Muslim no-go zones

Submitted by Mr J D Robert (United Kingdom), Jan 15, 2015 at 19:47

I live in a UK city that has a Muslim population of 24% and is amongst the highest population in the UK, in this city there are ghetto type area's but crime is comparable to other area's and they are most certainly not no go zones. I pass through a number of these area's daily to get to work placements as a student and I have in all the years i've lived in this city never experienced a problem. In fact I often feel more insecure amongst my own "white community".

Whilst I accept that extremism is likely bred in ghetto area's I consider myself to have been a anti government youth disenfrachised, disconnected and apathetic. I was brought up in a working class family and had very strong anti authoritarian views, but as I became older and wiser and studied at university in my later years I come to realise that the comments I once made to a evangelical pastor (new thing in the UK) about how I would feel if I were a Muslim in the UK were not that inaccurate. I made quite clear I was against violence but that I could understand how young asian men could be indoctrinated by ruthless individuals with their own agenda. Ultimately everything around us are constructs, and religious beliefs political beliefs and social expectations are inside our minds, only when we are prepared to challenge and criticse our own beliefs can we begin to criticise and understand others.

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