Migration and Muslims in Britain

• Integration


  The extent to which Muslims should take part in society whilst maintaining their own culture
• Assimilation


  The extent to which Muslims should fully adopt the culture of the host nation
• Issues for Muslims to balance integration and assimilation

  • Food
  • Dress
  • Religious practice
• Muslim Council of Britain (MCB)

  An umbrella group for Muslim organisations in the UK, acting as a pressure group to raise concerns in government and represent Muslims at important events
• Questions over the MCB

  How representative it is, and the causes it champions
• Areas to evaluate for the MCB

  • Challenging Islamophobia
  • Rejecting terrorism
  • Positions around issues of integration
• Over the 20th century, large numbers of Muslims migrated to Britain for work. Their families stayed and became more accustomed to the British way of life than to their country of origin. Large communities congregated in cities and in some areas.
• Some Muslims mixed and integrated well


  Others felt worried about losing their identity
• Some integrated by working alongside others

  But did not assimilate to local culture and lived separate lives whilst at home
• Live issues for Muslim religious practice

  • Prayer five times a day
  • Fasting in Ramadan
  • Muslim dress, such as the veil for women
  • Finding halal food
• For Muslims working or going to school alongside others

  It can be difficult at times to pray or to fast whilst others are eating
• Some see religious practice as an opportunity


  To show others their faith and a personal test to uphold Islam
• Prevent strategy


  Focused on the importance of allegiance to the UK and the worry of extremism influence
• The MCB set up a 'tell mama' campaign to record incidents of Islamophobia and advise victims (following the Runnymede Trust report)
• The definition of Islamophobia


  Has not been widely agreed as some point out that it might be used to prevent legitimate criticism of religion
• The MCB is only partly democratic and has been criticised in the past for failing to support Holocaust Memorial Day, controversial guidance for schools and lack of support for the government's counter extremism Prevent strategy