Originally Posted by
Omegstrat6
Your last point is undoubtedly true-but whilst it is undeniable that there have been, and remain, both Muslim grooming gangs and Muslim criminal gangs, there is also the grave and very real danger of racial stereotyping in this country.
A recent Home Office report from 2020 raised this and showed that the reality was that such grooming gangs in this country were "overwhelmingly" white. Similarly, a 2022 report from the University of Birmingham, claims (unsurprisingly) that Muslim communities are the most discriminated against in the UK. The report shows, for example, 1 in 4 holding what it calls "conspiracy" beliefs about Sharia Law no go areas, and 36% of the white British population believing that Islam threatens their way of life. The vast majority of those that hold such views are older, educated, sections of the population that are most likely to be Tory voters. Over a quarter of the sample views used see Muslims in a negative light as opposed to around 8.5% holding negative views of the Jewish population and 6.4% of the Black population.
There is no evidence to support any of these levels of discrimination which is primarily the result of both inherited stereotyping and conspiracy theories (e.g. the Jewish cabal that secretly runs the world or Pakistani grooming gangs or lazy Blacks etc.) and the UK's predominantly right wing media. Whilst anti-Semitism is probably grounded in the same old tropes and prejudices that have been attached to them for centuries, that against Muslims has more perhaps to do with global Islamic extremist groups whether ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah etc. and reports of grooming gangs in the north.
Such prejudices do not come from nowhere and it cannot be denied that there are powerful Jewish businessmen (particularly in the US) nor Islamic extremists or Muslim criminal or grooming gangs. But none of these represent the vast majority of these communities in this country. There are far more white, non Jewish and non Muslim powerful businessmen, grooming gangs and criminal gangs in this country. Sadly though, Freud's "Narcissism of small differences" holds true and most people are afraid, and therefore too often discriminatory, towards those who are different than themselves (and this, of course, applies to people of all colours whether White, Black or Brown). Religious or political beliefs frequently only exacerbate the situation.