Victimhood poker is, as the name implies, a gambling game. It looks like Baroness Warsi just played and lost.
Naturally, certain vested interests don't see it as a failure.
Shahid Mursaleen of the Minhaj-ul-Quran charity, also praised the speech.
“I agree Islam is misunderstood,” he said. “Islam is a peaceful and tolerant faith and I agree there is a real need to educate the public and to promote the truth about Islam.”
No, there isn't. The IRA felt no need to 'educate the public', and neither do the radicals in Islam. They feel the need to impose their will by blowing people up. During the IRA's heyday, neither Eire nor the Catholic Church felt the need to 'educate the public' on why they were being blown up. In fact, they kept quiet and stayed as far away from it all as possible.
I don't care what the truth is about Islam. Believe what you like, worship who you want any way you want. I don't need any education on a religion I have no intention of joining. I don't need to learn Islamic ways because I won't be adopting them. The onus is not on us to understand Islam, the onus is on Islam to go its own way and let the rest of us go ours.
So, call for Sharia law, introduce us to honour killings and forced marriage and 'Muslim areas' and demands for a new Caliphate in our country and you have our attention. But not in a good way.
Leave us alone, worship your god in your way, and we won't even notice you're there.
How often do you hear 'Oh, those Sikhs are a problem' or 'those Buddhists' or 'those Pagans' or even 'those Satanists'? None of them are demanding the entire country fall into line and live life as directed by them. None of them are demanding the law be changed to their way of doing things. None of them are trying to take over.
None of them are blowing anyone up.
Now, I know that not all Muslims want to change this country into Saudi Arabia, not all Muslims want to kill anyone and not all Muslims want Sharia law. So it is unfair to generalise. However, life is unfair and you either deal with it or don't. Shouting 'Unfair' has never solved a single problem, ever. It didn't help German Jews, it didn't help Iranian homosexuals, it has never helped anyone.
When the IRA were in full swing, anyone with an Irish accent was treated with suspicion. I worked for three years on a project where one guy was from Eire. He had nothing to do with the IRA at all. He had no violent tendencies, in fact I cannot recall him ever even raising his voice. Yet in every pub we visited there was suspicion. He was stopped and questioned by police all the time. Fair? Of course not. Not all Irish people were in the IRA, but all those in the IRA were Irish.
So it is now, with the current round of terrorism. Not all Muslims are in Al-Qaeda, but everyone in Al-Qaeda is a Muslim. So all Muslims now get treated with caution. Fair? No. Sensible? Yes. We are told there are three million Muslims in the UK, but nobody seems to have noticed the 57+ million non-Muslims here. We are told we must not offend, we must understand, we must bow and scrape and learn the ways of people we outnumber nineteen to one. The majority must pander to the minority. Imagine, Muslims, the kind of feelings that stirs in people.
Unlike the IRA, who did not want to take over the UK, who just wanted the part they regard as theirs back, Islam demands special treatment at every turn and threatens to behead those who so much as speak against it. Baroness Warsi thinks that disliking that sort of diplomacy makes us bigoted.
We've been called worse, Baroness. Think back to Labour's methods for silencing dissent. So much as mention the word 'Immigration' and you'd get 'racist-Nazi-bigot' thrown back at once. So much as question the Cult of the Green God and you're called a 'denier' and a 'flat-earther'. So call us bigots. It's all water off a duck's back now. Words have been devalued under Labour to the point where they are worth even less than the economy.
This whole 'Islamophobe' construction is nonsense. The fact is, we don't hate Muslims at all. What we are phobic about are things like this, and the extensive list compiled in a few minutes by the Quiet Man. No, we have no quarrel with Muslims, we have always been happy to do business with anyone of any faith.
The fact is, Islam has a problem with us. We are not threatening to behead Muslims. We are not rigging makeshift bombs and blowing people up. We are not hunting down Muslim cartoonists and reporters and film-makers. There is no area of the UK that has been declared a 'non-Muslim area'.
The Baroness has it the wrong way round. The acceptable bigotry exists and has long been supported by the Righteous with the help of government. It is not us spouting hatred at them.
It's them spouting hatred at us. As long as successive governments fail to see that, the radicalism will spread unchecked - actually, encouraged - by the authorities.
Not all Muslims are like this. I can speak from experience of working with, teaching and doing business with Muslims that those I have encountered have not been swivel-eyed loons with beards full of drool and an axe in each hand. In fact, I have never encountered one of those. They are out there, that's for sure. They insult the soldiers who risk their lives for this country, they carry placards saying 'Freedom go to hell', they burn poppies on Remembrance Day and they blow people up. So it's no good pretending they don't exist.
They are not the majority, but they have a way with words. They radicalise the young, they indoctrinate those who have never seen Sharia law in action with the insistence that it is what they must have. I would advise those born in this country, who demand Sharia law, to spend a few weeks in a country where it is rigidly enforced. You might find it's not what you were told.
As for the Baroness, if Sharia were already here, she would not be allowed to show her face in public, not be allowed to drive a car and would never hold any position in office. Think about what you are defending, Baroness. If it comes to pass, you won't be a Baroness any more.
If, as the Baroness insists, we are not to differentiate 'moderate' from 'extreme' Islam, what does she imagine will happen? That we will see it all as moderate? Hardly. If there can be only one label applied, it will be 'extreme' and once that is done, Baroness, there will be no going back.
Currently, there are many non-violent Muslims who don't want Sharia law, who don't want to oppress women or hang gays or force their children into marriage or blow anyone up. They just want to get on with their lives.
However, they are not being allowed to ignore the radical side of their faith in the same way that Christians can ignore the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church. It's not us, Baroness. It's your government.
By allowing and indulging the worst excesses of the radicals, you take away any barrier to Muslim youth joining them. There is no penalty for demanding Sharia law, so they do it. There is no penalty for demanding the death of the apostate, so they do it. The youth of any human culture are naturally rebellious. They will push the boundaries and with no discipline to fear, they will find no boundary. Anyone attempting to stop them will be deemed 'bigot' and 'Islamophobe' and shouted down. They believe themselves untouchable and they are easy targets for the radicals.
If they ever get that Sharia law they shout about, they will find new boundaries, and they will find that they have already overstepped those boundaries by a very long way. There will be no more shouting in the streets. No more free benefits. No shiny cars and iPods and discos and alcohol. All of it, gone. No more blue jeans and hoodies. Deviate from Islamic dress and face punishment.
Then they will find out what Sharia punishment means.
So far, there are a lot of Muslims who don't want this radical version of Islam. Well, we can't do anything about it. Our government won't let us. Muslim youth won't listen to the kuffar. They've been told we are all bigots and should not be listened to. Not just by Imams but by our Righteous who think they are in control of the radicals. They are not.
If the radicals are to be marginalised and silenced, Muslims have to do it.
Otherwise, we have no option but to generalise. For our own safety.
15 comments:
Religion in general really does make you want to throw up, sometimes, doesn’t it? When was the last time a leader of any of the major religions got up on his podium (or whatever religious leaders stand on) and really gave the radical elements of their own religion a right royal roasting for bringing their religion into disrepute? When did you ever hear the Pope saying how disgraceful it was that the IRA were shooting people whilst hiding behind the skirts of Roman Catholicism? When was the Archbishop of Canterbury heard to publicly berate the UDA who were doing the same thing? Who’s ever heard one, single Imam publicly laying into radical Muslim groups’ actions for giving Islam such a terrible reputation? I’ll tell you when. Never. If these “top knobs” were really bothered about the things done in their religions’ names they’d be fighting for airspace to belittle and shame those who do their religions and their gods such a huge disservice, they’d be doing a great deal to restore people’s faith in faith itself and – who knows – they might just get a few converts into the bargain.
On this matter, I have just posted this comment on Dick P's site.
""I think that it is correct to say that Muslims themselves must root out the fanatics. When surveys (not that I trust surveys in any way at all) show that half of Muslims approve of violent acts like 7/7, one cannot help but feel that all of them would perpetrate these acts if they had the chance. That is the frightening thing. It rather implies that the other 50%are ALMOST in agreement. Frightening.
And yet, would you not think that Muslims who come to Britain want to escape from just this extremism? Is it not possible that the body of Muslims are being 'propagandised' in just the same way that the people are being 'propagandised' against the enjoyment of tobacco?
Warsi et al should be emphasising just this problem. Integrate, accept our way of life or sod off. It is the Muslims who should be laughing at and ridiculing the beardies, not us. We don't care. And yet.......why do I have a feeling that the Muslims would do so, if it were not that they are terrified to do so? Maybe the surveys are totally fraudulent.""
If Muslims are afraid to speak up, then there is only one real answer - when a person is found guilty of some actual involvement in a terrorist act, he or she should be treated as if he had actually committed the act. 30 years in a prison on the Outer Hebrides or the Falkland Isles. Stop messing about. How about re-introducing the idea of 'treason' for the benefit of the beardies who insult the memory of our dead soldiers? If they are British, then it would be interesting to see how they would react to being vilified as traitors. What is the problem? Fucking do it!
Those who want Sharia obviously are free to ask to live in one of the dozen or more countries that have it. There doesn't need to be a penalty it they start demanding Sharia law in western nations. There just needs to be a simple answer given whenever the demand comes up:
No.
Have you watched Pat Condell's clips on You Tube, Leg Iron? I think you'd enjoy them:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pat+condell&aq=0
I love your sentence, "Words have been devalued under Labour to the point where they are worth even less than the economy".
A perfect summary of the reality of Fabian economic illiteracy and new/doublespeak - it should be emblazoned on billboards everywhere!
Yo Leggy,
Problem is if Warsi or anyone else for that matter makes a public stand against the blow em up in the name of Allah the merciful brigade, they run the very real risk of becoming a target themselves and being killed, in a rather unpleasant manner!.....er not that I know of a pleasant way of being snuffed out by radical elements of the "religion of peace" but you get my drift.
We should all just go down the pub, and chat about it over copious amounts of booze and pass around the shisha....oh! er!.
Islam is not a religion. To say that it is,is a tragic falsehood which has unfortunately become implanted in the minds of not only its "adherents" but also in what passes for the free minds of the Western Political-Enemy-Class-of-the-West.
The sooner those who have been deceived by Islam's associated/captured/currently-enslaved-cultures into thinking that it must be one, are relieved of this false impression, the easier it will become to deal with what we here all see as embedded and protected aggressors against the liberal capitalist progress of humanity, progress up and away from slavery and pre-capitalist-barbarism.
Leggy,
Another fine, intelligent post; and a damned sight more well-reasoned that I am when I get on the subject!
David D,
"Islam is not a religion."
I'm curious. Tell me more .....
Warsi said that we hated Muslims, were afraid of Muslims, and were pejudiced against Muslims. I tried to post my reply to Warsi on The Spectator Blog in response to a Melanie Philips piece on this topic. Here is what I submitted:
"I don't hate Muslims, I'm not frightened of Muslims, and I don't pre-judge Muslims (I have reached my opinion of Islam based on observation).
My conclusion is that I don't like Islam.
Am I not going to be allowed to express this view in the privacy of my own dinner party?"
This was either considered too inflamatory to post, or maybe they were trying to spare me from a fatwah, because it didn't make it past the censor.
Neal - I've seen those videos. He talks a lot of sense.
David D - to those who follow it, it is. Then again, you could argue that there are no religions since they all started somewhere. Or you could argue that any set of firmly held and unquestionable beliefs constitutes a religion. If you did, you'd have to include Climatology and Multiculturalism as religions.
It would be an interesting argument but I suspect it would be difficult to reach a conclusion one way or the other.
I am Stan - true, she would risk the Wrath of Imam if she spoke out against the extremists, but appearing to support them is stupid too. She might gain up to 3 million votes for her party but risks losing 57 million.
It would be best if we all just went to the pub for a game of pool and a beer. There are some local Muslims who do, and if the radicals found out they'd be in trouble. That's the problem, really.
Angry Exile - 'No' implies a definite decision, and our politicians can't make definite decisions.
It makes their teeth drop out.
LI, I always knew there was something wrong with them.
Tolerant the man claims. Tell that to the Danish cartoonists. Tell that to the scum in Peterborough assaulting our aireforce men and women in uniform. Tell that to the idiots scraming at our troops marching through various town centres.
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