DAR AL HARB - U.K.: THE RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Britain's growing ethnic division
By Vivian White

Panorama visits Blackburn in Lancashire to investigate how increased separation and segregation between Muslim Asians and whites is dividing communities.

Blackburn presents a stark example of a difficult, national problem.

For all the hopeful talk about "integration", "multiculturalism" and now "cohesion", the reality on the ground appears to be that Britain's Muslim Asian community and its white community have few points of contact, and that the white majority often feel they share little in common with the growing Muslim Asian minority.

Of course there are hopeful exceptions, but Blackburn - where Muslim Asians on the last census made up 24% of the population and whose local council takes the issue very seriously - demonstrates clearly what the problem is.

Anyone who goes to Blackburn's town centre, and takes a look around, will see that whites and Muslim Asians are sharing the shopping centre and that everyone is behaving perfectly courteously to each other.

So what's the problem? Well, look a bit more carefully, and you'll see that they are both here doing their shopping - but they're not shopping together.

They're nearly always shopping separately. And that's the typical pattern here.

Defined areas

There's very little casual, social association between whites and Muslim Asians. There's an obvious geographical separation.

The areas originally settled in the 60s by immigrants from Pakistan and India are clearly defined.

And in the other parts of town where the communities appear to be "mixed", there's little actual mixing.

Ted Cantle reported to the Home Office on "parallel lives" after the riots in Burnley, Oldham, and Bradford in 2001 (there were none in Blackburn).

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Pertinent Links:

1) Britain's growing ethnic division