UK majority back multiculturalism (BBC News)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

The majority of British people think multiculturalism makes the country a better place, a BBC poll suggests. But 32% think it "threatens the British way of life" and 54% think "parts of the country don't feel like Britain any more because of immigration".

The Mori poll for the BBC also suggests the 7 July bomb attacks have not led to an upsurge in racial intolerance. The survey questioned 1,004 people in the UK. A booster survey of 204 British Muslims was conducted for comparison.



The overwhelming majority of Muslims - 89% - said they feel proud when British teams do well in international competitions, a similar figure to the national population. And the survey suggests broad agreement between the two groups on immigrants being made to learn English and accept the authority of British institutions.

Ben Page, director of Mori's social research institute, said: "The survey shows that despite 7/7, the majority of both white British people and Muslims share a common level of allegiance to Britain and its institutions and seem very tolerant of each other, in contrast to media reporting following the London bombing.

More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4137990.stm

[LeftishBrit]

1. All very interesting...

and, on the whole, reassuring; suggesting that attitudes, if just as confused as they've always been, at least haven't got notably worse.
Of course, there's always some tendency to say what you think is the acceptable thing; few people will actually want to admit that they're very prejudiced against other races, even when they are!

What is interesting is that on the one hand, over half of the people surveyed said that SOME areas of Britain are no longer the same due to immigration; but only a small minority said that this was true of THEIR area. This may reflect the particular places where the respondents lived; but I suspect that some of it is due to their being influenced by the hate-media about Britain in general, while having actual knowledge of their own area.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. The hate-media does have a part to play

The Daily Mail would have us believe that Britain is being "overrun" by asylum seekers and those who believe this the most live far away from ethnically-diverse areas.

[moggie]

7. I'd like to see more breakdown by region

I've heard some appalling racism from people living in leafy, almost-all-white parts of the country. Frankly, if some yokel throwback thinks my city "doesn't feel like Britain any more", they should just stay the fuck away from it.

One obvious problem with the poll is that it doesn't define terms. "Multiculturalism" means different things to different people: to some it simply means being able to buy Chicken Tikka Masala at Tesco. And what are the "values and traditions of British culture"? Nobody can agree on those! I'd certainly draw the line at forcing immigrants to take up morris dancing or caber tossing.

[non sociopath skin]

8. Was it not that great British Cultural Icon, Sir Thomas Beecham ..

... who said that one should try everything once except for incest and morris dancing?

The Skin

[lockdown]

11. Honesty of respondents

To an extent it reminds me of the trouble pollsters had finding people who'd admit to voting for Thatcher in the 80's. 75% say they are "not prejudiced at all"? Yeah right.

I agree that people will see the meaning of multiculturalism differently, and will perhaps be more amenable to their definition of it. Even taking reticence into account a question like "Is immigration a serious problem" would probably bring a very different response.

Still, it's an interesting survey I think. I'm glad only half think immigrants should pledge allegience to the flag and crown, wouldn't want to wish that on anyone. Muslims pass the cricket test too, so they're probably enjoying the match today. ;)

[sweetheart]

3. Is multiculturalism "americanism"?

Isn't what they call "multiculturalism" really just postmodernism, where
there is no society at all in common, and all that ties us together is
a mutual residence in a nation state.

I've heard the arguments of both sides in this all, and i myself feel
that there is a value to the old cultures. A trickle of immigration
seems to integrate and adapt, whereas, large immigration scales seem
not to, rather to form immigrant cities.

Clearly it is a failure to decide "what is british", but then how does
a person deal with the increasingly outdated monarchy-religious-state
and a secular population that has lost those values with a culture
swept away by american television over decades.

The only thing different between britain and a liberal american state,
is that people are more polite in britain and drive on the correct
side of the road. And even that is washing away with a tide of
americanism, that what is left? Is britain to become an american
outpost in europe, where the population has been reduced by expat-media
moguls to patriotic jingoism?

The question is deeper than a poll, worthy of some investigation.

[Taxloss]

4. The research I have seen is positive - to a point, that is.

It points to a pleasing trend - a larger number who are content with an inclusive, multicultural society. But it also highlights that some of the rump who do not share this view is becoming entrenched, lurching to the right, and becoming radicalised.

[non sociopath skin]

6. Fine. Then let the majority of us take them on.

"Christian" Fundamentalism and Jihadism needs to be dealt with as firmly as the Islamic variety.

The Skin

[Endangered Specie]

5. Has the British national party tried to take advantage and

exploit the situation?

[moggie]

9. Of course they have

The BNP can't see a band wagon without jumping on it. At a byelection after the bombs, their campaign literature used a photo of the bombed bus, with the caption "maybe now it's time to listen to the BNP". Though the election result suggests that this may have reduced their level of support.

[T_i_B]

10. Of course

That's the nature of the neo-nazi beast I'm afraid. The BNP exists to go after Multi-culturalism in any form. :grr:

[Endangered Specie]

13. Those Bloody Nasty People are worse than the neo cons in some respects!

Hopefully they will not gain anythign, from the sound of it, they might be shooting themselves in the foot (with their mandatory home assault rifle) with those pamphlets and tactics ;)

[T_i_B]

14. WAY worse then the neo-cons

The BNP are outright Neo-Nazi's. The equivalent of the KKK over in the US.

[mrfrapp]

12. Encouraging

I heard a Daily Mail reader quote Enoch Powell the other week. I was beginning to wonder what the general public opinion is.

It's funny though isn't it, left wing politicians mention Iraq in connection with the London bombings and they're accused of "political opportunism" or "bad taste". The right wing on the other hand happily use the events to forward a racist agenda they've been pushing for years and they get a free pass.

[T_i_B]

15. SUPERB article on this by Roy Hattersley

A fellow Wednesdayite scores a goal!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1547594,00.html

The best thing that can be said for the critics of multiculturalism is that they are confused. Their muddled thinking was perfectly illustrated last week by David Davis, the shadow home secretary, when he denounced the concept and then added that he welcomed "the mainstream version of Islam as part of British society". That is as good a definition of multiculturalism as we are likely to get.

The charitable explanation of the confusion is ignorance - an inability to distinguish between integration and assimilation. The alternative interpretation is more sinister. Muslims are accepted in Britain - but only if they cease to behave like Muslims.

At one level, the attack on multiculturalism is no more than a refined, middle-class version of "Paki-bashing". Yet people who ought to know better have joined in the chorus of intolerance. To demand that Muslims abandon their way of life - what they eat, how they dress, which way they choose their husbands and wives - is to make a frontal assault upon their faith. Islam is a total religion. People who go to church on Christmas Eve and think that makes them Christians may not realise that devout Muslims believe that the Qur'an should inform their whole lives.

Britain has to decide if the freedom that we so value is consistent with attempts to suppress the religious practices of the country's fastest-growing faith. The fact that most of us do not share their beliefs (and some of us have no beliefs at all) is irrelevant. Only primitive people want to destroy everything they do not like or understand. The civilised, and sensible, approach is to welcome diversity as a stimulus to renewed vitality.