Younger Muslims in the UK are increasingly disillusioned with British democracy and isolated from the mainstream because of the conflict in Gaza, according to a senior Islamic figure who has encouraged the UK to treat integration as a national security matter.

Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim al-Issa — the general secretary of the Saudi-backed Muslim World League (MWL), which seeks to promote Islam and challenge extremist narratives — has called on both Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain to focus on domestic concerns. He said that “a political situation outside”, such as ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, “should not interfere with integration inside”.

The MWL’s intervention is further demonstration that some of the most sensible and practical interventions on social cohesion in modern Britain are from the so-called “Islamic world”. These are moderate organisations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which have a sound understanding of the threat of Islamism. The likes of the United Arab Emirates have previously raised their concerns over Islamist extremism in the UK, with the Gulf country’s cabinet recently putting eight UK-based groups on its approved “local terror list”. Meanwhile, Morocco has outlawed the manufacturing, marketing and sale of the full-face veil (the burqa) due to security considerations and as part of its efforts to combat the spread of radical Salafism.

The reality is that while Britain has been more successful in socio-economically integrating its Muslim communities than European counterparts such as France and Germany, we have not witnessed what some have called an “integration miracle”. Recent figures from Whitestone Polling found that younger, predominantly UK-born British Muslims are more likely to identify with their faith first and foremost than their foreign-born elders.

This has been followed by new MWL research revealing that when compared to their older counterparts, younger Muslims are more likely to view British society as an intolerant one and believe that concerns around Islam are based on sensationalist media portrayals. The thesis that “minority identities” are de-prioritised with each new generation has not held in regards to British Muslims. In fact, the opposite is true.

Are British Muslims experiencing an “integration paradox”? The theory posits that as minority communities become more socially, educationally, and economically integrated, there is a greater chance of them perceiving forms of discrimination, unfairness, and injustice on the grounds of their ethnic background and/or religious affiliation.

While their elders may have had naturally positive orientations towards British democracy after leaving underdeveloped and unstable regions such as the Indian subcontinent or the Horn of Africa, UK-born-and-raised Muslims have a largely British “frame of reference”. This means that their expectations and demands of the British political system are greater. This does not only make them more prone to disappointment — it means they are more at risk of developing feelings of betrayal over foreign conflicts of a decidedly religious character, such as the Israel-Hamas war.

As it stands, the British political establishment is lost. The undeniably difficult task of integrating the country’s diverse communities into a cohesive arrangement is simply not receiving the serious attention it deserves. Fourteen years of underwhelming Conservative-led rule left the UK with no meaningful national integration strategy and huge increases in migration. The present Labour government is merely offering the politics of grievance, including plans for a new “Race Equality Act” and identitarian initiatives such as the creation of a new “Islamophobia” working group.

There is a fundamental lack of political leadership when it comes to social cohesion in modern Britain. British civil-society organisations aware of what is at stake are more likely to have support from “modernising” forces in the Islamic world than from the Westminster village.

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Dr Rakib Ehsan is a researcher specialising in British ethnic minority socio-political attitudes, with a particular focus on the effects of social integration and intergroup relations.

 

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