Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'
Britain's first ever Muslim minister has said that Muslims today feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe".
This is the unspoken truth of the war on terror, that our politicians have singled out one religious group and told the rest of us that, because of radical Islam, we must fear one part of our populace more than any other.Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station.
"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
"Somehow there's a message out there that it's OK to target people as long as it's Muslims. And you don't have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye."
I have no memory of the religion of the IRA having any part of public discourse during the days of IRA bombings here on the British mainland. We certainly never spoke of radical Catholicism in the way that radical Islam is now discussed as a catch all term.
This is all part of the "war of civilisations" approach to this matter that many politicians have willingly embraced, and there is proof that their attitudes are bleeding out into the populace at large.
The ICM survey found that 51 per cent of Britons blame Islam to some degree for the 2005 attacks while more than a quarter of Muslims now believe Islamic values are not compatible with British values. While 90 per cent of Muslims said they felt attached to Britain, eight out of 10 said they felt there was more religious prejudice against their faith since the July bombings.Osama bin Laden sought to drive a wedge between Islam and the rest of us and he has been wildly successful, but his success has been based on the fact that our politicians and our media appear willing to do his work for him.
It really is the silly season, where you can print or say anything you like about Islam, without fear of reprisal.The MP said the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media, including a story run by several national newspapers in December last year wrongly stating that staff in the Dewsbury and District Hospital had been ordered to turn the beds of Muslim patients towards Mecca five times a day, was a key example of how his co-religionists were being alienated from the mainstream.
He said: "It's almost as if you don't have to check your facts when it comes to certain people, and you can just run with those stories. It makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country. At a time when we want to engage with Muslims, actually the opposite happens."
Europe, of all places, should have learned the dangers of that mindset a long time ago.
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