Trevor Phillips: Britain 'Sleepwalking to Catastrophe'

Christian Concern's Director of Islamic Affairs Tim Dieppe has written a piece on Trevor Phillips' statement that Britain is "sleepwalking to catastrophe" over race. Phillips criticises the liberal elites for avoiding any serious debate about 'ethnocultural diversity', and accuses them of being complacent about challenges posed by immigration. Tim adds to Phillips' comments, stating: "We can sleepwalk to catastrophe or we can decide to stand up for our Christian values." 

Former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, has argued in a new Civitas report that Britain is sleepwalking to catastrophe over race. He criticises the liberal elites for avoiding any serious debate about 'ethnocultural diversity', and accuses them of being complacent about our ability to integrate the unprecedentedly large numbers of immigrants this country is now taking. He refers to Muslim rape gangs in Rotherham, Rochdale and elsewhere, and to sexual assaults by immigrants in Cologne over the new year. He argues that liberals "rule out the possibility that differences arise from cultural background."[1] In a reference to the decline of the Roman Empire he writes: "Rome may not yet be in flames, but I think I can smell the smouldering whilst we hum to the music of liberal self-delusion."[2]

In reference to Muslims in particular, he writes:

"For the first time in living memory Europe has encountered a minority group which both occupies a significant social distance from the society into which it is arriving, but which also appears resistant to the traditional process of integration."[3]

Therefore, Trevor Phillips poignantly asks:

"Do we stand by our fundamental values at the risk of offending others; or should our desire to preserve social unity be allowed to compromise much of the social progress of the last century."[4]

He is quite right about all of this. Our society is at a crossroads. We can sleepwalk to catastrophe or we can decide to stand up for our Christian values. Sadly, Trevor Phillips does not recognise that it is Christian values that we need to stand up for and his proposed measures are misguided.

Trevor Phillips's solution is to promote "active integration."[5] His concrete proposals are to promote a "duty to integrate" and to remove restrictions on free speech. His 'duty to integrate', while well-meaning, would actually result in state-enforced multicultural liberalism. He wants all institutions to show how they are encouraging integration of peoples from different cultures and nationalities. This would include requiring churches to show how they are "making real efforts to open their doors to believers and non-believers."[6] One can see how this could easily lead to churches being criticised for saying that other religions are false. Then he wants to challenge Sikh gurdwaras for prohibiting the marriage of Sikhs to non-Sikhs. As if much of the problem lies with the lack of Sikh intermarriage. At the same time he does not want to ban the niqab[7] – a much clearer barrier to social integration.

Where Trevor Phillips is right is in his proposal to improve free speech by legislating a "presumption in favour of freedom of expression."[8] He wants only speech that directly encourages physical harm to be subject to legal restriction. As he puts it, this would allow someone to call him a 'nigger', but not allow someone to say 'go and get the nigger'.[9] This proposal is to be welcomed as it would also clearly allow criticism of other worldviews, including religions, without fear of prosecution. It would stop people being arrested for quoting the Bible or criticising Muhammad.

Jon Gower Davies writes an excellent response to Trevor Phillips in the Civitas booklet. He rightly points out that this 'duty to integrate' would just create more restrictions on people. He criticises Trevor Phillips for his equation of Muslims and Sikhs. "The Sikh 'threat' is as nothing compared to the threat embedded in our Muslim communities."[10] He argues out that the same logic is resulting in proposals to inspect Christian Sunday Schools, "just so that some religious activities, which may indeed most definitely need 'inspection', do not feel that they are being discriminated against."[11] He criticises Trevor Phillips' "multicultural dogma" in using the term 'Islamist' in order to avoid the more direct 'Islamic'.[12] As Davies says,

"Islam is not susceptible to multicultural blandishments. ... Without Muslims 'the UK problem' would be soluble. With them, Mr Phillips' 'duty to integrate' is a joke – tragic joke for sure. It is the duty of the State to ensure that this particular 'joke' does not explode in our faces."[13]

It is good to see Trevor Phillips provoking much needed conversation about the failures of multicultural liberalism. It is time for Christians to start trumpeting these failures too. Taking no action is to sleepwalk. It is Christian values that need to be promoted and encouraged in this country, not multiculturalism. Only when we as a nation start to take hold of our Christian heritage and values will society start to improve.

Phillips, Trevor. Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence. London: Civitas, 2016.

[1] Trevor Phillips, Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence (London: Civitas, 2016), 18.
[2] Ibid., 14.
[3] Ibid., 12.
[4] Ibid., 4.
[5] Ibid., 56.
[6] Ibid., 57.
[7] Ibid., 56.
[8] Ibid., 59.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid., 75.
[11] Ibid., 74.
[12] Ibid., 75.
[13] Ibid., 79.
 

Related Links: 
Former EHRC head: 'Integration of Muslims will probably be the hardest task we've ever faced'  
Muslims should not be expected to integrate, says former Equalities head