Our tolerant society

Submitted by Harvey United Kingdom (European Union), Oct 7, 2007 at 07:37

I was born and live in London.I am proud of this fact for a variety of reasons but none more so then the cultural , racial and religious respect and freedom shown to all minorities of this great city and indeed the country.

As in America ,we have a tradition of opening our doors to the oppressed ,those that are fleeing from war torn lands or poverty and wish to create a newand better life for themslves. This has been the case since the 17th century starting with the Huguenots and followed by the Irish ,the Jews ,and then in the 1950s Afro Carribeans and Hindus and Sikhs from the Indian sub-continent. The 1970s was a time for a new wave of immigration . Asians fleeing the tryanny of African dictators such as Idi Amin.At around this time we witnessed the first Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan.

For the most part ,it has worked well . Each new wave of immigrants has quickly adapted to their new circumstances whilst contributing to society They have usually assimilated within one generation and have sufficiently improved their circumstances enabling them to move away from their first point of entry ,the East End of London ,a poor and crime ridden suburb.

In turn the British, although renouned for their reserve ,have become accustomed , and in their own way accepting of the changes around them .No one now gives a second look at Orthodox Jews in black garb Sikhs in Turbans ,Muslim women in Burquas,etc.Nor should they .

Unfortunately ,and for complex reasons , this has not been entirely the case for Asian Muslims.There has been a distinct failure to assimilate within the wider community, While it is understandable that newly arrived immigrants would have difficulty mastering English,it is a sad fact that many first and even second generation Muslims are more comfortable in Urdu then English.This is not helped by a left wing policy of political correctness which stipulates all printed leaflets in education and the health system to be printed in various languages.

The Asian Muslim community has the highest rate of illiteracy and unemployment in the Capital,and this is undoubtedly due to the adherence to a religious diktat which upholds the absolute notion of seperation from the wider community, its language and customs not to mention a distrust of British establishment including the police etc.

Today ,young Muslims are tought to be Muslims first -there is no second - to the point of failing to provide the police with information on another Muslim ,even if it is for the security of the wider community.

In effect ,what we have now is a minority ,all be it a large one ,of disaffected young Muslims who are indoctrinated into hatred for non -muslims,Kuffir.

We now have the spectacle of radicalised Muslims fighting British and American troops in Irak and Afghanistan ,blowing themselvesup in Tel Aviv and London and elsewhere .It could be said that this is a tiny minority of Muslims ,However it is the case that some 30%of the Muslim population under 35 have been sufficiently radicalised to have sympathy with the cause of the Terrorist .

To this end ,some 800 out of 1400 mosques have been taken over by a radical Muslim sect ,the Dalbandi ,in order to further exasperate the climate of hatred and seperation.

It is for our government and our government alone to recognise the extreme threat our society finds itself under.

The hope that the so called moderate Muslim community will contribute to this effort is looking very much like wishful thinking at this moment,

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".