Far from British Muslims embracing self-segregation, many families actively seek to integrate themselves into broader UK society.
That’s the end result of three years of research by Dr Shamim Miah, a leading academic at the University of Huddersfield.
His work challenges established Government perspectives on the subject of Muslim schooling and integration.
Dr Miah, 43, a senior lecturer at the university’s School of Education, spoke to young people, teachers, parents and religious leaders in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the south for grassroots insights on the widely-held notion that Muslims are overtly insular.
“I was often approached by conservative Muslim parents who asked me to help them make an application for their children to go to the local Church of England school,” he said.
“The more I spoke to them the more it seemed that they didn’t have any problem with integration. They were motivated by their children having the best educational experience possible.”
Dr Shamim says he was less interested in exploding a myth than in pursuing genuine academic study. Nevertheless he claims his research has exposed a paradox that Government data fails to recognise.
“Government policy should be dictated by evidence,” he says. “There is a disconnect between what the Government is talking about and what is happening in reality.
“You do find cases of Muslim segregation but that is one picture, not the picture. ‘Facts’ should not be taken at face value.”
His research, based on interviews and analysis of data, contradicts Government reports and appears to show that it is unsure of what integration means. Official terminology vaccilates between “assimilation”, “multiculturalism” and “community cohesion.”
Dr Miah says his research also addresses the confusion around culture and class, pointing out that many British Muslims are blue-collar workers who live in working class neighbourhoods.
“When we talk about the working class we automatically think of the white working class. Many Muslim people embody that, too.”
Recently published by Palgrave MacMillan as ‘Muslims, Schooling and the Question of Self-Segregation’, it has been named as being one of the year’s top educational books by the Society of Education Studies.
One reviewer called it “a compelling and penetrating analysis of civic integration and community cohesion in Britain.”
Dr Miah, who has taught at the University of Huddersfield since 2008, said the recognition was “humbling” and that he hoped the book “will be read and studied long after I have gone.”
