The real reason young British Moslems become “disillusioned” with Britain

According to a follow-up story in The Times on the report on young British Moslems that I discussed earlier, the report says:

Often disaffected lone individuals unable to fit into their community will be attracted to university clubs based on ethnicity or religion, or be drawn to mosques or preaching groups in prison through a sense of disillusionment with their current existence.

Now your typical liberal reading the above will conclude that the “disillusionment” experienced by young Moslems is Britain’s fault and shows that Britain “has to do more” to integrate young Moslems into British society. In fact, as later quotes from the report make clear, what has created the sense of disaffection is the fact that Britain and America are in a war with various Moslem terrorist organizations, which involves Britain and America killing Moslems, locking Moslems in prison, occasionally seizing their Korans, and so on. Naturally these offenses alienate many British Moslems from Britain and make them want to strike back at her.

So, a liberal would interpret the report as a call for greater efforts to assimilate Moslems and make them feel welcome in Britain. A non-liberal would see the report as showing that Moslems are fundamentally different from and antithetical to us, so that if a war occurs between Islamic extremists and the West, many Western Moslems will naturally side with their fellow Moslems against the West. The “disillusionment” and “disaffection” the report warns of is simply the incompatibility between Islam and the West that was there from the start, and that the war is bringing to the forefront.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 10, 2005 10:08 PM | Send