New survey: ‘Immigration a sore point in UK’

A majority of people in the UK (53 per cent) think Muslim immigrants are not integrating well into British society.

LONDON: A majority of people in the UK (53 per cent) think that Muslim immigrants are not integrating well into British society, according to a survey conducted by Transatlantic Trends. Almost half of those polled (49 per cent) believe this is because the immigrants themselves are unwilling to integrate.

The survey, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, examines attitudes to immigration in the US, Canada, and some western European countries. It revealed that the British are far more fearful of immigration than all other countries polled. Almost one quarter (23 per cent) of Britons thought immigration was the most important issue facing the country against 10 per cent and less in other surveyed countries.

Fears that the values promoted by Islam are “incompatible” with those of Britain’s secular democracy are often raised in the media and people from the left and the right of the political spectrum have all questioned whether Muslim integration is possible.

“In the sense of being law abiding, participating members of society, Britain’s Muslim community is mostly well-integrated,” says Hasan Nasiri of the Islamic Society of Britain. He admits that there are isolated elements in the community and points to language issues as well as the internal self sufficiency that makes interaction outside the community unnecessary.

Humayun Ansari, Prof of Islam and Cultural Diversity at Royal Holloway College thinks that lack of education and social deprivation are the root causes of the lack of integration. “There is work going on in the communities to wean people away from alienation and encourage harmonisation” he says.

But many sections of British society perceive the social isolation as stemming from Islam itself and see the ‘Islamification of Britain’ to be a real threat. Writers like Melanie Phillips (The Daily Mail and The Spectator), who subscribe to such opinions, have a substantial following. In response to the Conservative co-chairperson Sayeeda Warsi’s recent statement that Islamophobia had become respectable amongst the middle classes, Melanie Phillips wrote: “The fact is that, while a very high proportion of Muslims are neither extreme nor violent, the evidence suggests that a terrifying number are either supporters of Islamic terrorism...or are those who want to live under sharia law in Britain and/or Islamicise the country and its institutions.”

In contrast, Peter Oborne’s defence of Baroness Warsi’s statement in The Daily Telegraph was met with a barrage of mainly offensive online comments. According to Mr Oborne, of 1,633 comments posted, only 36 were in his support, prompting him to write another article titled ‘If you’re looking for Islamophobia, try the comments under my article about Baroness Warsi’.

Abdulkarim Vakil, Professor of History at Kings College London, believes that people are threatened by the notion of immigrants having rights as fellow citizens. “They will be able to transform these societies precisely because they belong to them,” he says.

While fears of Islam ‘taking over’ Britain may be irrational, there is some recognition within the Muslim community that greater religiosity is breeding intolerance, and that change is necessary.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2011.