.... By “others”, he meant Muslims – the EDL’s most frequent target – or any other visible minorities he deemed to have made insufficient effort to assimilate into British culture. It struck me as the most chilling and insidious form of racism of all: he was, in effect, saying, “People who come to England are acceptable to the extent they attempt to mimic us.”
Underpinning that is a confidence in one culture’s inherent superiority over others. It’s for exactly this reason that it is becoming more widely recognised that assimilationist thinking – the idea that a particular culture is preferable, and that others should therefore adopt it – is a racist ideology.
“Integration is not assimilation,” said the UK’s most senior counterterrorism officer, Neil Basu, this week. Basu was pointing out that the latest research on terrorism shows that people with extremist views are moved to violence not because they aren’t “assimilated” but because they feel excluded.
“Create a sense of belonging, while not forcing people to give up things they may hold as sacred,” Basu rightly recommended. “If we fail … we risk social exclusion turning to violence.” But too many people who profess their support for integration are really talking about assimilation. [The Guardian] Read more
