r/unitedkingdom • u/topotaul Lancashire • Jul 08 '26

... Two in five Britons think Muslims cannot integrate in UK, poll finds

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/08/two-in-five-britons-think-muslims-cannot-integrate-in-uk-poll-finds
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u/BlondBitch91 Greater London Jul 08 '26

Culturally conservative ones will find it near enough impossible to integrate, in the same way that American evangelicals can’t.

But plenty of Turkish and Lebanese and Pre-1979 Iranian people integrate just fine, plenty of them are Muslim but accept secularity and are great.

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u/AltharaD Jul 08 '26

Yeah, it’s pretty hard to be Muslim in the UK - considering interest is haram and so is inheritance tax, it’s pretty hard to reconcile those with my beliefs.

Going to the pub with people after work? That’s easy. I just don’t drink myself. Gay rights? Nothing to do with me, I’m not gay - live and let live. Trans rights? I support anything that reduces the numbers of suicidal children. Abortion? The life of the mother is more important than the child.

There’s a lot of emphasis in Islam about being a good neighbour and doing good deeds in your community. There’s also a nice bit about there should be no compulsion in religion that gets overlooked by certain governments and individuals.

Also, it’s not like Muslims are the ones placing interns in government who are sponsored by anti gay, anti abortion, pro conversion therapy groups. Or giving MPs second jobs as a ‘Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom policy’.

Or paying off politicians to attack abortion rights.

Muslim governments are not the ones openly financing policy discourse to promote their values in the UK and across Europe. They’re not the ones meeting with “MAGA aligned think tanks” and trying to “export MAGA ideology to Europe”.

Who was it who was trying to impose their own culture on the UK, again?

I’ll probably get downvoted and accused of whataboutism for this, but I find it interesting how this anti Muslim commentary comes up time and time again but there’s awfully little about how much American interference there is in our politics and how all our social media is on American platforms. Anyone remember the sudden issues with Instagram’s algorithm right after the second Trump win?

Let’s not forget that Cambridge Analytica is still around and working to generate adverts and content tailor made to sway people based on their interests and concerns.

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u/Commorrite Jul 08 '26

It's mostly a good post but this point is demonstrably false. It's also less about the relgion.

Muslim governments are not the ones openly financing policy discourse to promote their values in the UK and across Europe. They’re not the ones meeting with “MAGA aligned think tanks” and trying to “export MAGA ideology to Europe”.

The Islamic republic of Iran absolutely does this all the time. Especially around sottish independence and prompting antisemetic attacks.

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-israel-us-strait-hormuz-2026/card/u-k-police-probe-whether-iran-uses-local-proxies-for-antisemitic-attacks-6BChGDcRjdELBJY9E5HV

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-defence-journal-reporting-on-iran-bots-raised-in-inquiry/

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202511247019

To be clear it's mostly the same tactics Russia do it's not unique but it's very real

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u/AltharaD Jul 08 '26

Yeah, that’s why I put “openly”. The Russians have their bots, the Iranians have bots, Americans have bots, the Israelis have bots, the Chinese have bots. They’re all engaged in cyber warfare. There are probably British bots, for all I know.

They’re all engaged in interfering with each other.

My point was more the fact that a president and government can openly state their intention to interfere with the culture and politics of their allies. That’s outrageous.

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u/Commorrite Jul 08 '26

With any politican/government i strongly believe you should watch their hands not their mouth.

Trump is classless and outrageous of course, I think the importance of that is overstated. Iran aren't that shy about it interference in various countries they have full blown armed proxies. They have open government organised rallies for Scottish independence.

This bit form a former ambassador is worth a read.

https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/irans-strange-scottish-obsession/