cancel2 2022
Canceled
- Labour's Khalid Mahmood called for more Muslims to challenge attitudes
- He said women's groups were doing so and urged more men to be 'brave'
- It comes after ex-equalities watchdog Trevor Phillips issued a warning
- He said Muslim communities could become 'a nation within a nation'
Labour’s Khalid Mahmood, England’s first Muslim MP, said: ‘A lot of people are challenging unacceptable attitudes. 'There are women’s groups doing this. I only wish more men in some communities were able to be as brave.’ But he said successive governments going back to the 1980s had pursued policies which had led to the ‘ghetto-isation’ of Muslim communities. ‘Trevor Phillips is right in terms of saying we must get the community to integrate far more,’ he said. ‘But a lack of planning going back decades means they have not had a chance to move out of their areas.’
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee which is investigating extremism, said: ‘There should be no no-go areas in the UK. The first generation of migrants came here because it was the most open and tolerant country in the world. ‘We should celebrate different cultures and religions. However, we are clearly not doing enough to challenge those who wish to undermine our values. 'It is these values that hold us together. We should be tirelessly promoting them.’
However, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said it ‘did not recognise’ Mr Phillips’ analysis, which was based on a Channel 4 poll for a documentary tomorrow night. It also questioned the decision to survey some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK with a disproportionately high number of people with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi ethnicity.
It comes amid fears of a divide in society. Pictured is a muslim woman in a niqab selling ice cream to a child in Dewsbury (file picture)
Former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips, pictured, said there was a growing chasm between British Muslims and non-Muslims over marriage, segregation and freedom of speech