Lies, Damned Lies...

The proportion of Muslims among our young offender community is now 21% according to an article on the BBC website last Friday.

According to a recent “alarmist” demographic report the followers of Mohammad now account for 4.6% of the UK population.

So I make it that Muslims are about four and a half times over-represented in our young offender institutions (It's about three times among adult prisoners).

We should perhaps be grateful that it's not more as the figure for France is 70% according to this report. Perhaps the British Islamic community, mostly arriving later than its French counterpart, needs a little time to bed in.

Obviously, you shouldn’t come to the conclusion that there is any connexion between the peaceful teachings of Islam and a predilection to crime.

For those of us whose main source of news is the BBC and the Guardian it is plain as the nose on your face that Muslims are on the whole: peace-loving, educated, deeper, non-violent, more spiritual, family-oriented, not materialistic, charitable, peaceful, creative and non-belligerent.

But, of course, Islam doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so in modern Britain it doesn’t quite attain the tranquility to be found in Muslim countries like Pakistan, Egypt or Syria.

As I understand it from the BBC and the Guardian there are all sorts of very good reasons why Muslims should be so numerous in our prisons. I don’t remember their precise arguments, truth be told they went a bit over my head. But I do remember that Muslim violence is mostly our fault. Something to do with racism, skinheads or snowmen or something.

Another thing that escapes me is the very good reason why these arguments don’t seem to apply to Hindus, Buddists, Jews, Scientologists or Sikhs who are all under-represented in the UK prison population.

But I for one am willing to accept the assertions of those bastions of culture at face value.

After all, when it comes to your children’s future who are you going to believe?

Are you gonna believe the BBC, or your lyin’ eyes?