Young Muslims aren't oppressed - just lucky - News

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Recently I saw Riz Ahmed, the Muslim star of the Channel 4 drama Britz, rapping at a BBC concert. Woolly-hatted, gesticulating like he was straight outta Compton, MC Riz wanted to look like a ghetto player rather than a nerdy Asian mummy's boy as he bewailed his oppression and the crimes of George W Bush. Trendy Asians nodded in solidarity while white hipsters gazed adoringly.

I asked my Pakistani companion how oppressed he'd been since 9/11. "Not at all," he replied. When I've asked other Muslims what their actual experience of oppression has been, the worst I've heard is "being looked at on the Tube"; yet some still compare their condition to that of Jews in 1930s Germany.

Living in a country that provides them with more freedom and protection than any Islamic society in history, many British Muslims have cultivated the mystique of victimhood because victims are cool. From the Channel 4 executives who titled their drama Britz (emulating gangsta rap) to the fashionistas who drape themselves in Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves, every lame wannabe aligns with the supposed plight of British Muslims, hoping to look a little edgier as a result.

Millions of Muslims die through poverty and malnutrition in Asia and Africa, but their agony doesn't concern their British brethren as much as that of Iraqis, because starvation isn't as hip as being bombed. And the hundreds of thousands of Muslims tortured and murdered by Muslim regimes get none of the sympathy reserved for the comparative handful killed by Israelis.

Hizb ut-Tahrir yesterday denounced Jonathan Evans for creating a "climate of fear and mistrust" and will never concede that Muslims are better off in Britain than in Bangladesh.

Rather than fixate on the Middle East and perceived slights at home, British Muslims should consider the whole world and their fortunate position in it. It might cure those suffering from the hysteria and hypocrisy that extremists exploit - and help them realise that being British is something to feel grateful for.