by Shona » Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:58 am
Lochend, I don't see how quantifying your statement could ever be construed as racist. Numbers can't be racist.
The murder of Lee Rigby was abhorrent as is the growing number of anti-Islamic attacks. There is no justification for these crimes. The EDL (run by the son of Irish immigrants) and people like Anjem Choudary (British-born) are extremists - pure and simple. But they have a symbiotic relationship - they need each other to fuel their hatred. The media doesn't help by giving them publicity.
It's wrong to demonise an entire religion because of a crime committed by deluded extremists with a perverted interpretation of their own faith.
While I appreciate the men charged with Lee's murder are of African origin, half of all Muslims in the UK - it seems to me that Islam is the Elephant in the Room referred to the thread title - were born in the UK. The majority of the other half came to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s - many from Mirpur in Pakistan-administered Jammu Kashmir. The British army had a base in Mirpur and also recruited soldiers from the area - so a long association. The partition of India displaced millions of people and some from Mirpur fled to the safety of the UK. The building of the Mangla Dam flooded hundreds of villages in Mirpur region - many residents who lost their homes were granted British work permits.
There are also much longer-established Muslim communities in the UK, such as the Yemeni sailors (recruited by the British in Aden) who settled in port cities such as Cardiff - the first mosque in Cardiff is recorded in the 1860s.
My husband - we married at A'Chleit - experienced anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry and hatred when he first moved to Britain from Ireland. Thankfully, we no longer see signs reading: 'No Irish. No Blacks. No Jews.' We can go on holiday without him being detained because his passport reveals his birthplace as Belfast.
But we still hear similar comments today. The targets are young Muslim men rather than young Catholic men from Belfast. Just as the EDL need people like Anjem Choudary to justify their existence (and vice versa), in Northern Ireland, the Provos needed Loyalist paramilitaries to justify their existence (and vice versa).
Extremists like the EDL and Choudary are trying to sow the seeds of future fanaticism, even terrorism. Both ends of this spectrum want to provoke militant outrage. 'See - they burn our places of worship, they feed pork to our children. We must fight back, brothers,' says one. ''See - they burn our flag, force our kids to eat halal meat. We must fight back,' says the other. Fan the flames...fan the flames...
A Muslim family lives next door to me. A normal British family - they work, they pay their taxes, mum gets frazzled getting the kids to school, the lawn gets mowed, the roses pruned, washing hung on the line to dry, kids giggling in the garden as they play their games, they totally deplored the murder of Lee Rigby and the mosque said prayers for Lee and did a collection for Help for Heroes.
What seeds are sown in the mind of a nine-year-old boy when his mum is spat on? What thoughts go through the mind of a teenage girl when beery, leery lads rip off her headscarf?
By demonising we may create more demons.
Do not get sucked in by extremists - whichever extreme they are on - it's what they want; it's their oxygen.
Last edited by
Shona on Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.