.... I think more important than what the Asians said or did is the attitude of the establishment. Think about how Iqbal Sacranie was knighted despite his repellent views. That's Malik's point - the multiculturalism of the establishment blinded them to looking at Sacranie as if he was a westerner. In order to be non-racist they gave him a free pass despite him saying: "Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him". He got the OBE and knighthood after saying that.
The problem with the establishment is that they tried to engage the "Muslim Community" rather than asking individuals to sign up to the political process. Once you do that you are obliged to seek out representatives of what is in fact a very diverse group.
Those representatives are inevitably exemplars of political Islam rather than the secular Muslims that Malik talks about and they in turn treat Muslims as a homogenous group because that gives them greater power. That's how we got to where we are - those "community leaders" were effectively created by Labour and Conservative and having got that power they aren't going to give it up easily. [Mick Hartley] Read more
