The Enemy Within?

Prominently featured in the newspapers in UK over the last few days has been the story of the "Muslim Miss England".
Pictures of a very beautiful nineteen-year-old student adorned the pages. But Hammasa Kohistani has shown she is not just a pretty face with a shapely body. She is shown not as the beauty queen but as an intelligent student studying for her A levels complete with textbook under her arm. And she proves she has a thinking brain. She states that Tony Blair and the Government are fuelling hysteria over terrorism and Islam. She says the connection had created a "negative image" of Muslims.
"Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within," she said. "That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community." She further stated that even moderate Muslims have been caught in the stereotyped negativity, thus making them feel they have to take actions to prove themselves.
Ms Kohistani's family left Afghanistan because of the Taliban regime and she was born in Uzbekistan. The family eventually arrived in England where she has had the benefit of a British education and thus had many opportunities that her peers in Afghanistan cannot even dream of.
It is good that she can put her point of view and I admit that I can see the truth in much that she says.
We are not so much a multi-cultural society as a fragmented society paying lip service to a "one nation" principle. Yes, it is good that cultures other than the accepted "British" one are encouraged. Freedom of thought is paramount in this world. But Ms Kohistani has been one of the lucky few who keep the faith but are able to live in this culture. She is able to combine both. Would that all people - whatever their beliefs - could do the same. But to some - be they fanatical about their religion, their politics or whatever - that would be anathema.
We have been here before. The way we deserted the Palestinians in the 1940s, the troubles with the Mau Mau in Kenya in the 1950s, the Irish question based on religious bigotry on all sides - all show that we have never quite come to terms with true multi-culturalism.
Would that we could all "live and let live".