That familiar cry of "we want our country back" has been directed over centuries against the Jews, the Irish, African-Caribbeans, South Asians, eastern Europeans and so on. Many of these groups continue to bear the brunt of casual racism exposed by the Guardian piece but Islam seems to be firmly on the frontline.
Only this week, a Facebook group whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigrant feeling, which rapidly metamorphosed into anti-Muslim ranting by claiming that the police were attempting to ban the flying of the English flag for fear of upsetting minorities. Of course, the rumour was complete nonsense and stemmed from a letter advising a pub in Croydon to ban football club shirts to minimise confrontation between fans of rival teams. Nothing to do with Muslims, immigrants or the flag, yet almost 160,000 people believed the story and were up in arms about them Muslims with their mosques and their burqas.
It's the ease with which a kernel of truth associated (or not) with Muslims can be blowtorched, twisted out of all recognition and sculpted into something quite unrecognisable from the original that is so disturbing. And it's such hysteria that serves to fuel the anti-Islamic sentiment expressed by those EDL members featured in the Guardian.
Islam, and consequently Muslims, seem to have become a dirty word – only a couple of weeks ago I was on a bus in south London on which a rather flustered weekend dad was trying to control his unruly young son. "You fucker," screamed the boy as his father attempted to stop him from licking the window of the bus. "Don't you dare swear at me you little shit," the dad spat back. "Muslim. You love Muslims you do, you Muslim," was the youngster's bizarre retaliation. I didn't know whether to laugh or despair as the father hissed at his child to "shut the fuck up".
It's fair to say that Muslims have a PR problem and I'm the first to admit that it's not as if some from our ranks haven't fuelled this anger and suspicion. Going all the way back to the Salman Rushdie affair, on to the London bombings, radicalisation, Danish cartoons, not to mention the cartoon-fest on Facebook, the actions of a few Muslims have proved severely damaging. Such notoriety has fomented and unified anti-Muslim sentiment unrestricted by race, background and political persuasion.
One particularly inflammatory incident involving Muslims in recent times involved a group of extremists protesting during a parade in Luton for soldiers returning from Iraq and is thought to have been a catalyst for the creation of the EDL. What was less widely reported was that the Muslim extremists numbered only a handful and were not representative of the views of the large Muslim community in Luton. In fact, the extremists were prevented from repeating their provocative demonstration by other Luton Muslims – who literally drove them out of town.
The EDL claim they are not anti-Muslim and merely anti-militant Islam, although the line is evidently blurred. However, if that really is the case perhaps they would wish to offer their support to the many Muslim grassroots initiatives, as well as intellectual and theological forums striving to challenge extremism. These positive steps rarely grab the headlines in the way that stories about reactionary Muslims do. Perhaps that is much of the problem.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims living in the UK have better things to do than pursue the Islamification of this country and certainly are not keen on the idea of replacing the British constitution with Shariah law by 2040, as if that was even remotely on the cards – considering only 3% of the population of the UK is Muslim. When the EDL faithful wax lyrical about the Islamisation of England I have some difficulty understanding what exactly they mean.
Once the old wives' tales and misinformation are stripped away from their arguments, it is hard to see how Islam is directly and negatively impinging upon their lives. Muslims are a pluralistic and eclectic community with a vast array of individual perspectives that cannot be reliably generalised, never mind brought together to form any sort of movement for Islamisation.
The fact that the EDL is planning a summer of anti-Islamic demonstrations in cities with significant Muslim populations, including Bradford where I currently live, is certainly worrying. The likelihood of counter-demonstrations heightening racial tension and stirring up trouble is also ominous. But Muslims must counter the anti-Islamic momentum by refusing to react, and turning their focus towards transparency and dialogue in an attempt to dispel myths, address concerns and facilitate integration and cohesion.
As troubling as the rise in anti-Islamic sentiment and the casual Islamophobia that comes with it is, there is some solace to be gained in the fact that the British National party performed poorly in the general election. If the EDL is heralding a sharp shift in the political mood to the right, present evidence may prove disappointing for them. If it's a summer of violence and clashes with local Muslims on the streets they are hoping for, let's disappoint them on that front too.
The Gurardian
