We should be encouraging British Pakistanis to pursue loyalty to the UK. Instead, we have taught them to conduct their lives for a Pakistani audience. To wage war against a British government's misguided foray into the Muslim world to simply silence those who ostracise them for being too "˜Western'

The August 10 trans-Atlantic terror plot reports indicate that one year on from the July 7, 2005 London bombings, British Muslims of Pakistani origin have not relented in their quest to devastate the country in retribution for the Blair government's misguided support of American policy in the Middle East.

Many have dismissed the plot reports as a conspiracy: orchestrated by London and Washington to divert attention from their refusal to secure a UNSC resolution to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, or else a fabrication to showcase Pakistan's commitment "” one month after from the Mumbai blasts "” to fighting terrorism. Indeed, the day the plot was made public, Islamabad also put under house arrest the Jamaat ud Dawa (JD) chief "” a move that failed to materialise after the Mumbai attacks.

But even if we buy into such conspiracy theories, the question remains: Why is the accusatory finger immediately pointed at British Muslims of Pakistani origin?

With every thwarted post-7/7 terror attack in Britain, attention has steadily shifted from genuine Muslim grievances over British foreign policy in the Arab-Muslim world to the integration record of British Pakistanis into UK society. The immigrant generation from Pakistan displayed an almost uniform refusal to integrate into British society. Immigration was simply an opportunity to secure a better future for themselves and their children and a means of supporting "” through remittances "” extended families in Pakistan. Thus they acquired their new citizenship without much thought towards embracing their adopted homeland or its cultural norms.

While retaining ties to one's homeland and cultural-religious identity is understandable, many immigrants did a great disservice to their children by continuing to live their lives as if they were still in Pakistan. By actively encouraging their children to absorb the cultural-religious heritage of the "˜home country' to the exclusion of the British socio-cultural norms, they deprived them of natural affection for the country of their birth. Instead, battle lines were drawn: East versus West. Those slow to pick the "right" side were denounced as "traitors". Thus the seeds of enforced alienation from mainstream British society were sown.

Yet this narrative neither begins nor ends with Britain. Pakistan itself has indirectly encouraged non-integration into British society.

As second generation British Pakistanis struggled to find their own place in British society, their relatives back home often praised them for the extent to which they had shunned British cultural norms. Anyone well integrated into British society was, and continues to be, ridiculed for being a British-Born Confused Desi (BBCD). The implication being that they had no understanding of what it meant to be an "authentic" Pakistani. Thus the vicious cycle of a twilight existence was perpetuated.

The great irony is that while many British Muslims of Pakistani origin have shunned integration into mainstream British society in a bid to retain their cultural heritage, here in Pakistan, we suffer from a pronounced lack of national identity. A recent Pew opinion poll found that 87 percent of Pakistanis viewed themselves as Muslim first, Pakistani second. While this may not be surprising, it nevertheless highlights an overwhelming unfamiliarity with the concept of integration on the basis of shared nationhood.

This has led to almost institutionalised discrimination. The religion column in our machine-readable passports clearly undermines the "˜Pakistan First' notion. And most newspapers consider it appropriate to mention a non-Muslim convict's religion. Yet when it suits us we call on nationalist sentiment to prevail over religious identification. We demand that non-Muslims respect fasting rituals during Ramazan. And following the blasphemous cartoon disaster, we supported calls to ban The Da Vinci Code to show the world we were equally concerned with defending the religious sentiments of all groups residing in this country. We have also rallied round the Pakistan cricket team over the recent umpiring controversy to present a united front against what is perceived as anti-Asian racism.

Yet it is this pick-and-mix approach to national integration, or the lack thereof, that has proved the worst legacy that Pakistan could have bestowed upon its émigré population. For it has simply taught British Pakistanis to shun the trappings of a "decadent" society, while taking advantage of the political freedoms inherent in that same society. The same freedoms are sought for the introduction of Shariah law in Muslim-dominated areas of the UK and the establishment of a national Muslim Parliament. Yet we only need to observe the prevailing social paradigm in Pakistan to understand that such measures offer no guarantee to social cohesion based on national identity. We should be encouraging British Pakistanis to pursue loyalty to the UK. Instead, we have taught them to conduct their lives for a Pakistani audience and wage war against a British government's misguided foray into the Muslim world to simply silence those who ostracise them for being too "Western".

Miranda Husain is a staff member