British Muslims becoming more radical

Trevor Phillips is presenting a programme on social attitudes among British Muslims on Channel 4 tomorrow.

It is called ‘What British Muslims Really Think’ and will air at 10pm on Wednesday 13th April 2016.

Some uncomfortable statistics will be revealed which should send shivers down liberal elite spines.  The pain will be made worse for them by the fact that Trevor Phillips was head of the Commission for Racial Equality.  He promoted many of the views he now dismisses, particularly about the speed with which Muslims would integrate and adopt British customs and attitudes.

When asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that homosexuality should be legal in Britain, 18% said they agreed and 52% said they disagreed, compared with 5% among the public at large who disagreed. Almost half (47%) said they did not agree that it was acceptable for a gay person to become a teacher, compared with 14% of the general population.

Nearly a quarter (23%) supported the introduction of sharia law in some areas of Britain.  As many as 31% said Muslim men could have more than one wife – with many Muslim women agreeing – while 39% agreed that “wives should always obey their husbands”.  The mainstream culture would probably find a majority saying husbands should obey their wives, so the chasm between Muslims and secular Britain could hardly be more stark.

The Guardian found at least one Muslim leader of a women’s group who took issue with the findings.

Huffington Post quoted moans about the survey methods from the Muslim Council of Britain and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).  Apparently, ICM went to areas with at least 20% Muslims to conduct their interviews, simply because it costs less to find people willing to take part in a survey where there are many of the target group.

Elshad Iskandarov of the OIC, told HuffPost UK: “If a particular study focusses on areas with at least 20% muslim populations these areas are likely to be more deprived than most, making extremism more attractive.”  That is a telling comment.  Actually, there is no evidence that Muslims in more middle-class areas, particularly young Muslims, are any more liberal that their peers in Oldham, for example.

In an article in the Sunday Times, Trevor Phillips says, inter alia:

‘The problem with Britain’s liberal white elite is twofold. First, they find it hard to grasp that people of colour may not want to reveal their true selves to people who do not share their backgrounds. The fact is that most people of colour are raised to expect that white folks will let them down. And to be frank, most black and Asian Britons will tell you that their expectations are seldom confounded.

‘Second, Britain’s increasingly deracinated opinion-forming classes are puzzled by the fierce attachment to religion among ethnic minorities. The number of places of worship attended mostly by Muslims and black evangelicals is rising. The fact that Britain’s ethnic minorities are intensely committed to their religious beliefs and practices seems baffling to secular liberals — indeed, somewhat threatening. Some of my journalist friends imagine that, with time, the Muslims will grow out of it. They won’t.

‘It should come as no surprise that Muslim liberals are in despair. They knew all of this long ago. And unlike the political elite and the liberal media, they recognise that British Muslim opinion is hardening against them. The journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who has had to seek police protection because of her liberal views, argues that the optimistic belief that time and social contact will naturally lead to the integration of Muslims is mistaken: “You know, we [liberal Muslims] are a dying breed — in 10 years there will be very few of us left unless something really important is done.”

‘Britain’s Muslims are a diverse group; but, rich or poor, British-born or not, most have a deep commitment to their faith. Many are distressed by what they see as white Britain’s increasing secularism, low morals and loss of confidence in many of its own values. Those who told ICM’s researchers that they would prefer to live a more separate life in Britain are sending a clear signal: they really don’t want to adopt much of our decadent way of life.

‘Oddly, the biggest obstacles we now face in addressing the growth of this nation-within-a-nation are not created by British Muslims themselves. Many of our (distinctly un-diverse) elite political and media classes simply refuse to acknowledge the truth. Any undesirable behaviours are attributed to poverty and alienation. Backing for violent extremism must be the fault of the Americans. Oppression of women is a cultural trait that will fade with time, nothing to do with the true face of Islam.

‘Even when confronted with the growing pile of evidence to the contrary, and the angst of the liberal minority of British Muslims, clever, important people still cling to the patronising certainty that British Muslims will, over time, come to see that “our” ways are better. And since there are so few Muslims in the corridors of power, they seldom run into anyone who can show them the reality. Those who do want to make a difference are often consumed by fear that they will be seen as prejudiced. So while our liberal elite wrings its hands in anguish and makes school children celebrate Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah — and Easter — hundreds of young people are being seduced to join Islamist fanatics abroad, thousands of young girls are shipped off to have their genitals mutilated, and many more are pressured into marriages they do not want.’

If you cannot access the Sunday Times article, Bill Muehlenberg carries a lot of what Trevor Phillips wrote here.

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