April 17, 2007
SAMENESS:
Beyond the Veil (Dalia Mogahed, Zsolt Nyiri, April 2007, Foreign Policy)
When four British-born Muslims blew themselves up on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, many Britons were convinced that their country’s model of assimilation had failed. The attacks, coupled with a war on terror that seems to reveal an ever-widening gulf between Islam and the West, sparked talk of a crisis of integration, seen most clearly in the acute alienation of the country’s Muslim youth.Posted by Orrin Judd at April 17, 2007 10:54 PMBut for all the talk of crisis, a new Gallup World Poll finds that more binds the British majority with its religious minority than not. The greatest challenge of all may be in moving beyond minor, symbolic controversies in order to pave a path toward a shared future. [...]
[O]ur poll found that Muslims and the public have remarkably similar views on what it means to integrate. The importance of mastering English, finding a job, getting a better education, and participating in politics are values agreed upon by Muslims and the public alike. Perhaps even more surprising: A majority in each group also agrees that reducing the fervor of one’s religious practice isn’t necessary to blend in.
They forgot to ask in the pole "How important is integration?", to which the Brits would say very and the Muslim Brits, not so much.
Posted by: KRS at April 17, 2007 11:14 PMNo, multiculturalism is a Western dogma.
Posted by: oj at April 18, 2007 7:41 AM"Toning down level of religious observance"?
Another problem is that the Muslim's surveyed are "London Muslims". That's like doing a survey of "Manhattan whites" and assuming that the reults speak for whites in the rest of the country.
Posted by: tsol at April 18, 2007 8:32 AMAlways they "forget" to ask he most important question WRT assimilation -- political allegiance. All the bombers were pretty well-integrated -- one was a teacher, another a rich man's kid with a new Mercedes his dad gave him. They had Yorkshire accents and as I recall didn't speak any Arabic or Farsi. The fact that the Muslims and the white Brits agree on what it means to assimilate doesn't mean that they agree on whether or not to assimilate.
Posted by: Lisa at April 18, 2007 9:15 AMAnd it would certainly be better for the Brits to assimilate to Islam than for Muslims to assimilate to multiculturalism.
Posted by: oj at April 18, 2007 10:40 AM"Another problem is that the Muslim's surveyed are "London Muslims". That's like doing a survey of "Manhattan whites" and assuming that the reults speak for whites in the rest of the country."
London has about 600k Muslims out of a total Muslim population of 1.6m for the country. There is a higher Arab and Bangladeshi component compared to elsewhere in the UK.
Posted by: Ali Choudhury at April 18, 2007 10:59 AMDon't you think it's interesting that a larger percentage of Muslim Brits felt it was more important to celebrate national holidays and volunteer to serve the public than their Anlgo counterparts?
Posted by: Bartman at April 18, 2007 11:31 AMRevealing, eh?
Posted by: oj at April 18, 2007 1:53 PM