Monday, July 30, 2007

British Muslims Don't Feel British

Oh? You don't say:

Over a third of British Asians do not feel British, a BBC poll suggests.

The research for the Asian Network discovered 38% of the UK residents of South Asian origin polled felt only slightly or not at all British. Over a third agreed that to get on in the UK they needed to be a “coconut”, a term for somebody who is “brown on the outside but white on the inside”.

Yet 84% are satisfied with life in Britain and almost half think they have more opportunities here. ...

Three-quarters feel their culture is being diluted by living in the UK and nearly half believe white people do not treat them as British.

The poll was commissioned to coincide with the BBC’s India and Pakistan ‘07 season of programmes to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1947 partition of India.

Some 12% of those polled said they considered themselves to be “coconuts”.


Despite the disturbing results, there’s not a hint in this article that the BBC thinks this might be even a teensy little problem. On the contrary; their viewpoint seems to be that British racism is the reason for a huge unassimilated Muslim population.

Reena Combo, editor of Ikonz, a monthly Asian magazine aimed at young British Asians said: “I feel British but I feel very Asian as well. Many British Asians consider themselves to be British but at home they are more in touch with their cultural and ancestral roots.”

But she agreed that some British Asians think they need to become “coconuts”.

“They feel they need to fit into society and that society looks at them in a bad way,” she added.


Who woulda thunk Muslims wouldn't feel British? I mean, for Christ's sake, it's not like they haven't already told us this before.



5 comments:

WATCHER71 said...

Pas, good find on the story...what I will say is that these figures are representatively low...dear old Auntie (BBC) need to look at their research methodology....because I seriously question it...amongst non Muslim Asians I would say around 40-60% but amongst Muslims...80-90% (being generous). I would really be interested in their methodology aswell as the make up of the responding audience, it just does not tally with the real world...and yes, as I have pointed out several times..even with the low figures they use...they still fail to see a problem!!!

WATCHER71 said...

Doh!!! Damn spell checker!! should read unrepresentatively LOW

Pastorius said...

Hey Watcher,
Did you see that I put you up on our blogroll?

WATCHER71 said...

Cheers Pas!!! I put you up on mine yesterday....nice one bud!

Anonymous said...

Just a point, the article is about 'Asians' - Although the majority of Muslims in the UK are Asian, doesn't mean the article is about Muslims. Let's not stereotype.
The women quoted on your blog, Reena Combo editor of Ikonz magazine, and in the article is not even a Muslim, read her up on Google articles.
Also, the woman in the picture you've used could be black, white, Asian, Arab.
Arabs are not technically Asian anyway and many Muslims in the UK are African in origin as well as others...
Stop confusing things - it'slike assuming all Catholics are of Irish or Italisn descent. Wrong, isn't it...