Freedom of religion is an important value. It ought to
be possible for people of all religions to worship as they please without encountering
any sort of prejudice. It is wrong to discriminate against Christians, Muslims,
Hindus, Jews and Sikhs. Religious forms of dress should be permitted so long as
they do no harm to anyone else. It does me no harm if someone else wears a
turban, a kippah, a headscarf or a cross.
I dislike the word Islamophobia. I ought to be allowed
to dislike Islam as a religion just as I ought to be allowed to dislike
Christianity or any other religion. I ought to be allowed to disagree with
Islamic texts and rules. For instance, while it is a rule for most Muslims that
it is wrong to display a picture of the prophet, it ought not to be a rule for
me because I am not a Muslim. A devout Muslim may dislike seeing a picture of
the prophet, but he cannot expect non-Muslims to follow Muslim rules anymore
than we can expect or force a Muslim to drink communion wine every Sunday.
Freedom of religion requires us all to be able to believe
what we want, but also to disbelieve what we want. It ought not to be
considered discriminatory against Muslims if someone mocks Islam, disagrees
with Islamic opinion on any issue or expresses opinions that Muslims dislike
about foreign policy or the behaviour of some Muslims in British society.
It is however discriminatory to be unkind to Muslims
we might encounter or to treat them in anyway worse than anyone else. Our
fellow citizens deserve our kindness.
Humza Yousaf in a recent article has complained about the
rise of Islamophobia both in Britain and Europe. Oddly Rishi Sunak has never
complained about the rise of Hinduismphobia. Neither has he written “it is
increasingly difficult to persuade fellow Hindus that Europe does not have a
problem with our very existence.”
Why is the presence of Hindus not a political issue
either in Britain or in Europe, while the presence of Muslims is?
There are I think two issues here. Mass migration
would be a political issue no matter where the people were coming from.
Cymru used to be the word not only for Wales, but for
much of Northen England too. It was contrasted with Lloegr the realm of the
Anglo-Saxons. It is reasonable to assume that Cymru or something similar was
originally the word for the whole of Britain. The Celtic speakers of Britain no
doubt resented the migration first of Romans and then of Anglo-Saxons. They longed
in their poetry for a Britain free from the speakers of Old English. From the point
of view of the Celts they were right to be concerned about the mass migration
of Anglo-Saxons. Fifteen hundred years later Cymru has been pushed into just Wales
and the original language of the British is a minority language in Wales. Migration
caused this.
But in every other respect the Ancient Britons and the
Celts were similar. They were both European and in time they both followed
Christianity. What if instead the migrants had been the Moorish people who
conquered Spain and might if history had turned out differently have conquered
the rest of Europe too. In that case modern Britain would be very different
indeed.
So, the issue facing Europe is not merely mass
migration, it is who is migrating. If a few million Poles had moved to France
there would be little if any controversy because in time the Poles would have
learned French and would have become indistinguishable from other French
people.
The reason people are not concerned about Hindus in
Europe is firstly that they are relatively few in number and secondly there are
no instances of Hindus committing acts of terrorism, nor instances of Hindus making
a teacher go into hiding for showing a picture of Krishna, nor instances of
Hindus making threats if someone disagrees with or mocks the Bhagavad Gita. I
can make a satirical film about the life of Krishna and there will be no
demonstrations, but if I did the same about the prophet my life would be in
danger.
If something is dangerous it is not a phobia to be scared
of it. It is common sense.
It’s all very well for Humza Yousaf to complain about
Islamophobia, but this is to assume that the problem is all on the side of the
non-Muslims. But British people have been remarkably tolerant and even positive
about Islam and Muslims. Sadiq Khan is mayor of London. Humza Yousaf was First
Minister of Scotland. Anas Sarwar is Scottish Labour leader and may be First
Minister soon. Being Muslim is not a bar to high office and Muslims can be found
in every important job.
It’s an odd sort of Islamophobia that keeps electing
Muslims.
Yousaf complains that Nigel Farage said that “that
Muslims do not share British values”. But Yousaf himself denies that he is
British although he has a British passport. Yousaf like nearly every other Scottish
nationalist is Scottish not British. So presumably Yousaf agrees with Nigel
Farage that he does not share British values, because he denies that he is
British at all. Yousaf is allowed to say about himself that he is not British,
but if anyone else dared to say it he would doubtless be prosecuted for a hate
crime.
The reason mass migration in general and mass
migration of people from Islamic countries is an electoral issue is firstly
that people in many European countries including Britain do not want their
countries to be changed as drastically as was the case when the Celts were
pushed to the margins of Britain.
Here the issue is neither to do with race nor any
other phobia. We might love the Dutch and be similar to them, but we would not
want ten or twenty million Dutch to come to Britain. If that many did come our language,
culture and way of life would be changed for ever.
But the migrants who are coming to Britain and Europe
are mainly from the third world and mainly follow Islam. They frequently fail
to integrate but instead live in their own communities and hold religious and
cultural beliefs with which we disagree.
Some members of the Islamic community believe in forms
of Islamic fundamentalism, follow political forms of Islam, take part in acts
of terrorism or threaten other people for exercising their right of free
speech. Large number of Muslims also take part in demonstrations calling for
the destruction of the state of Israel and sympathising with the goals of terrorist
organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Whenever there is a conflict
involving the UK and a Muslim country, British Muslims and Scottish Muslims too
if they are not British tend to side with our opponent. Under these
circumstances it is remarkable how little Islamophobia exists in Britain.
Prior to the Second World War there was no racism in
Britain, because there were only around 7000 people from ethnic minorities. The
amounted to 0.01% of the population. There was no one to be racist about as
most people never met someone from an ethnic minority.
In the space of one lifetime, we have arrived at
almost 20% of the population having origins from somewhere else. Far more
people have migrated to Britain since the Second World War than in any similar
timespan including when the Anglo-Saxons conquered Cymru from the Celts and
during the Norman Conquest.
I am not against migration, and I am not against
Muslims, but we can have too much of a good thing. Let us attempt to limit migration
to no more than 100,000 per year. Let us pick talented people from all
countries who can help our economy and health service, but we must set limits
otherwise in the coming decades 20% will become 40% and then 60%.
If Humza Yousaf cannot bear to live in the same United
Kingdom to which his parents migrated but would rather split it up, how are we
to find the unity and commonality that every country needs when its people will
be so diverse as to have little in common. If the sons and daughters of
migrants in Glasgow and Bradford lack a common identity and a shared future
together then Farage is making a reasonable point.
British values I believe are not specific to Britain
though many originated here. We have shared values across the free world. Many
Muslims both here and elsewhere share them too. But a country also needs a
shared identity and Humza Yousaf does not have a shared identity with Rishi
Sunak. He thinks Rishi Sunak is a foreigner and there should be an
international boundary between where they both live.
How can a country survive if this is the result of
migration. How can a country survive when people like Humza Yousaf spend their
whole lives complaining about their fellow citizens having phobias and does not
think they are his fellow countrymen but wants instead to turn them into foreigners.
If you liked this article, then cross my PayPal with silver and soon there will be a new one. See below.
