Prejudice against Muslims has "passed the dinner-table test" and become socially acceptable in the UK, a senior Conservative is to say.So then, what else do you think is going to happen when you scare a country witless?
Baroness Warsi will say anti-Muslim prejudice is now seen by many Britons as normal and uncontroversial, and she will use her position to fight an "ongoing battle against bigotry".
In the last decade, we have been subjected to hysterical 'security measures', from stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act to body scanners at airports. We've seen the abandonment of historical liberties such as habeas corpus by way of detention without charge and control orders, not to mention RIPA. As a result, institutions are so spooked by it all that nail clippers are confiscated from hand luggage and you can't now even take a fork into the Natural History Museum to eat your lunch with.
All this - we are told - because the likelihood of a terrorist attack is "highly likely".
And you wonder why the public are prejudiced against a religion which contains some who have prompted the government to take away our freedoms, thereby hugely inconveniencing our way of life on a daily basis?
"It's not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of 'moderate' Muslims leads; in the factory, where they've just hired a Muslim worker, the boss says to his employees: 'Not to worry, he's only fairly Muslim'," she will say.Well, Warsi, if you want to see such attitudes evaporate, perhaps government could take the lead by putting a stop to the perpetual scaremongery, and returning the civil liberties which over-reactive politicians have stripped away.
"In the school, the kids say: 'The family next door are Muslim but they're not too bad'.
Ready when you are, dear.
12 comments:
I've taken a different tack on this, Dick but the principle is very similar. She has become an unlikeable
individual very rapidly.
Another reason for this "prejudice" is the refusal of many Muslims to do anything to integrate into British society, or even to accept the concept of "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". Only this morning, there was some imam from Birmingham on the radio saying that Muslims shouldn't join the police or armed forces as that would involve compromising their faith. As long as attitudes like that persist, so will anti-Muslim "prejudice".
Also it must be remembered that considered, evidence-based opinion is not prejudice.
Great post, Dick. Why can't she highlight the contributions of those Muslims who do more than not blow people up? As it is she comes across as a very bitter, nasty woman. Perhaps if she could only win an election...
I'm inclined to agree with England Expects on this one.
It's a career ploy.
I personally think it's called playing the race card.
sow as you reap and all that.
I see nothing but sorrow in the future because of this reckless immigration policy.
@Curmudgeon: spot on. I can remember when it started for me. I play cricket a lot, and about 20 years ago a new team started up in my town, an Asian only team. Prior to that Asians had played for all the local teams, and integrated fine. Suddenly there was this 'us vs them' situation created out of nowhere.
I'm guessing that it would have been about this time that the first generation of people born here, whose parents were born abroad, reached an age where they wanted to assert themselves.
Everything else we have experienced (the Salman Rushdie affair through to 7/7) seems to have its origins around 20 years ago.
"...and you can't now even take a fork into the Natural History Museum to eat your lunch with."
Ah, I'm glad I followed the link there. For a moment I found myself wondering if you were intending to eat the exhibits.
Puddlecote’s article and most of the above comments are naïve. There is next to no chance of being blown up by Muslim terrorist. You’re as likely to be killed by lightening.
The really insidious effect of Islam and its Western supporters (the politically correct and the political left) is the suppression of free speech and freedom of conscience that is involved. Since it’s birth around 1,500 years ago, Islam has made consistent attempts to supress alternative views (e.g. by means of the Dhimma tax on non-Muslims, murdering Salman Taseer, etc. ).
As for the West’s politically correct, they supress freedom of speech by prosecuting people who criticise Islam. “Inciting racial hatred” is the excuse.
I think you're missing the point, Musgrave. Dick wasn't saying that people are scared of Muslims because Muslims blow people up, he was saying that people are scared of Muslims because the government tells people to be scared of "terrorism" all the time.
OR: Yep, I can see we're thinking almost along the same lines, but I like your take on it.
PC: Yes, I heard that too. If nothing else, it's just bad manners!
Edwin: They'd probably be tastier than the 'healthy' fare sold at all museums these days.
Musgrave: But I was exactly saying that the chances of being blown up are hugely exaggerated, so the restrictions on our liberties are in the main unwarranted and only end up scaring people unnecessarily and making them suspicious of muslims.
I understand your point about forced neutering of freedom of speech. However, I was talking in this piece about the view I hear most from friends - that being that they're pig sick of jumping through hoops and losing liberties because of measures inflicted purportedly to counteract Islamic terrorism. It's for that reason - eg every time they have to take off their belt at the airport - that they primarily resent Islam for IMO.
The issue of course is that by refusing to publicly and forcefully condemn and root out the so-called "extremists" in their midst, the so-called "moderates" condone both the extreme actions and the perpetrators.
To date, here in Canada and from what I can see in the UK and the US, there are few, if any Muslim "leaders" who will stand up to the extremists.
Unless and until those in positions like the good Baroness demonstrate a willingness to bring the extreme elements of their community to justice - the rest of us can only assume the Baroness and her ilk support, tacitly or directly, the goals of their extreme Islamic brothers.
As such, they have earned our suspicion and distrust.
I'm not sure what Baroness Warsi is getting at here. Hasn't the current Government just been following the lead of the previous Government in sending the message that hatred and intollerance are acceptable, even encouraged? Is she just bemoaning that the Government has been unable to focus that hatred solely on smokers?
Most right-minded people see a person as a person and make up their minds on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately the gripped-with-fear self-righteous nutters now hold the high moral ground.
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.
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