Once again, Nigel Farage – arguably the most influential politician in recent British political history – has sparked a furious debate.
What I take issue with is the grand-sweeping generalisations of British Muslims
On Sky News and interviewed by Sir Trevor Phillips, Farage said there are a growing number of Muslims who refuse to subscribe to so-called ‘British values’. He took aim in particular at young Muslims at pro-Palestine demonstrations, appearing to suggest that they could in no way be considered British patriots. Perhaps in an attempt to reduce the chances of being accused of racism, Farage went on to celebrate the West Indian experience of integration in the UK – referring to the contribution of Caribbean servicemen in Allied campaigns during the world wars and a cultural love for the game of cricket. Someone should tell Farage about the many Muslims who have integrated into British life. Take Subedar Khudadad Khan, the first Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross, who was born to a Muslim family in Punjab. Surely Farage also knows of Adil Rashid – the Pakistani Muslim-heritage leg spinner who has attained legendary status in white-ball cricket for England.
I’m no stranger to flagging problematic behaviours and attitudes within the British Muslim population – especially the more segregated elements across industrial towns in northern England. There is a growing body of research which shows that levels of anti-Semitism are relatively high in British Muslim communities when compared to the general public. There is no denying that a minority at pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been responsible for chanting anti-Jewish slogans and displaying pro-terror paraphernalia. And while we should not be in the business of trivialising the far-right extremist threat, the principal terror threat faced by modern Britain comes in the form of Islamist extremism. A strand of this has been a particularly intimidating force at certain schools in the shape of anti-blasphemy radicalism.
There is no sugarcoating it – the UK continues to struggle to get to grips with Islamist extremism. But what I take issue with is the grand-sweeping generalisations of British Muslims and failing to see any good in many of these patriotic, community-spirited, and family-oriented communities. A recent report I co-authored for the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life (IIFL) not only explored the social contributions of British Muslim organisations on a day-to-day basis in areas ranging from skills development to health awareness – it discovered sociopolitical attitudes we should welcome. In the British Muslim survey, 86 per cent of respondents believed that Britain is a good place to live when it comes to people having the opportunities to progress and thrive in life (with 3 per cent saying that it is a bad place to live). In the wider general population survey, 70 per cent of respondents believed that Britain is a good place to live (with 12 per cent saying that it is a bad place to live). Nearly seven in ten British Muslim respondents believe that people have a duty to get married and raise children to be citizens who make positive contributions to British society – 68 per cent. This drops by 25 percentage points to 43 per cent for the general population.
And this comes to the most critical point – what on Earth are we expecting socially conservative Muslims to ‘integrate’ and ‘assimilate’ into? More than three in five British Muslim are of the view that overall, most people in Britain put their individual interests above the needs of their family members and the wider community. Who could blame them? The UK has become an international leader when it comes to family fragility, with rampant loneliness among the elderly (and many turfed out to care homes at the earliest opportunity). The rise of materialistic individualism and secular godlessness has contributed to a fundamental loss of civic responsibility and community spirit. In 2021, the majority of babies in England and Wales were born out of wedlock. And we have gotten to the stage where the political mainstream continues to debate whether a biological male can be classed as a woman. Meanwhile, Black Caribbeans – arguably the most ‘hyper-integrated’ and ‘well-assimilated’ ethnic-minority group – tend to perform relatively badly at school, have largely abandoned monotheism, and have 63 per cent of children living in a single-parent household. The corresponding figure for their Bangladeshi-heritage peers is 12 per cent.
I have never been in the business of looking at my own ethnic and religious communities through rose-tinted glasses – but neither should we be willing to tolerate reckless and divisive commentary from the likes of Farage. While he may be impressive when it comes to extolling the virtues of national sovereignty and exposing the democratic deficit at the heart of the EU, Farage has proven himself to be totally out of his depth when it comes to the matter of integration in the UK.
The portrait of modern Britain is a complicated one – what we don’t need are influential politicians tarring entire groups with the same brush.
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