| July 09, 2008 | Wednesday | Rajab 5, 1429 |
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‘The Jews of Europe’
IT Is just over three years ago to the terror bombings on London transport on 7/7, and there have been a spate of articles and TV programmes that look at the phenomenon of Islamophobia that has become rampant since then. In ‘It shouldn’t happen to a Muslim’, a Dispatches documentary shown on Channel 4, the producers establish the extent to which Muslims are now being targeted to a widespread hate campaign supported by the right-wing tabloid press.
Even normally liberal Brits now question the loyalty of the two million Muslims who live on these islands. The shock of 7/7 was caused not so much by the sheer brutality of the attacks, but by the fact that they had been carried out by young Brits, born and brought up in the country. Since then, a number of arrests and trials of alleged Muslim terrorists have done much to reinforce the negative image of the British Muslim community. This atmosphere of fear and mistrust has made Muslims the ‘Jews of Europe’, a reference to the pre-war status of Jews as second-class citizens who could be (and were) attacked both in the press and in the streets.
The statistics cited in the Dispatches programme underline the depth of the divide. For instance, 56 per cent of all Brits say they have no Muslim friends. Sixty-four per cent of Muslims in Britain say they encounter more hostility than they did before 7/7, and 36 per cent say they have either suffered this hostility themselves, or know somebody who did. Seventy per cent of all Brits think prejudice against Muslims has increased. And while only one per cent of Muslim women wear the full burqa, many see them as supporting extremist ideology.
With this background of increasing anti-Muslim sentiment, the tabloid press is reinforcing the stereotypes. The presenter, Peter Oborne, explored one story that had made the headlines a few months ago. Muslim nursing students at Leeds University were supposed to be refusing to disinfect their hands because a new procedure required that they roll up their sleeves. According to the Sun, this put the lives of patients at risk. When Oborne asked a university official about the truth of the story, he was told that all that had happened was that a Muslim student had requested a clarification about whether the new procedure was mandatory. When told that it was, all the students accepted it, and had been using it ever since. When the story broke, the university issued a denial which was never printed.
This has happened time and again, with stories being published about Muslims that would never be accepted if they had been directed against any other ethnic or religious minority. When asked to explain why this anti-Muslim slant was being projected, one right-wing journalist replied that mainstream Brits did not have the same problems with other minority communities that they did with Muslims. He gave the example of the widespread subjugation of women, apart from the violent ideology espoused by extremist Muslim groups. But as one imam said in an interview with Oborne: “All rapists are male. Does this mean that all men are rapists?”
Mosques have become flashpoints where young racists often gather to target Muslims. Often fistfights break out. But more usually, individual Muslims are targeted for verbal and even physical abuse. BNP, the British National Party, has long been known for its fascist, racist views. For years, they had an anti-Semitic agenda, but seeing which way the wind is blowing, they have switched targets and are now urging Jews to join them in an anti-Muslim campaign.
But before readers get the impression that Britain is universally anti-Muslim, let me clarify that it remains a bastion of tolerance. Today, there are 1,600 mosques across the country, and by and large, Muslims are left to themselves by the vast majority of people here. Unfortunately, some extremists help to vilify the majority through their hate-filled words and actions. But when you think how most Pakistanis would react to such an attitude from a minority in our country, you realise how amazingly secular and tolerant Britain is, despite the post-7/7 spike in anti-Muslim sentiments.
Recently, Mark Steyn, a right-wing Canadian journalist, was accused of indulging in ‘hate speech’ when he wrote in Maclean’s, Canada’s biggest monthly, that ‘extremist’ Muslims will become the ‘successor population’ in Europe because of their higher birth rate. When Muslim groups complained against the 2006 article, the Canadian Human Rights Commission took up the issue, and both magazine and the author could face unspecified sanctions. This case has generated a lot of comment in Canada and the US, with some commentators defending Steyn’s right to express his opinions, while others have argued that free speech should not become a license to target vulnerable groups.
This debate is a recurring theme in the British media. Many writers complain that ‘political correctness’ is preventing a healthy discussion of social issues. While this might be true of mainstream newspapers, no such compulsion inhibits the tabloid press. For instance, a couple of years ago, several English friends were very upset by a news item that informed us that in one area of London, the local council had re-named its annual Christmas lighting as ‘winter lights’. According to the story, this had been done in view of objections to the Christian name from Muslims. Naturally, this was perceived as caving in to extreme, unreasonable demands that were eroding British values and customs. However, when Oborne investigates the truth of the allegation for the Dispatches programme, he discovers that the councillors had agreed to re-name the lights for that particular Christmas because a number of religious holidays happened to coincide with the winter holidays, and not because the Muslims in the area had demanded it.
Such distortions sell newspapers, but they also whip up anti-Muslim feelings among mostly working class Brits who already harbour a deep distrust of foreigners and their different habits, dress and their tendency to stick to themselves. It is true that among many of the younger generation of Muslims in Britain, there is a new aggressiveness that has alienated other ethnic and religious groups. As long as Muslims do not make more of an effort to integrate, they will continue to remain isolated.
Correction: In my article last week, I had carelessly referred to the Queen’s Consort as the Prince of Wales. He is, of course, the Duke of Edinburgh. Apologies.
