I AM stunned by Mr James’s comment with regards to immigration and Muslims. The link between the two is first and foremost a foolish and ignorant one to make.

Firstly, I am a British Muslim.

My ancestors are Muslim immigrants yet they are fully integrated into British society. I fail to understand your meaning of what it means to be “British”; for me, being British means to celebrate that which makes us different and diverse, yet remaining united.

The majority of US Muslims are educated, employed, law abiding, tax-paying citizens. Not all of US Muslims are immigrants. Whilst you may identify Muslims to be the “foreigners” amongst you — Islam is not a religion that is limited to a specific ethnicity/ nationality/race — and so you may want to revise your understanding of what it means to be both Muslim and British.

Secondly, our current financial crisis is much worse than the rest of Europe precisely because we have followed the economic dogmas of Washington for at least 30 years — with trade liberalisation imposed upon poor nations, courtesy of CIAengineered coups and wars of conquest. These wars have utterly destroyed the civilisation of Iraq, wasted thousands of lives in Afghanistan, Pakistan and validated anti-Islamic genocide in Palestine and the Caucasus. The result of these wars and apathetic behaviour from the UK is immigration.

Unfortunately for you — all of these countries have a large number of Muslims and so the rise of Iraqi, Kurds, Afghanis and other Muslim immigrants in England is a direct consequence of the foreign policy of OUR government. Maybe then if you’re looking to point a finger, you should look closer to home.

May I also raise the point that the words terrorist and Muslim have been repeatedly used in conjunction — why? The IRA and recent Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik (to name a few) are never referred to as terrorists nor are there religions scarred as a result of their actions; how does the title of those who murder innocent individuals in the same context as Muslim terrorists differ? Are all of these people being trained in the same camps with the same extremist Islamist views?

And why refer to a terrorist as a Muslim when such actions are clearly prohibited within Islam?

Maybe your fear of Islam stems from your failure to understand it.

Thirdly, critics have failed to illustrate the fact that immigration has risen from within the EU — i.e. Eastern European countries such as Poland and Romania within the past five years. Our streets are more multicultural and symbolise the new face of Europe, I find it extremely ignorant and insulting that 21st century Britain and my home town of Bolton is breeding such stereotypes and feeling uncomforted by the Muslim community.

If anything, it should be our role as British citizens to break through cultural barriers and ensure that the new members of our society embrace our values and vice-versa. A clear line needs to be drawn between integration and assimilation.

Everybody is feeling the crunch from the economic crisis, putting a stop to Muslim immigration isn’t going to change the socioeconomic problems in this country. The root of the problem lies with the actions taken by our government which has led to people such as yourself blaming immigrants for the position we are in today.

Lastly, as a Muslim woman, I don’t require any Muslim leaders to voice my opinion, I am educated and am able to present my opinion perfectly. I ask my fellow Boltonians, not to tar us all with the same brush and please educate your ignorance.

Firdous Patel Bolton