It can sometimes feel like Britain is threatened by the introduction of Islamic law and the whole of Eastern Europe is moving onto building sites across the UK. I asked a group of people a series of questions to try and grasp how people feel about religion and ethnicity in the UK and whether what we constantly get told about the state of affairs is true.
The British National Party received more votes in the last election then ever before, they did lose seats in local councils but their share of the vote across the country grew. The English Defense League, a far-right anti Muslim extremist group known for their connections to racism and violent protests against Mosques, have also seen growth in their following. I wanted to see if this was linked to a larger move against immigration and Islam in the UK and whether there was any grounding for that shift.
Britain, a godless nation?
In the survey I asked for the recipients to state their religion, the answer was overwhelmingly atheist. 48% put this as their religious or spiritual belief. My results are by no means scientific, the sample group is not large enough but it does show that there is a move to a lack of religion. My report is backed up by the interesting situation in the 2001 census, where more people claimed to be Jedi then they did Jewish. This does not mean we are all safe from the Sith but it does show how religion is much less prominent in today's society.
However, many would say that Islam is going to become the most prominent religion in the UK. I asked people what percentage of people in Britain they thought were Muslim and 50% of people said it was 15% or over. The actual figure was 4.6% in 2010. This shows a mass misinformation, many people in the UK believe Islam is much more prominent in our society then it actually is. This I believe is down to poor and badly presented news and media and the propaganda we are fed by parties such as the BNP and UKIP, but also the Conservatives with there 'policy' of 'muscular liberalism'. Sharia law is not on the agenda, even if every Muslim in the country, plus a small minority who wish to see this form of law in the country, voted for one Prime Ministerial candidate it would not even make a dent on the rest of the populations votes.
Go back to your own country!
49% of people who took the survey thought there was too much immigration into the UK, so where is all this immigration coming from and is it real or more lies fed to us by the various sources of information. One theory is the mass migration of people moving from Eastern Europe under the free market created in the European Union. There was more movement from Eastern Europe then expected but it only accounts for 13% of total immigration from 2000 to 2009. We also have to remember that if the UK received no immigrants the population of this country would be declining. I cannot deny that there is issues with immigration, in the current economic climate this country can't create enough jobs to sustain the population and adding more on top will only make things worse. This issue was raised many times when poeple were asked what the problems with immigration are. So is the issue less about immigration and more about the economic inadequacies of Britain. If we had a sustainable job market for every member of society then would 49% of people believe there was too much immigration?
Its political correctness gone mad.
37% of people said they have felt victimised because of their race, ethnicity or religion, 33% of people have feared being called racist and 72% of people think racism is a problem in British society. So race seems to still be a contentious issue, people still care about the colour of peoples skin and make judgements and form opinions of people due to their ethnicity. I think it is difficult to see a world where people don't see difference and fear it, but is there a chance of a society in which it does not make a difference to peoples ability to gain opportunities or jobs, I hope so.
52% of people said they felt restricted because of political correctness, but what is PC and what is there to fear. Being PC is not a law, you cannot be put in prison for saying brainstorm, just people who hold power or authority are cautioned to say certain things so not to cause offense. Many people claim that we are no longer allowed to sing baa baa black sheep and Postman Pat is not allowed his black and white cat. The majority of these are lies and fabrications, people enjoying to scare monger, but then they get legs and take off and almost become true. People are so scared of offending people that then these myths are perpetuated. So is the problem with political correctness, which is after all an abstract concept which is particularly difficult to define, or is it with this culture of fear that we live in. But why are we in fear? Surely if someone is definite that they are not racist and do not discriminate then whats to be scared of, is there a band of PC bandits attacking every man, women and child who sings nursery rhymes with the word black in, I don't think so.
We are fed lies about immigration and religion and political correctness, but when you start to look beyond them and fight your way through them then we find a situation that isn't as bad as it seems. More jobs and a general relaxation about the subjects of race, religion and ethnicity would create a society in which we did not have constant front page spreads on the state of our country and how we are declining into a mess of 'non-Englishness'.
No comments:
Post a Comment