Shocker: Muslims in Britain not integrating well

A story in today's Telegraph cites a British study which says that 56% of Britons feel Muslims must do more to integrate with British society.

The poll comes at the end of a week in which Muslim integration has been pushed to the top of the political agenda following an article in The Sunday Telegraph by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who claimed that Islamic extremism in Britain had created no-go areas.

His comments have been backed by church leaders in majority Muslim areas who have disclosed that their congregations have been targeted by militant Islamists in a campaign of intimidation which has seen churches vandalised and converts to Christianity attacked.

They say that extremists are determined to make non-Muslim residents feel unwelcome, with the ultimate aim of driving them out.

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However, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said that research showed that 81 per cent of people say that they feel that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local areas.

"People of all faiths make a huge contribution to British life. Community cohesion is key to maintaining harmonious communities. That is why our strategy puts an emphasis on promoting integration and shared British values."

It's worth noting that saying "people from different backgrounds get on well together" in some local areas in no way refutes the findings of the study. It's an answer to a different question altogether.