(Photo: Creative Commons)
Hamed Chapman
Not for the first time the former head of equalities watchdog has entered the fray in castigating Muslims, claiming that the community was unlike others in Britain and the country should accept that they will not integrate in the same way.
Speaking at the right-wing Policy Exchange think tank last month, Trevor Phillips said it was disrespectful to suppose that Muslim communities would change and that the UK should accept that they “see the world differently from the rest of us”.
“Part of the integration process is for the rest of us to grasp that people aren’t going to change their views simply because we are constantly telling them that basically they should be like us.”
“Continuously pretending that a group is somehow eventually going to become like the rest of us is perhaps the deepest form of disrespect,” the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)was quoted saying.
“Because what you are essentially saying is the fact that they behave in a different way, some of which we may not like, is because they haven’t yet seen the light. It may be that they see the world differently from the rest.”
In response, The Muslim Council of Britain criticised Phillips’ comments that come in the wake of Prime Minister, David Cameron, attempting to link the failure to integrate with an increased risk to become terrorists, while warning immigrants may be deported who fail to learn English.
“It assumes that Muslims are not equal, and not civilised enough to be part and parcel of British society, which they most certainly are,” MCB spokesman said.“For too long Muslims have had to endure a media echo chamber, which amplifies the misconception that Muslims and their faith are incompatible with life in Britain. We dispute that notion.”
Phillips, who was also a former Labour member of the London Assembly, has also previously warned that Britain’s current approach to multiculturalism could cause Britain to “sleepwalk towards segregation” during his tenure as EHRC chair which was dogged by controversies and internal dissent.
He also provoked criticism when defending offensive Danish cartoons that satirised Prophet Muhammad, insisting that people should be allowed to offend each other.
