Eid Mubarak!

Last night, the streets in my neighbourhood were full of young Bengalis standing around preening and flirting, all dressed up in their brand new clothes for the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. After a month of fasting and prayerful contemplation, this is the time for celebration, visiting friends, giving and receiving presents and getting dolled up in the most amazing glittering or colourful creations — boys as well as girls. Indeed, right across the Muslim world today, it’s holiday time.

In Tower Hamlets and others parts of multi-cultural London, other members of the local community are invited to get into the mood, just as at Christmas, many Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others go partying too. And it’s nice to see the youngsters, in particular, having fun. But I’m also hearing echoes of more serious concerns, as local people stand around on street corners in the balmy autumn weather chatting. Right across East London — and I suspect in other parts of Britain — there is dismay, even anger, among Muslim youths over the huge rise in police stop-and-search incidents involving young men of South Asian or Middle Eastern appearance. While one supports appropriate counter-terrorism activities and applauds certain successes that the police and security forces have had, there is a real danger that an apparent ethnic profiling in stop-and-search can alienate those mainstream, moderate British Muslims who need to be allies in the fight against violent extremism.

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• Whatever Happened to the Silly Season?
• Mid-point to Fasting’s End