Muslims in Leeds don’t integrate into English society according to this report from AP, with thanks to Skeet Street.
LEEDS, England – Young men wear tight jeans and T-shirts, their black hair gelled. The heavy and distinct Yorkshire accent “” gruff with flat vowels “” may be just as deceiving.
Despite their outward Western appearance, the second and third generation Muslim Asian community in this northern town has barely integrated into British society “” although many have never visited their ancestral homes of Pakistan, Bangladesh or Kashmir either.
The working-class neighborhood of Beeston, which came to world attention after at least two of its sons were involved in the July 7 suicide bombings in London, is one of many districts here where Asians from the Indian subcontinent have settled in the past 40 years…
Elders “” many of whom do not speak English well even though they have lived here for decades “” maintain their strict customs. Perhaps more so as they regard the society here as alien, immoral and corrupting for their children.
They rarely mix with the English, even with next-door neighbors. Each sit on their porches, hardly communicating with one another, according to residents…
“My parents forbade me to speak English at home,” Tanver Akhtar, who was born here 33 years ago, said in her strong Yorkshire accent. Her parents still have difficulty speaking the language of their adopted country…
She speaks Urdu to her neighbors, to the local butcher and grocer, and even to her 4-year-old daughter, Suman.
She said she would certainly allow her daughter to go to university, but not to date boys or marry an English man. “It’s totally wrong because he won’t be a Muslim,” she said…
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