An intolerant creed - New Labour’s Islam policy

Nor is it correct to consider, as many commentators have, that the organisation of some Muslims or any other minority in their own cliques is necessarily a sign of an anti-democratic tendency or distaste for mainstream society. The foundations of this style of organisation often stem from a perceived need to preserve a minority community from disintegration, and the fear of persecution.

Under onerous conditions, a community, like a biological organism, can begin to see “the outside” as a source of dissolution and a threat to its existence. Consequently, the community’s assessments are devised in terms of the contribution to the life-value of the corporate whole rather than in any normative way. The key is to the remove such conditions rather than curse their products.

A functioning democracy requires of necessity the enthusiastic participation and involvement of all communities in the political process, whatever views they hold on the policies of the party in power.

By contrast, the Blair Government wishes Muslims to integrate into British society only if they are to hold viewpoints considered acceptable. Otherwise, New Labour would seem to prefer apolitical and humble Muslims who behave with all the colonial subservience of our parents, who never considered Britain their home.

The “shall we risk leaving them as they are or shall we risk bringing them into the fold” represents the ongoing and tormenting dilemma for New Labour's “Muslim policy”.

But the younger Muslim generation, unseduced by the trinkets of tokenistic and false power, is busy working to ensure that a time is coming when Blair's successors approach our community with the respect due to us as equal members of British society rather than as minions to be condescendingly spoken on behalf of.

For the time being, however, who can blame some sections of the Muslim community if they, lacking in the means or knowledge to become full citizens, opt for isolation over integration on the Government's terms?