Expecting Muslims to simply abandon their culture to suit Britain is \u201cthe deepest form of disrespect,\u201d according to former Equality and Human Rights Commission chair Trevor Phillips, who says Muslim communities are fundamentally different from those of other religions.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a meeting of the Policy Exchange think tank Monday, Phillips said Britain\u2019s Muslims are a unique community. He said it is important to grasp that people won\u2019t change their view simply because they are repeatedly told to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinuously pretending that a group is somehow eventually going to become like the rest of us is perhaps the deepest form of disrespect,<\/em>\u201d he said. \u201cBecause what you are essentially saying is the fact that they behave in a different way, some of which we may not like, is because they haven\u2019t yet seen the light.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt may be that they see the world differently from the rest of us,<\/em>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Integration, Phillips argued, is a two-way street in which more than one side must adapt to change.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the integration process is for the rest of us to grasp that people aren\u2019t going to change their views simply because we are constantly telling them that basically they should be like us,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 intervention was criticized Tuesday by the head of Islamophobia watchdog Tell Mama.<\/p>\n Fiyaz Mughal told the Times newspaper: \u201cIt assumes that Muslims [as a whole] have views that are inherently different to other communities and that the \u2018world view\u2019 of Muslims is different to other communities.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe warned against preaching to Muslims to conform.<\/p>\n