One of the big cultural differences between Britain and the United States, alike in so many other ways, concerns the public status of religion. “I think I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. Protestantism is by its nature fissiparous and, after a few sects had tried to establish local monopolies, Americans realized that the most sensible approach was to agree that no church should have a privileged position. All religions, the Founders declared, were free to promulgate their doctrines. To ensure a level playing field, state institutions would remain secular and neutral.
Britain, by contrast, kept its established churches: Episcopalian in England, Presbyterian in Scotland. Anglican bishops sit in the House of Lords. The coronation of the monarch is a religious act. Prayers are said in schools. Yet, British churches are largely empty. It turns out that, in ecclesiastical no less than in industrial matters, competition among private entities delivers more growth than nationalization.
Appreciating this difference in approach might illuminate the row about Muslim prayers in London’s Trafalgar Square, an event that has generated some furious and uninformed commentary on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination,” said Nick Timothy, a senior MP in the opposition Conservative Party. “Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.” The issue quickly became a row between the main parties.
In fact, the event was designed precisely to be inclusive. A few years ago, British mosques began an initiative called the “Big Iftar,” at which they would invite non-Muslims to share their food at the breaking of the fast. The idea was to break down sectarian barriers.
Choosing to celebrate important events in Trafalgar Square is a British tradition, and Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu festivals are marked there regularly. Every year at Easter, Nelson’s Column is the dramatic backdrop to a Passion Play.
Some people maintain that Islam is uniquely incompatible with Western values. They don’t like to say so in terms, not just for fear of being canceled, but because they shy away from admitting the implications, even to themselves. There are nearly 4 million Muslims in the United Kingdom. If you insist on seeing them all as dangerous, then, in the absence of mass conversions, you are led by your own logic to demand ethnic cleansing.
Unwilling to think of themselves as the kind of people who want round-ups, camps, and the deportation of children, critics instead dance around the edges, pretending to object to this or that detail. “The declaration that there is no God but Allah is domineering,” they claim. In fact, Allah is simply the Arabic word for “God”, used equally by Arab Christians. “It is offensive to segregate men and women,” they say. Apart from the fact that many religions have some form of gender differentiation, this event was mixed except for the prayers. Why the prayers, I asked one female participant. “Because we don’t want a bunch of blokes looking at our bums when we’re praying.”
Critics are thus in the uncomfortable position of being rude about British Muslims, questioning their ability to assimilate, and implying that they are Islamists without denying their right to citizenship. In fact, there are plenty of British Muslims for whom faith is a private relationship with the Creator, and who detest extremism. The most common form of Islam for most British Muslims, who are largely of South Asian origin, is a form of Sufi quietism, far removed from the literalism of the Wahhabis. Yet, day after day, people in these communities are told, in the most strident way, that they can never belong.
THE MAIN LOSERS FROM BRITAIN’S ‘ISLAMOPHOBIA’ CODE? MUSLIMS
Commentators who, quite correctly, insist that Christians have the right to pray outside abortion clinics, tie themselves in knots trying to explain why an act of peaceful prayer by Muslims is a threat to civil order. They thereby vindicate the central claim that jihadi recruiters make to young Western Muslims: “Whatever you do, your neighbors will never accept you.”
Several British rightists, consciously mimicking American conservatives, have publicly (and very recently) adopted Christianity. They wear it as a tribal badge, showing little interest in the central doctrines of the faith. These people, by and large, are loud in their condemnations of Muslim rites. By contrast, Christian and Jewish religious leaders have overwhelmingly backed the right of public prayer. They know where bans can end.
