Herd mentality

Surely, for the person who discovers a definitive solution to the problem of cultural integration faced by immigrants to a new country, global recognition, and perhaps even a Nobel Peace Prize, would await. I put it to Ziauddin Sardar, author, academic and journalist that, like the fantasy science of alchemy, finding a single solution to complex issues is just that: pure fantasy.

Pakistan-born Sardar has spent the best part of his 57 years searching for answers to such questions and has written more than 40 books exploring cultural identity and its place in a modern pluralistic society. So I ask: has he found a solution?

'A number of things need to be done. First we need to see people as individuals and not as monolithic herds,' he says. 'At the same time, and this is the tricky bit, we need to see individuals as part of the collective, group, family, tribe, or nation, so that the individual doesn't exist in isolation; he or she exists in a web of relationships. So we need to see the individual, and we need to see the web of relationships, and that's the trick to finding the answer to your six million-dollar question.'

Sardar continually passes a fat cigar between lips and right hand as he searches for answers to questions. Its heavy smell sits in stark contrast to the heady aroma of spice that hits you as you walk through the door of his home in suburban north London. Sitting in his converted loft office at the top of the semi-detached house he shares with his wife and three children, he reflects on his experiences as a young Muslim man growing up in the intolerant Britain of the 1960s. Arguably, the experience gives him an excellent perspective from which to comment on the minds of racist young men today.