ANTI-MUSLIM PREJUDICE IS WIDESPREAD

This Op-Ed piece appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Anti-Muslim prejudice is widespread

If you are in any doubt over whether Baroness Warsi is right in saying that prejudice against Muslims has become socially acceptable, have a look at many of the comments on internet sites which greeted her remarks yesterday.

All the tired old cliches were there – the inferred suggestion that many Muslims are sympathetic to extremism; the notion that the culture of good old England is being changed by these outsiders; the complaints that merely seeing somebody in a burkha is somehow troubling; the usual rubbish along the lines of when in Rome etc; the assertion that Islamic countries would not tolerate diversity in the way we generous Brits do, and so on.

People are entitled to their views, of course, and we are not necessarily suggesting that they are closet racists simply for discussing the sort of things listed above, even though we disagree with every point.

It is the fact that these sort of views are frequently put forward as sweeping generalisations, lacking in factual analysis, unsupported by logical argument and frequently characterised by incredibly hostile language.

Does that amount to prejudice? Is it the sort of discussion which takes place over dinner tables? You bet.

We do not think that Baroness Warsi is opposing freedom of speech (another allegation which surfaced with tedious predictability yesterday). We think that she is merely asking for people to show tolerance and respect to others.

Freedom of speech should be something we prize sufficiently to realise that it comes with the responsibility to conduct ourselves in a restrained and reasonable manner. It should not be used as cover for the vilification of an entire cultural group. That this is happening is not only deeply unfair but dangerous too.