Are you British, Canadian or Muslim first?

I'd to see someone dare to do similar polling in Canada. I suspect the results might not be quite as bad as in the UK; multiculturalism surely has had some good effect?

Following the shock of the London bombings on July 7, 2005, perpetrated by young Muslims born and educated in Britain, we now have the results of two recent opinion polls, an excellent television documentary and the sombre warnings of Britain's most senior Muslim policeman. All convey the same message. Not only do many young British Muslims feel more alienated from the country they live in than their parents did -- that's true of Muslims from immigrant families right across Europe -- but the sense of not belonging seems to be even more acute in Britain than in France.

In a poll conducted for the Channel 4 television documentary, only half the British Muslims questioned said they thought of Britain as "my country," whereas nearly a quarter said they thought of it as "their country" -- meaning someone else's. The younger, the greater the alienation. Shockingly, one in three British Muslims between 18 and 24 said they would rather live under sharia law than under British law.

In a Pew poll of Muslims worldwide, a gob-smacking 81 per cent of British Muslims said they thought of themselves as a Muslim first, and a citizen of their country only second. This is a higher proportion than in Jordan, Egypt, or Turkey, and exceeded only by that in Pakistan (87 per cent). By contrast, only 46 per cent of French Muslims said they were Muslims first, compared with 42 per cent who felt themselves first and foremost citoyens...

Unfortunately the author, Timothy Garton Ash, goes on to find "root causes" of Muslim alientation in UK government policy and the nature of British society.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at August 10, 2006 04:21 PM