.... In these dark days following Friday’s attack it is hard to start examining how such brutal atrocities could take place at the hands of French citizens. There can surely be no simple answer. Yet for those with knowledge of the banlieues, the OECD’s data will add fuel to the notion that communities in some French cities are horribly fractured, tempting hopeless men to a life of religious extremism.
Efforts here to encourage integration might offer lessons to the French government in the years ahead. But it is vital, too, that political leaders in the UK remain committed to policies that promote cohesion. This week we may all be French, but next week we will all be British again. It is vital that everyone living in this country feels like they belong.
[TOP RATED COMMENT] Written as someone who has never taken a bus up the Edgware road and looked out of the window.
Muslims don't integrate. It wouldn't matter if we threw a street party for them every bloody weekend - they still wouldn't come.
What a tasteless article coming so soon after the slaughter of so many innocents in Paris. It's always the fault of the countries who welcomed these people, gave them opportunities they did not have in their own countries and which other immigrants have grabbed with open arms and made better lives for themselves.
It's never the fault of the insular, supremacist religio-tribal ideology that frowns on mixing with the infidels and taking up their ways that throws up a maladjusted generation who are then convinced that their short-comings are because of discrimination by the larger society and indulge in the kind of slaughter and mayhem that is unfathomable to everyone else. Give it a break.
[ANOTHER] Good luck with that one - these people (Islamists) don't do integration - it against their religion - the Indy's editorial staff need to read the Qur'an! It's insufficient to accept Imams and Clerics quoting certain verses of their Book to paint Islamists in a favourable light - when there are 109 verses calling for the destruction of the very people you propose they integrate with?
[ANOTHER] 'The integration of immigrants through education is paramount'. Trouble is that many UK universities are a hot bed for radicalisation. The 'academic left' has an awful lot to answer for.
[ANOTHER] You mean like the thoroughly integrated and educated Bilal Abdullah, British born, qualified doctor and still he attempted to kill and maim when he rammed Glasgow airport.
Sorry but the one thing that links these attacks is not the attackers education, wealth or social position.
It is their faith which glorifies violence.
[ANOTHER] The other is Anjem Choudary - a fully qualified lawyer minted from the English legal institution and anow a radical Islamic preacher of dissent.
No, how successful has integration of the last 30 years been?
Its foolish to ignore cultural faultlines and be taken by politicians that speak for votes. You need to have tough enforceable laws to deal with deviants in society which would include removal and deportation.
[ANOTHER] Ban all Deobandi and Salafist Madrassas and mosques. Islamic fundamentalism has no place in our society. [The Independent] Read more
