Our picks: The Big PictureNot your Father’s Portland; Parallel Society in Britain; Industrial Policy; Democratic Alliance

A Parallel Society Is Developing in Parts of Muslim Britain
The Economist writes:

The British establishment that presided over the immigration which followed the second world war expected Islamic migrants to melt into wider society and relax their religious views. But in parts of the country Muslim communities are distancing themselves from wider British society and adopting stricter versions of their faith.

This is particularly true in the old mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire, which now contain parallel societies, where the faithful can live their day-to-day lives without mixing. Mosques run schools and pronounce on Islamic law. Restaurants offer gender segregation under the polite name of “family seating”.

These societies are dominated by a clerical class that extends its influence into secular society by, for example, endorsing candidates for Parliament…. [In] mosque after mosque…. a highly literal interpretation of Islam [is being taught], sometimes clinging to arguments that are being dropped in the Middle East.

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There are…. good reasons to be worried. One is the paradox of toleration. There are limits to how much liberal societies can tolerate people who call for gays to be stoned…. The radicalized version of Islam being preached by clerics not only promotes intolerance but also fosters extremism.

A second is the paradox of diversity. The welfare state that liberals hold dear depends for its legitimacy on people feeling that they have a common identity….The third is more practical. Britain is witnessing a struggle for the soul of Islam. But the state has repeatedly acted as if it is on the side of the forces of reaction rather than those of enlightenment. It has kowtowed to self-proclaimed community leaders, mistaking hardline beliefs for “authenticity.”

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A New Democratic Alliance
Carissa Véliz writes in The Critic:

Over the coming decade, the greatest challenge to our democracies will be China. Its tentacles have already infiltrated deep into Western society and the rest of the world.

The Chinese Communist Party spends about $10 billion a year exporting its worldview through soft power — that’s more than the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan put together. (Cont.)