It's not that I think it's Pulitzer prize-winning material - it clearly isn't - it's just that I want it known which side of the argument I'm on.
She Who Must Be Obeyed told me it was too serious. Whatever.
Here goes...
With all due respect to columnists elsewhere on this page,
I’m not religious, nor am I a fan of religion. If faith helps people make it
through the day, who am I to complain.
Some of my closest friends are religious, however, though I
no more know which god they worship than the colour of their underwear. It’s
not something you ask in general conversation. But I do not hold the fact they
are religious against them any more than I do their politics. The one thing I
do know is that religion ranks up there with imperialism when it comes to
causing conflict.
Some of my friends may be Muslim for all I know, but if they
are, I can sleep easy at night knowing they’re not terrorists. Most Muslims,
I’m sure, would have been as appalled by last week’s events in Woolwich as the
rest of us. They were undoubtedly ashamed of the horrific acts carried out in
the name of their religion. Indeed, the Muslim Council of Britain condemned the
attack within hours stating: “This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in
Islam and we condemn this unreservedly. Our thoughts are with the victim and
his family … this attack on a member of the Armed Forces is dishonourable, and no
cause justifies this murder.”
Once again they are forced to issue a statement which
effectively says “not in our name”. I can empathise with their shame and anger.
As a white Englishman I was appalled by the response to the killing by the
English Defence League (EDL). How does fighting with the police help that
organisation’s investigation into this atrocity? How does attacking mosques
achieve anything other than stoking up racial hatred? But they don’t care.
That’s exactly what they want.
These are the same sort of people who 40 years ago were
looking to recruit violent football supporters into the National Front. Their
faces are so screwed up with hatred they can’t see the truth – and nor would
they accept it if they could see it. They just want to hate and fight. It’s in
their nature.
To assume all Islamic terrorists are indicative of the
Muslim faith is like saying the Ku Klux Klan is truly representative of the
Christian faith. When the IRA was bombing the hearts out of major cities in the
1970s and 80s, we didn’t go around blaming all Catholics. And where were the
reprisals against Christians when the Yorkshire Ripper was convicted of 13
murders in 1981?
A psychopath is a psychopath whatever his or her faith. Psychopaths
have an extreme view of society and their place in it regardless of their
faith. No, the response to this tragic and horrific incident is racism, pure
and simple.
Twitter went into overdrive last week with right-wing
fanatics – every bit as bad as any other fanatic – encouraging all sorts of
ghastly activity. But the best tweet I saw was sent by a serving member of our
armed forces to a member of the EDL. John, whose Twitter name is @lfc2652, sent a tweet which said:
“There’s Muslims in the Army/Navy/RAF that do a lot more for this country than
you. You gonna try (to) get rid of them as well?"
Well said sir. I’m sure most of these Neanderthals don’t –
or can’t – read this column, but if they do I’ll say simply: NOT IN MY NAME.
NOT IN MY NAME is not good enough...
ReplyDeleteWe are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous. Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people..
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up because they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
Now Islamic prayers have been introduced into Toronto and other public schools in Ontario , and, yes, in Ottawa too while the Lord's Prayer was removed (due to being so offensive?) The Islamic way may be peaceful for the time being in our country until the fanatics move in.
In Australia , and indeed in many countries around the world, many of the most commonly consumed food items have the halal emblem on them. Just look at the back of some of the most popular chocolate bars, and at other food items in your local supermarket. Food on aircraft have the halal emblem just to appease the privileged minority who are now rapidly expanding within the nation’s shores.
In the U.K, the Muslim communities refuse to integrate and there are now dozens of “no-go” zones within major cities across the country that the police force dare not intrude upon. Sharia law prevails there, because the Muslim community in those areas refuse to acknowledge British law.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts -- the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Paul Marek quoted verbatim? I'm surprised... :o)
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