Last week, David Cameron launched a devastating tirade against 30 years of multiculturalism in Britain. He warned that multiculturalism was incubating extremist ideology and directly contributing to home-grown Islamic terrorism. He said,” We have failed to provide a vision of society [to young Muslims] to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless. And the search for something to belong to and believe in can lead them to extremist ideology.”

Cabinet Minister Sayeeda Warsi has argued that Islamophobia is now seen by many as normal and uncontroversial in a speech to the University of Leceister. She also says that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice.

On 27th November 2010, a report was launched in London titled ‘Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010’. The European Muslim Research Centre produced the report, in excess of two hundred pages, further exposing to the world the hostile face of Britain and Europe towards Islam. 

On 27th November 2010 a report was launched in London titled ‘Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010’. The European Muslim Research Centre produced the report, in excess of two hundred pages, further exposing to the world the hostile face of Britain and Europe towards Islam. 

On October 17th 2010, Angela Merkel the German Chancellor unequivocally declared: “The approach of saying, ‘Well, let’s just go for a multicultural society, let’s coexist and enjoy each other,’ this very approach has failed, absolutely failed.” Merkel is not alone amongst Germany’s elite to disparage multiculturalism. 

Gordon Brown, Michael Howard, Boris Johnson, David Blunkett and Trevor Phillips are just a few of the names that have dared to tackle the complex and controversial subject of British citizenship. The subject is complex, because Britain was always a convenient political identity to try to preserve an uncomfortable union between dominant England and its vanquished neighbours. It is controversial because its prominence has been brought about because one section of the British population – the Muslim community – has caused concerns. Most concerns have been dominated by allegations of a security threat by an ‘enemy within’, seemingly realised after the 7/7 bombings, but for those who had studied the issues for longer, concerns really emerged when the Muslim community in Europe had such a strong reactions to the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. The blame was placed firmly on the policy of multiculturalism for institutionalising difference, the lack of a strong and distinct British identity and the failure of Islam to ‘reform’, meaning to secularise.