A few weeks ago I wrote an article about how poorly Muslims in England have integrated within their society, especially when compared to other European countries like France and Germany. Although I’m not in any position to speculate as to why that is, a recent story about MI5 and their campaign of harassment is telling me that relations are not about to improve anytime soon.

It seems that the desperate intelligence organization has been blackmailing some British Muslims, threatening to put them on terrorist lists if they do not become informants. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out these types of tactics are not impressing the Muslim community, and I can’t blame them; although I will admit terrorism is a serious issue, forcing people to become informants under threat seems to me like a pretty piss-poor way of getting reliable information. Why would anyone tell you the truth when you’re demanding answers at the end of a bayonet?

The real problem here is Britain’s paranoia. I think the reason their Muslim population is so poorly integrated in their society has to do with the fact their government is one of the major nations to have participated in the whole ‘War on Terror’ offensive. Naturally, this will result in being targeted by extremist groups, and because they are living in constant fear of an attack, their intelligence community treat their Muslim immigrant population as potential enemies. This negative and combative attitude actually works contrary to everyone’s interest; by antagonizing the community, they as a whole are less likely to provide information that might actually be helpful in preventing further incidents.

Here’s a pretty basic idea that might work wonders for MI5: don’t be a bunch of dicks. Don’t force people to become informants. Don’t mistreat your citizens just because they believe in a religion you feel uncomfortable about. Sounds pretty simple to me…