This Muslim News editorial (thanks to Ali Dashti) retails various threats that Muslims perceive that they face in Britain, and praises Home Secretary David Blunkett’s proposal to outlaw religious hatred. But most telling is the conclusion of the piece, which assumes that assimilation is the enemy:
When announcing that the incitement to religious hatred would be tackled, Blunkett notably said it was only a “tiny part of a much broader pattern” being put to create a society where cohesion tolerance and understanding are natural. He said he wanted to have “pride” in Britain’s diversity and admitted that successive governments had not done enough in the past. But a central concern remains over attempts to redefine the Government’s multicultural policy as ‘diversity with integration’ which smacks of being more about assimilation than defending individual rights and differences.
How far must we go in defending individual rights and differences? Do Muslims in Britain have an individual right to the Sharia? How will its oppression of non-Muslims fit in with British multiculturalism? It is ironic that, if radical Muslims like Omar Bakri ever get their wish and gain hegemony in Britain, we will see the swift demise of the multiculturalist policies that allowed him and those like him to operate freely for so long in the UK.