Fascism and Islamism thrive in Bradford, report claims

A Yorkshire city risks becoming a front line in the global clash between the West and Islam, a report has claimed. Bradford has slipped into a political vacuum where debate on community cohesion is stifled, allowing «fascism and Islamism» to thrive, according to academic Dr Alan Carling. He says the city is in danger of becoming «a patchwork quilt of rival ethnic fiefdoms» that makes it a «fault line» in the clash between cultures. The former chairman of the Bradford University Programme for a Peaceful City group said politicians, charities and academics who remained silent risked helping extremist groups split the city. But he said if the divisions were confronted now, Bradford could become a worldwide example on how two cultures could coexist. Dr Carling, writing in the March edition of the Urban Spaces journal, said: «In the post-9/11 world, Bradford looks like one of the fault lines in a supposed global confrontation between ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’.

February 29 to March 6, 2007

Muslim Weekly