February 9, 2002	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 25, 1422

LONDON, Feb 8: British Asians reacted angrily on Friday to a call by Home Secretary David Blunkett for them to restrict their search for spouses in arranged marriages to Britain.

Unveiling new proposals on immigration on Thursday, Blunkett said he wanted a whole debate on arranged marriages to determine whether more of them could be undertaken in Britain, rather than bringing an immigrant partner from the Indian sub-continent.

His call was among proposals designed to tighten rules on immigration and ease the integration of new arrivals into the British way of life.

“The vast majority of arranged marriages are couples marrying from families and acquaintances from here,” Sarah Joseph, no stranger to the concept after being introduced to her husband after converting to Islam 14 years ago, told AFP.

“This issue of saying don’t marry from abroad is a little bit insulting in many ways, as if people from abroad are not going to speak the language or people from abroad are going to be uneducated,” she added.

Joseph also feared there was a danger in what Blunkett was doing.

“It’s never been the issue with people from abroad with Australia, New Zealand, Canada or France or Italy.

“The undertones are seemingly racist and I do have a problem with that. I object to that.”

Blunkett also said fraudulent marriages were an increasing problem, while forced marriages abused womens’ rights.

He said the trial period for marriages between Britons and foreigners would be doubled to two years in a bid to deter sham relationships, aimed only at gaining a partner’s residency rights.

In 2000, more than 38,000 people were granted the right to live in Britain through marriage.

“I was introduced to my husband, which I think is the more 21st century way of putting it,” said Joseph.

“The mums and the dads get together and they put the word out in the community. Do you know anybody suitable for my son or anybody suitable for my daughter?

“Then you introduce them and if daughter and son think, yeah great, then they get to know one another and they get married — that’s the way it has always been done.”

Joseph said Blunkett should have been a lot more tactful in his approach to the subject. “To just storm in with lead boots on is really not appropriate.

“The first stop is the Asians, and those sorts of undertones are all very racist and incredibly negative to the cohesion of our society,” she said.

“For a document that wants to build social harmony ... it’s a very crazy way of going about it,” she added.

Her views were echoed by leading Muslims.

Ahmed Versi, editor of Muslim News, said Blunkett’s stance was “a very dangerous move.”

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the self-styled Muslim Parliament, said the vast majority of Asian marriages were between people living here anyway.

“I would be shocked if men or women from this background are denied this right. It would be a case of discrimination,” he added.

“We will want to make s