Scared of change? Have faith. (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Scared of change? Have faith.

12:01pm Thursday 1st March 2007

• Print
• Email

Some believe that either Bradford will become a Western Islamabrad, culturally divided and segregated, or an ideal kind of Bradistan, a happy amalgam of East and West based on tolerance, equality and responsibility.

Even if the district had not become inundated with Poles, Latvians, Filipinos and Africans, these notions of a city either too mixed for its own good or dominated by a homegeneous Muslim community are partial interpretations of a much more interesting reality.

Until the arrival of thousands of Roman Catholics from the expanded European Union, Muslims liked indigenous atheists to believe that their community was more God-abiding than any other.

While this appeared to be plausible - attendance at Mosque on Fridays, say, compared to church attendance on Sundays - we know from crime statistics, the two riots and reactions to 9/11 and 7/7 that Muslims in their various sects (Bary Malik JP says there are 73) and social formations have their own problems of adjustment.

Take voting, for example. Allah is less of a determining factor than family background, the country of origin, tribe or clan. I discovered this in the mid-1990s after the Labour Party authorised investigations into ward party activities following inexplicable voting swings in Toller and University wards.

Having voted for one family member who was in the Labour Party one year, the decision was taken to swing behind another family member who was in the Conservatives. The party line was infinitely less important than the family; not much has changed in this respect.

Those fearful of the future see the city dominated by puritanical Islamic ideologues forever denouncing the trail of Mammon in Western society while other young Muslim men chase the tail of the dragon, selling cocaine and heroin.

They lose sight of the mass of other people, the kindly middle-aged men who drive the buses, the shop-keepers open all hours, the younger middle-class aspirants who work for the council, Bradford Community Housing Trust, the NHS and other professional bodies.

If their fears of a take-over by fanatics is justified, why is there no parliamentary Islamic Party?

Islamic extremists don't believe in parliamentary democracy. An Islamic party based on the Sharia would have brief and limited appeal. Not so long ago them Natural Law Party put up hundreds of prospective candidates at £500 a time. Where are they now?

All that one can say about Bradford's future is that it is dynamic: subject to change and the law of unforeseen consequences. Have faith.