad regional accents and their insistence that Tyneside is their only home, will be Arabs. 8.8. C. World Service’s "The Face of England” visited the long-established, 800strong Moslem community in South Shields. The community was begun several generations ago, and has been constantly strengthened since, by Arab sailors who drifted ashore, married and had families. Now some of the Moslems are fourth generation Tynesiders, like 20-year-old Gemil Hasan, a sea cook. “I was bom in South Shields. I’ve got a lot of English friends and I think I get on very well with them. We were brought up together, went to school, did the same things,” he said, in a Geordie accent which, to any Englishman would identify him directly with the River Tyne, not the Middle East. Even some of the older Arabs who were not bom there look upon themselves as English. One seaman from the Yemen told the programme’s presenter Yvonne Adamson: "I class myself as an Englishman. I live here and I’m proud of it. The English Government is the best government on this earth.”

The people of South Shields take the Arab community for granted—as they do the other Moslem communities, the Somalis and the Pakistanis. But the Arabs

have been there the longest, and there are more of them. A local barber told the 8.8. C.: "They have contributed a lot towards the town and the nation. There were many lost in the great war from here as seamen. They never mention these things unless you see them show medals. They’ve all got war medals and they’re very proud of them. But you’ve got to drag it out of them.” More than 700 seamen from this community alone died in two world wars. The dockland area of Laygate is still the hub of Arab South Shields. Here are situated their new mosque, their seamen’s lodging-houses and many of their homes. Not far away is the Town Hall, where a member of the Town Clerk’s department is designated to look after their interests. He told the 8.8. C.: "They are treated in precisely the same way as their fellow citizens and we make no distinction in the allocation of houses or in the implementation of the social services. "Perhaps the best example is the way in which the council co-operated with trustees of the local Moslem community to establish a mosque in the town. The negotiations for this proceeded on exactly the same basis as had applied to local churches."

But what keeps them as a distinctive community after so many years, when many of them have English blood in their veins? Said Mrs Hussein, a local housewife: "It’s the religion. It sets a code of behaviour, moral behaviour and cleanliness. It s a very strong bond between the whole Moslem community, no matter what race.”