Former equal rights chief: ‘We must CHALLENGE Muslim extremist ideas'
FORMER equal rights chief Trevor Phillips has said that British live-and-let-live attitudes have allowed a climate to grow in which Muslim extremist ideas have flourished.
Mr Phillips has said that we must stop turning a blind eye on Muslim extremists
Mr Phillips has accused the UK of turning a blind eye with regards of tackling Muslims extremists.
Mr Phillips said that we have “understood too much and challenged too little” and we need a far more “muscular approach” to integration.
He went as far as saying that the integration of Muslims will probably be the hardest task that the country has ever faced.
British Muslim women may be accepting domestic abuse without complaint
It will mean political parties no longer turning a blind eye to appalling misdemeanours
Mr Phillips’ comments come after a shocking survey revealed that more than half of Muslims think that homosexuality should be illegal in Britain and nearly a quarter think that areas of the UK should be run under sharia law.
The former equal rights chief said that British Muslim women may be accepting domestic abuse without complaint as it is revealed that two thirds of Muslims say a woman should always obey her husband and a third of those polled said it was acceptable for a British Muslim to keep more than one wife.
He described the Muslim community in Britain as a “nation-within-a-nation” and said that the policy of multiculturalism has failed.
What is Sharia law?
Trevor Phillips was head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission between 2006 and 2012
The damning report reveals a chasm has opened up between British Muslims and everyone else on core issues, including marriage, education, freedom of speech and violence in the defence of religion.
He said: “I believe it holds a grim message for all of us. There is a life-and-death struggle for the soul of British Islam – and this is not a battle that the rest of us can afford to sit out. We need to take sides.”
Nearly half of the three million Muslims who now live in the UK were born abroad and with the immigration factor, it is thought that there will be at least six million Muslims in Britain by 2050.
It is thought that there will be at least six million Muslims in Britain by 2050
One suggestion the former equal rights chief had to improve the concerning situation was limiting the presence of any ethnic minority group to no more than 50 per cent in schools.
He said that as a nation we have "understood" too much about girls getting shipped off to have their genitals mutilated and teenagers being brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers, but we have “challenged too little”.
Mr Phillips said: “It will mean political parties no longer turning a blind eye to appalling misdemeanours in return for votes from community leaders – so-called silence-for-votes deals which created havoc in Rotherham and Rochdale and contributed to the grooming scandals in those towns.”
The poll, which surveyed 1,081 adults, also revealed that one in five Muslims never enter a non-Muslim household.
Trevor Phillips was head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission between 2006 and 2012.