Storbritannia har et kjent og omfattende problem med
islamistisk trakkassering av ikke-muslimer, noe som særlig rammer kristne og
jøder, foruten homofile og kvinner. Biskop i Church of England, Michael
Nazir-Ali, gjorde oppmerksom på dette i en artikkel som ble publisert i
Sunday Times, søndag.
Ifølge Telegraph.co.uk, hevdet Nazir-Ali at det er blitt
stadig vanskeligere for ikke-muslimer å bo eller arbeide i områder som er
dominert av en streng, islamsk ideologi. Nazir-Ali hevdet også at islamske krefter
aktivt arbeider for å islamisere Storbritannia, blant annet ved innføring av
offentlige bønnerop og sivilrettslige shariadomstoler.
Reaksjonene har ikke latt vente på seg. Talsmenn for
islamske organisasjoner hevder nå at Nazir-Ali sprer ”løgner” og ”hat mot
muslimer”, og at han må trekke seg fra sin stilling som biskop i Church of
England.
Men andre sentrale ledere i Church of England har rykket ut
til støtte for Nazir-Ali, og sier at han setter ord på et reelt problem, og at
mange kristne i muslimskdominerte områder er redde for å gi uttrykk for sin
tro.
Meget Interessant er at Manzoor Moghal, formann i Muslim Forum, rykker ut med full støtte til Nazir-Ali:
areas in parts of Britain has provoked a predictable barrage of outrage.
He has been condemned for making ‘inflammatory’ remarks, distorting the truth
about our inner cities and ‘scaremongering’ against the Muslim population.
But, paradoxically, this reaction from the politically-correct establishment
is an indicator of the weight of his case. If our ruling elite were not so
worried that his views would strike a chord with the public, it would not have
been so anxious to condemn him.
His statement about the dangers of the rise of radical Islam matches the
reality of what people see in our cities and towns, where the influence of
hardliners is undermining harmony and promoting segregation.
Nazir-Ali har startet en viktig diskusjon om et problem som ikke kommer til å forsvinne ved at vi feier det under teppet, hevder Moghal:
Yet in this case, I feel he is correct in highlighting the problem of
cultural apartheid that is developing in some of our urban areas.
It is not good enough just to dismiss his opinions and hope that the whole
issue will go away, for the failure to achieve real integration in our society
is far too serious an issue to be ignored.
As he says, a key element of this failure is the sense of separatism that now
grips too many Muslim communities.
However much his critics may sneer at his accusations, the fact is that the
determination of some of my fellow Muslims to cling to certain lifestyles,
customs, languages and practices has helped to create neighbourhoods where
non-Muslims may feel uncomfortable, even intimidated.
Such anxieties can only be reinforced by the dominant influence of the
mosques, which are often in the hands of fundamentalists and thereby promote a
conscious rejection of Western values.
Ifølge Moghal, har den britiske, multikulturelle integrasjonsmodellen skjerpet, snarere enn harmonisert, motsetninger mellom etniske grupper i landet, og har forhindret fremveksten av en felles, britisk nasjonalfølelse.
The heavy Islamic influence in parts of Britain amounts to a severe
indictment of the dogma of multi-culturalism, which held sway in our public
institutions since the early eighties.
Instead of promoting a sense of mutual belonging and shared understanding,
this doctrine has sown the seeds of division and suspicion by discouraging
allegiance to a unified British identity.
Instead, people from ethnic minorities and non-Christian faiths were urged to
cling to their own cultures. The differences between creeds and races were to be
celebrated rather than bridged.
But, as the Bishop of Rochester has pointed out, the malign consequences of
this ideology can now be seen not only in the spirit of separateness that hangs
over some Muslim-dominated areas, but also in the more devastating arrival of
home-grown terrorism, which feeds on an aggressive rejection of western values.
Multi-culturalism was meant to build a unified society. «Together in
diversity» was one its slogans. But instead it has achieved the
opposite-promoting division and distrust-which has been exacerbated by Islamic
extremism.