One of New Labour’s favourite propaganda lines – the idea that there are Muslim “ghettos” that radicalise young Muslims and create terrorists – has been exposed as a myth.

Only this week Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, claimed that there was a “crisis” over areas of Britain “becoming more and more ethnically concentrated and exclusive”. But research produced this month shows that British Muslims in towns and cities with a large Muslim populations are no more likely to be charged under anti-terrorism legislation than those who don’t.

Population expert Dr Ludi Simpson analysed media reports to map the location of suspects charged under Britain’s anti-terror laws. “We looked at 75 cases of Muslims charged under anti-terrorist legislation from 2004 to the present day,” he told Socialist Worker. “Their location is spread pretty evenly across all the places Muslims live. It’s not in any way restricted to areas where there are large Muslim populations. Branding a particular area as a hotbed of terrorism is immensely damaging and it creates prejudice and fear. It’s just a fantasy.”

Simpson also challenges the notion that Britain is “sleepwalking into segregation”. In fact the number of ethnically mixed neighbourhoods is on the rise. “Politicians look at areas where there are visible groups of black or Asian people and interpret that to mean that there are ghettos. In reality it is population growth,” he said.

Socialist Worker, 2 December 2006

Read a summary of Ludi Simpson’s research here.

Owen Jones, co-chair of the Socialist Youth Network, argues for the left to put fighting Islamophobia at the centre of its activities.

We will not be silent

Labour Left Briefing, December 2006

Islamophobia is the anti-Semitism of our age. As anti-Semitism once paraded itself in the rhetoric of anti-capitalism, today Islamophobia clothes itself in the rhetoric of secularism. The 19th century German socialist August Bebel once referred to anti-Semitism as “the socialism of fools”: today it could be equally be said that Islamophobia is the “secularism of fools”. Much to their amusement, Islamophobia is no longer the preserve of the BNP (who, after all, now almost exclusively target their hatred against the Muslim community). Islamophobia is the political mainstream.

Worryingly, even some on the left have been reluctant to defend the Muslim minority against the onslaught begun by Jack Straw on the grounds that the veil is a clear form of female oppression. This entirely misses the point. Jack Straw did not denounce the niqab on the grounds that it oppresses women: he attacked it as a “sign of separation and difference”. Of course the left must support the emancipation of women from all forms of subjugation – including from the veil. However, such a profound cultural shift can only be achieved through the struggle of Muslim women themselves. The anti-Muslim hysteria triggered by Straw’s comments will surely only drive thousands of Muslims into the arms of Islamic fundamentalism. Indeed, there are reports of niqab sales trebling since Straw’s disastrous intervention.

Above all, it is necessary to understand the nature of Islamophobia. There was a shocking audacity to Straw’s description of the veil as a barrier to good community relations because of his prominent role in the murderous invasion and occupation of Iraq (little else has done more to antagonise, alienate and radicalise British Muslims). However, the “war on terror” is fundamental to understanding the basis of Islamophobia. Western armies occupy Iraq and Afghanistan; western militarism currently encircles Iran; and western power backs Israel in its war against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. In other words, the West is at war in Muslim lands and against Muslim peoples.

Historically, racism has accompanied and justified western imperialist interventions. For example, the “Scramble for Africa” of the late 19th century was accompanied by the Social Darwinist dehumanisation of African people as backward and uncivilised. Anthropologists such as Madison Grant and Alex Carrel published pseudo-scientific racist tracts claiming the innate “inferiority” of black people. While simultaneously purporting to be bringing civilisation to Africa, the European powers slaughtered tens of millions in their quest for cheap access to natural resources.

Similarly, Islamophobia has been used to portray the Muslim people as innately violent and brutal at a time when western armies are responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the search for oil this time, under the cover of “democratisation”. History will damn the dark irony of commentators such as Leo McKinstry of the Daily Express who described Muslim attitudes as “repulsive, barbaric, prejudiced or superstitious” or for not showing “any willingness to embrace the tolerant values of western democracy” in the same week that Lancet revealed over 650,000 civilians had perished because of the western invasion of Iraq.

Muslims are being demonised by the British ruling class in a manner that no ethnic minority has had to suffer for at least a generation. As attacks mount on this impoverished community – a community already deeply alienated by a murderous and unjust foreign policy – it is clear that Islamic fundamentalism will only grow further in strength. However, Islamophobia may be on the ascent but it is not unstoppable. The left must act now to defend the Muslim community from this rising tide of Islamophobia. To fail to do so would be a betrayal of our finest traditions.