If you’re like us and decided to waste an hour of your life watching Trevor Phillips’ poor attempt at a documentary on Channel 4 you’ll have been left worried and annoyed about yet another “us and them” show about Muslims.

‘What British Muslims Really Think’ was a hack piece that follows a long line of other surveys and documentaries that paint Muslims as ‘the other’, as a barbaric 5th column who are a threat to the West.

Trevor Phillips has a history of making flawed documentaries, and this one was no different – it played on the fears that many people have (due to constant propaganda about us) that Muslims are trying to take over and are the biggest threat to society (because climate change, financial fraud, and wars waged by our Government are trivial issues…)

We could spend time taking apart the flawed poll and the ‘nation within a nation’ conclusion it reached – but others have already covered that at length (here, here and here are just some examples)

Instead we want to focus on some of the points raised in the documentary which demonstrate that this was great PR for the Tory Government & the draconian legislation they are trying to push through.

Trevor Phillips used terminology which seemed to be lifted straight from the Tories’ manual on so-called “British Values”.

He spoke about “Orthodox British society” and how a “more muscular approach to integration” is needed – pretty much the same sentiments and wording used by David Cameron & Theresa May.

Who can forget Cameron’s ominous words: “for too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.” Or when he said if Muslim women didn’t learn English they were at risk of being deported?

Trevor Phillips echoed those same sentiments which makes you wonder who influenced the questions that were asked and the timing of it all.

All the documentary has achieved is cement the view of Muslims as “the other” (a long running theme in Europe) and add to the mass hysteria about Muslims that is needed for draconian legislation to be passed.

The portrayal of Muslims as an existential threat to Europe makes it easier for the Tories to make the case for the Snooper’s Charter and counter-extremism legislation – people are less likely to fight back against draconian laws if they think they need to give up some of their rights to stop the “bad guys”.

This documentary is just another reminder to Muslims that if we want to stop the counter-extremism legislation being pushed through then we need to put pressure on our MPs to oppose it, and fund groups like MPACUK who are campaigning against it.

Read more here on how you can join our campaign to stop this legislation.

If we don’t do anything then we allow people like Theresa May and Trevor Phillips a chance to misrepresent us – if you want people to know what British Muslims really think then we need to speak up.