“Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the established western political order. Campaigners against the migrants carefully framed their arguments as objections to ‘alien extremists’ and not to a race or religion. A British cabinet minister said we were facing a clash about civilisation: this was about values; a battle between progress and ‘arrested development’. All this happened a hundred years ago to Jewish migrants seeking asylum in Britain.”

Maleiha Malik in the Guardian, 2 February 2007