Much has been heard from Britain’s political class in recent years about the role of “values” in the fight against terrorism. The problem, we are told, is that the Muslim community in the UK is failing to integrate with British society and accept our nation’s intrinsic liberalism.
The message has been imparted to us in several ways. According to a recent study, over 90 per cent of the articles referring to Muslims or Islam in British newspapers on a typical week presented the religion and its adherents in a negative light. The picture presented by the media was of a strict and irreconcilable dichotomy between Islam and British “values”, with the former posing a serious threat to the latter. (1)
The “emotive…abusive” language identified by the report has by no means been the sole preserve of the press. No less a figure than world renowned British author Martin Amis recently spoke of the demographic threat of being “outnumbered” by Muslims; of the need for the Islamic community “to suffer until it gets its house in order” through perhaps “strip-searching…..discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children”. The response from the political class to Amis’ naked, virulent racism has been near total silence. (2)
In this febrile atmosphere, there can be little doubt about which prejudice Gordon Brown was nodding knowingly towards when he told the Labour Party conference last year: “I believe … that we the British people must be far more explicit about the common ground on which we stand, the shared values which bring us together, the habits of citizenship around which we can and must unite. Expect all who are in our country to play by our rules.” (3)
One reads countless complaints in the British press about the fearsome dominion of a left-wing, minority-favouring “political correctness” that stifles free debate. Yet it does appear that, in respect of this one minority at least, the political class feels a remarkable degree of freedom to say exactly what it pleases.
There is of course much benefit to be gained from the demonisation of Muslims. Powerful people throughout history have recognised the value of stigmatising, or “othering”, a given minority. In addition, there is an immediate need to portray the current terrorist threat as stemming from the deviant pathologies of a backward Muslim culture. This diverts attention from the broad consensus among security experts that the threat in fact stems from, and is being escalated by, the government’s foreign policies. (4)
However, self-serving narratives constructed by the powers-that-be do not always sit well with the empirical evidence. According to a recent poll, 96 per cent of London’s Muslims, along with 97 per cent of Londoners as a whole, “think that everyone should respect the law in Britain”; 89 per cent of Muslims and 88 per cent of all Londoners “believe that everyone in Britain should be free to live their lives as they want so long as they do not prevent others from doing the same”; 94 per cent of Muslims and 92 per cent of all Londoners “believe that everyone in Britain should have equal opportunities”; 95 per cent of Muslims and 86 per cent of all Londoners “think everyone should be free to practise their religion openly”; and 86 per cent of Muslims and 91 per cent of all Londoners “also think it is important that the Metropolitan Police work closely with communities such as the Muslim community to deter terrorist attacks”. These results, like those of any opinion poll, should be approached with caution. But if accurate, they indicate that liberty and security are highly valued by both Muslim and non-Muslim Londoners alike. (5)
One wonders how the highly-developed rationality of Amis and other self-styled “Enlightenment liberal” critics of “Islamofascism” will compute this latest piece of empirical data. Might they be moved to consider the possibility that liberal values are human values – not to be claimed as Western or British? Might they acknowledge that liberty has found expression (and found enemies) in both Western and Eastern history, and that no culture has monopoly ownership of either tyranny or freedom even in the present day?
The various peddlers of Islamophobia present us with a clear dichotomy. On the one hand we have the West; steeped in the tradition of Enlightenment philosophy, which values personal freedom and cool rationality based on empirical fact. On the other hand, facing the rational, liberal West, stands an unreasoning, fanatical Islam bent on its destruction.
Yet, while Islam no doubt has its own characteristics, a Muslim cannot simply be thrown into the box marked “illiberal” without considering not only what kind of a Muslim that person might be, but also what other facets – gender, nationality, economic circumstances, and so on – may contribute to their individual make-up and political outlook. Any rational assessment reveals that identity is far more fluid and complex than is allowed for by the simplistic binaries of the “clash of civilisations”. Our political class would do well to remember this if it really wishes to honour the Enlightenment values that it loudly claims to uphold.
David Wearing writes for Le Monde Diplomatique and UK Watch. His website is www.democratsdiary.co.uk
Much has been heard from Britain’s political class in recent years about the role of “values” in the fight against terrorism. The problem, we are told, is that the Muslim community in the UK is failing to integrate with British society and accept our nation’s intrinsic liberalism.
The message has been imparted to us in several ways. According to a recent study, over 90 per cent of the articles referring to Muslims or Islam in British newspapers on a typical week presented the religion and its adherents in a negative light. The picture presented by the media was of a strict and irreconcilable dichotomy between Islam and British “values”, with the former posing a serious threat to the latter. (1)
The “emotive…abusive” language identified by the report has by no means been the sole preserve of the press. No less a figure than world renowned British author Martin Amis recently spoke of the demographic threat of being “outnumbered” by Muslims; of the need for the Islamic community “to suffer until it gets its house in order” through perhaps “strip-searching…..discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children”. The response from the political class to Amis’ naked, virulent racism has been near total silence. (2)
In this febrile atmosphere, there can be little doubt about which prejudice Gordon Brown was nodding knowingly towards when he told the Labour Party conference last year: “I believe … that we the British people must be far more explicit about the common ground on which we stand, the shared values which bring us together, the habits of citizenship around which we can and must unite. Expect all who are in our country to play by our rules.” (3)
One reads countless complaints in the British press about the fearsome dominion of a left-wing, minority-favouring “political correctness” that stifles free debate. Yet it does appear that, in respect of this one minority at least, the political class feels a remarkable degree of freedom to say exactly what it pleases.
There is of course much benefit to be gained from the demonisation of Muslims. Powerful people throughout history have recognised the value of stigmatising, or “othering”, a given minority. In addition, there is an immediate need to portray the current terrorist threat as stemming from the deviant pathologies of a backward Muslim culture. This diverts attention from the broad consensus among security experts that the threat in fact stems from, and is being escalated by, the government’s foreign policies. (4)
However, self-serving narratives constructed by the powers-that-be do not always sit well with the empirical evidence. According to a recent poll, 96 per cent of London’s Muslims, along with 97 per cent of Londoners as a whole, “think that everyone should respect the law in Britain”; 89 per cent of Muslims and 88 per cent of all Londoners “believe that everyone in Britain should be free to live their lives as they want so long as they do not prevent others from doing the same”; 94 per cent of Muslims and 92 per cent of all Londoners “believe that everyone in Britain should have equal opportunities”; 95 per cent of Muslims and 86 per cent of all Londoners “think everyone should be free to practise their religion openly”; and 86 per cent of Muslims and 91 per cent of all Londoners “also think it is important that the Metropolitan Police work closely with communities such as the Muslim community to deter terrorist attacks”. These results, like those of any opinion poll, should be approached with caution. But if accurate, they indicate that liberty and security are highly valued by both Muslim and non-Muslim Londoners alike. (5)
One wonders how the highly-developed rationality of Amis and other self-styled “Enlightenment liberal” critics of “Islamofascism” will compute this latest piece of empirical data. Might they be moved to consider the possibility that liberal values are human values – not to be claimed as Western or British? Might they acknowledge that liberty has found expression (and found enemies) in both Western and Eastern history, and that no culture has monopoly ownership of either tyranny or freedom even in the present day?
The various peddlers of Islamophobia present us with a clear dichotomy. On the one hand we have the West; steeped in the tradition of Enlightenment philosophy, which values personal freedom and cool rationality based on empirical fact. On the other hand, facing the rational, liberal West, stands an unreasoning, fanatical Islam bent on its destruction.
Yet, while Islam no doubt has its own characteristics, a Muslim cannot simply be thrown into the box marked “illiberal” without considering not only what kind of a Muslim that person might be, but also what other facets – gender, nationality, economic circumstances, and so on – may contribute to their individual make-up and political outlook. Any rational assessment reveals that identity is far more fluid and complex than is allowed for by the simplistic binaries of the “clash of civilisations”. Our political class would do well to remember this if it really wishes to honour the Enlightenment values that it loudly claims to uphold.
David Wearing writes for Le Monde Diplomatique and UK Watch. His website is www.democratsdiary.co.uk
References
(1) “The search for common ground: Muslims, non-Muslims and the UK media”, Greater London Authority, London, November 2007.
(2) “Shame On Us”, The Guardian, 19 November 2007
(3) Speech to Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown, 25 September 2006
(4) “Ignoring the Intelligence: How New Labour Helped Bring Terror to London“, David Wearing, www.democratsdiary.co.uk, 22 July 2005
(5) “GLA telephone survey of Londoners with Muslim booster”, Greater London Authority, London, November 2007