Integration Is a Myth – Bradford’s Parallel Society Is Thriving

In Turbulent Times, Richard North argues that Mirpuri Muslim communities in Bradford form self-segregating, anti-assimilatory enclaves that undermine British democracy, identity and social cohesion – while critics of this reality are gaslit and silenced. Here’s an excerpt:

“We must find out what unites us to avoid divisions…”, says the fatuous independent commission on community cohesion. Well, I can only speak of what I know, but when it comes to divisions, this got me thinking as to what is happening on my doorstep.

Let me count the ways in which division is apparent.

The Bradford “Pakistani” community is made up overwhelmingly of the Mirpuri diaspora, which occupies self-sustaining ghettoes where they mostly form the majority. The denizens do not mix with outsiders at a social level; they have their own social structures (baradari) which serve to provide a framework for their own governance, independent of the host nation structures.

Many retain their home languages, which are often spoken in their homes – where many wives don’t speak English at all – and increasingly in the streets and public buildings, often demanding state-funded interpreters if English is required. They expect to be provided with translations of official forms and documents.

Almost all females wear the hijab (headscarf), many wear full-length robes (abaya) and an increasing number don religious dress, including the burka and nikab – which is not the traditional dress of their region. Most older males wear the traditional garb of their home country, the shalwar kameez and the takiyah skullcap and sport full-length, untrimmed beards. Increasingly, younger men and boys are adopting this traditional dress, even third generation immigrants.

The baradari members are all Muslims. They practice their religion in their own distinctive buildings (mosques), and ostentatiously celebrate their religious festivals, often with banners and street decorations supplied at public expense. They demand public facilities for prayer and have secured exemption from humane slaughter rules on religious grounds, to produce “Halal” meat. …

And, although blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008, and in Scotland in 2021, there is an active Muslim lobby campaigning for an Islamophobia law which, if enacted, will effectively re-introduce a blasphemy law, applicable solely to Islam, giving the religion a unique, privileged position in the UK.

Notwithstanding the current absence of any specific blasphemy law, communities are known to react violently to perceived slights to their religion, as in the Salman Rushdie affair, the Lady of Heaven film protests and the Batley teacher incident, where the teacher in question was forced into hiding. …

Despite being treated as places of worship for tax purposes (to which effect they are exempted from Council Tax), their mosques also act as community hubs and, effectively, their “town halls”, as well as often housing their religious schools, or madrassas. The communities have their own religious courts, which they treat as superior to the host nation courts, especially in terms of divorce and domestic disputes.

The communities support their own micro-economies which operate on a trans-national basis. They have their own banks and financial institutions, and their own financial systems for loans and transferring money, none of which are compatible with Western systems. …

At the national level, MPs in the House of Commons tend to concern themselves disproportionately with issues of interest to their electorates, many focusing on Gaza to the exclusion of domestic concerns.

Not for nothing has Patrick Nash observed that Mirpuri baradari kinship groups, “represent one of the most underappreciated threats to democratic governments in the 21st century”. The Mirpuris have only a vague understanding of the notion of democracy and exploit its weaknesses for their own benefit.

Yet these people are in our midst. It would be hard to imagine a more disagreeable community, one which makes few if any concessions to the host nation. And yet, we are supposed to craft “a shared vision of how we want to live together” with these people.

But for those of us on the edge of these ghettoes, who watch with dismay their steady encroachment into the white enclaves, the differences are too great. The is no question of a shared vision – only rejection of these alien communities which have next to nothing in common with us.

And the worst of it is the gaslighting where we are told that “The UK is a thriving, multi-ethnic and multi-faith democracy where most people in towns, cities, and rural areas get on with each other”. When, through bitter experience, we disagree, we are branded “racist” and told to change our ways.

If this continues, and these communities continue to be forced on us, many believe that our destiny will be measurable in the precise metric terms of 7.62mm, multiplied many times.

Worth reading in full.