British Pakistani Muslims' Perceptions of the Armed Forces

Abstract

This paper focuses on how Muslims (of Pakistani origin) living in Britain perceive the British Armed Services as a career. The analysis draws on a survey of 300 individuals, who were interviewed personally, in three languages: English, Punjabi and Urdu, using semi-structured, open ended, in-depth interviews. The survey results reveled that the Muslims' interviewed are aware of the negative aspects of the forces such as racism and are largely unaware of the positive actions the British Armed Forces are doing to improve race relations and recruit more ethic minorities.