Multiculturalism is coming to a University Campus near you. Professor Malcolm Gillies of London Metropolitan University is championing the idea of alcohol free areas on campus due to the large amount of Muslim students who attend the Uni.
Has it really come to this? Do we really believe that Muslims' faith makes them so different from the rest of us that we need separate areas of the Campus for them? That it is really terrible for a young Muslim to hang around in a bar where alcohol is sold? In my experience young English Muslims are patriotic and outwardly proud of this country, as they seek to publicly reject their characterisation as a group of scheming British-hating would-be terrorists. It is usually middle aged white men as in this case who insist on unnecessary measures that have the effect of making those who believe in Islam seeming to many others to want a completely different country.
But moves like this by airy fairy academics don't help our society or the integration of Muslims youngsters into our great country. We've already seen the damage done in places like Yorkshire where cities and schools are divided by ethnicity and religion. If this ill-thought move is implemented at Metro Uni it will be bringing sectarianism and segregation into a University. What next? Banning condom machines so as to not offend those Catholics who do not believe in contraception?
Professor Giles earlier this month said that the selling of alcohol 'plays to particular parts of society'. But the truth is that Uni bars and pubs themselves are places where now young Muslims hang about and belong. These places for some may be about getting blotto, but really they are about community and communication. Every pub is a Parliament. If we insist that those of a Muslim faith cannot handle it then we increasingly create a 'them and us' culture that is leading to our nation's divisiveness.
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