The Adventure Continues--This Time with A Kilt!

The lovely Kirklee hotel, where I'm staying

A photogenic curve of the road, on my way to morning coffee

A darling stoop in one of the many leafy, winding West End streets

I wish you could hear the voices inside my head right now-- cuz they've got Scottish accents, they do. Ever since I got here, I've been processing the local brogue the way babies process language, mumbling to myself and whatnot. Wee lad. No worries. A spot of tea.

Today my goals were twofold: to attempt public transportation, in some form, even if it meant ending up on the wrong side of the city and having to pay many pounds to get myself back to my hotel. Check. Took the ole Clockwork Orange, the underground rail, and got off at the CORRECT stop, thank you very much. Never mind that I proceeded to get lost afterwards, making myself almost late to my one big meeting of the day... though it didn't matter, because my interviewee was over a half hour late. Yippee! I love it when that happens. Until I don't. Luckily, I had lots to sit and process. My second goal was to talk to this fellow at the Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) and start getting some sense of the story I'm reporting over here, which, for those of you who have no idea what I'm doing in Scotland of all places, is about Muslim youth gangs in Glasgow, and how the Scottish police are teaming up with mosques to deal with them. My interview today, with the head of the SIF, was incredibly helpful. Probably the most interesting thing I learned was about how the police's strategy probably has as much to do with anti-terrorism measures as it does with anti-gang concerns. In other words, they're targeting young Muslims who they believe are on the fringe, exhibiting what they refer to here as "anti-social behavior," in part because they're at risk of being swept up in gang culture, but also because these kids are more likely to be vulnerable to recruitment from Islamic extremists. So it's all mixed up together. Fascinating.

I also picked up a number of story leads that, sadly, I won't really be able to follow here, like the one about the all-women's mosque that was formed a few years ago when local Muslim women got fed up with the lack of a place for them to worship and connect with other women. Women aren't allowed in the other mosques (which poses an interesting problem when yours truly wants to go talk to an imam for her story...hmmm... suppose I'll have to ask for an introduction in this case...). So, these women raised 1 million pounds to start their own (a very impressive amount) and now it's thriving.