Should Britain adopt more Muslim ways?

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Some friendly advice to Dr. Bari:

The following is from an interview with the new Chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, published online on 10th June 2006 at telegraph.co.uk: web page

"His (Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari's) aim, he says, will be to encourage Britain to adopt more Muslim ways, as well as to encourage Muslims to be good British citizens. He thinks that non-Muslim Britons would benefit from having arranged marriages and espousing stronger family values; they would also do well to stop drinking and gambling and to follow many of the teachings of Islam."

Why did I feel so nervous when I first read this? Could it have been the order in which Dr Bari tells us of his wishes (first the encouragement of Britain to adopt more Muslim ways and then the encouragement of Muslims to be good British citizens)?

Could it have been the adoption of arranged marriages which he advocates, many of which may turn out well, but some of which condemn the couple, the woman particularly, to lives of misery? I am also deeply uncomfortable about the abrogation of personal responsibility which these entail. When someone else arranges your life in this fashion you become an object, and you lose your selfhood when you lose your power to choose. I am left wondering what on earth such marriages can possibly teach us about family values, except that some people can be trapped in relationships rather than choose freely to stay in them or leave.

I have little objection to less drinking or gambling, both fruitless exercises in my opinion, although I would draw the line at stopping them totally as Dr Bari seems to advise.

Finally, which teachings of Islam does Dr Bari recommend we follow? I would hope that we could rule out Muslim teaching about how to treat women. The Qur'an explicitly makes the women inferior to men, Sharia law grants permission to murder them for alleged compromise of honour with only token punishment for the murderer, allows them to be stoned to death in countries like Saudi Arabia, and insists that they become invisible everywhere that Islam is predominant.

I would also hope that we could rule out the requirement to submit utterly to, or swallow whole, the teachings of any religion, let alone Islam. I would not want to relinquish my right to criticise Islam's more bizarre writings or instruction, or indeed those of the Christian Church or of Judaism. I would not want to be fearful of ostracism or severe punishment if I did so.

With all these in mind, I would respectfully suggest to Dr.Bari that he has things totally the wrong way around. British Muslims (whose public representatives seem to me to be a pretty joyless lot) might be less discontent and more trusting of difference if they were encouraged to adopt a more Western approach to life, such as partying (not too much - at weekends only and lights out by midnight); interfaith gatherings (why not spend a week at a retreat learning more about the other religions and cultures in Britain?); dancing (which is good for the spirit and can be segregated and still enjoyed, as the orthodox Jews have taught us); communal singing other than chanting prayers (why not join a choir?); putting on and/or going to concerts, and what I would call a general letting down of hair and joyfulness, enabled by the occasional glass of red wine, which some medical research shows is good for the heart.

If this catches on who knows what good may come of it?