Where the accent is on merit

Scotland’s new leader, the first Muslim to lead a Western European state, adds to a growing embrace of values over personal identity.

|
AP
Humza Yousaf gestures after being voted the new First Minister at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, March 28.

The selection of Humza Yousaf as leader of Scotland on Tuesday marks the first time that a Western European state will be run by a Muslim. Mr. Yousaf, a second-generation descendant of Pakistani immigrants who speaks in a brogue as thick as his beard, will be sworn in tomorrow.

The meaning of that milestone itself is difficult to parse. Mr. Yousaf’s ascent contributes to a unique historic moment. The prime ministers of Ireland and Britain, along with the mayor of London and the leader of Scotland’s main opposition party, are all of South Asian descent.

That is hugely affirming for post-colonial minority communities that have struggled against discrimination in European countries like Britain, Belgium, and France. As Mr. Yousaf argued during the campaign for his party’s leadership, “greater equality actually unlocks greater growth.”

But at a time when societies from Chile to Australia are seeking new models of social justice and constitutional reforms to protect the equal dignity of all their citizens, the more significant measure of the leadership transformations in the United Kingdom and Ireland may be in their emphasis on merit over identity.

A poll of Scottish voters taken earlier this month, for instance, found that 71% and 63% saw the economy and health care, respectively, as the most important issues. At the same time, an Ipsos poll found that 75% of Britons said the economy and inflation were their top concerns, with health care following. Nowhere mentioned was the ethnicity of political leaders, and only a minority of Scottish voters (42%) support a referendum on independence – a longstanding goal of Mr. Yousaf’s ruling Scottish National Party.

Along their individual pathways to power, Mr. Yousaf and Rishi Sunak – Britain’s first prime minister of Indian descent – have both spoken passionately about their experiences with discrimination. Neither has faced voters in a general election, yet both seem to recognize the limits of identity politics. In his first speech as party leader yesterday, Mr. Yousaf tied social justice to shared economic prosperity.

That may have been a plea for time as much as it was for unity. “A better society doesn’t happen overnight,” Mr. Sunak, whose current poll numbers are sagging amid persistent economic challenges, said in 2020. “Like all great acts of creation, it happens slowly and depends on the cooperation of each of us toward that common goal.”

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the insight that “there is neither Jew nor Greek” was an acknowledgment that the values of just societies are of greater importance than the material identity of those defending them – such as a Hindu-practicing Briton or a Muslim with a Scottish brogue.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Where the accent is on merit
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2023/0328/Where-the-accent-is-on-merit
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe