Islam and the EDL in England/UK

[Fidel_Castronaut]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22852371

Article on the BBC that discusses the ongoing tensions in some areas of society where Muslims are feeling threatened by 'verbal' and physical attacks against them. It seems that instances of it are rising following on from the Woolwich murder a few weeks ago.

Now for the record I think that the EDL are idiots  who are doing more harm than good in practically everything they do. However, the article brings to attention some of the core aspects of what is wrong with the whole debate on Islam in the UK; the denial that there is a problem.

Now, Im not tarnishing people with the same brush, but recently the debate has shifted from "what caused these men [the woolwich bombers] to espouse an extremist ideology of Islam" to "how can we protect Muslims against backlashes".

The latter is an amiable and perfectly reasonable issue to undertake (I certainyl don't want to see houses or Mosques burnt to the ground and people fleeing from their school whilst it's on fire), however it's come at the expense of the former. No longer does anyone in the media focus on the causes of why so many guys in Islamic communities are espousing extremism (and it's nowhere near as rare as some would have you believe. The articles cites the jailing of 6 men who were intending to murder EDL members at a rally). Instead we're treated, day after day, to how there's nothing wrong witin the Islamic community and how, in one form another, we must all 'tolerate' Islam and its followers.

I think Islam is despicable, but I don't think Muslims are. they're just people, but we're brushing under the carpet any sort of open debate about why religious extremism is so prevelant amongst young Muslim men, and in turn throwing away every opportunity we have at trying to understand and prevent it in the future.

It's a sad state of affairs, and the only point I truely agree with in the article is that those who even slightly bring up this complete denial of there being extremist elements within Islamic communities in the UK are immediately branded as racists or Islamophobes. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my own context, but this view silences everything else.

[SilentFutility]

I think that the EDL are idiots as well.

Interestingly, there is almost no spectrum of publicy outspoken belief when it comes to views on Islam. There is the extreme left message of "horrible atrocity X has nothing to do with Islam", and the extreme right which is totally anti-muslim/brown people/foreigners.

What is extremely sad though, is that any view that is in the middle or leaning towards the right is attacked by mainstream media. This results in only the far right extremists being brave enough to voice their views, as they don't care about being called bigoted. They know they are.

Anyone who has an opposing view to what the overly PC mainstream media pushes ie. any viewpoint that is anything less than thinking islam is a great religion and that is anything other than there are no problems with it is lumped in with far right extremists and demonised to almost the same extent.

The problem with this relentless PC campaign in the media means that certain things are seen as taboo to criticise or even to talk about by much of the general public.

[Colanth]

Robinson is basically feeding the British Muslim community back their own line - that it's not the entire group, it's just a few extremists within the group.  And Mughal doesn't like having his face shoved into his own BS line.

As far as I'm concerned, if it's true for Islam, it's true for the backlash against the Muslim extremists.  If Mughal wants Robinson to take responsibility for his extremists, let Mughal step up and take responsibility for Muslim extremists.

This is just a case of "it's okay if I do it, but if you do the same thing you're being bad" - and that's just so plain wrong.

[SilentFutility]

Once we actually acknowledge that there is problem, something might be able to be done about it.

The shovelling of overly-PC nonsense down the public's throats is only going to cause the problem to be ignored until it is too late for sensible solutions in which people don't suffer badly. If this problem is ignored indefinitely then it will come to a head at some point. Minor tensions will escalate into major tensions, major tensions will translate into major tradgedies and major human suffering, all for minor differences between people that really shouldn't matter.

What is truly sad is that the people trying to stifle any criticism of anyone are trying to stop tensions and make things more peaceful, but in fact they're likely contributing to degradation of the peace in the long-term as anger and hatred bubble below the surface instead of being voiced in the public sphere and driving change.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Once we actually acknowledge that there is problem, something might be able to be done about it.

The shovelling of overly-PC nonsense down the public's throats is only going to cause the problem to be ignored until it is too late for sensible solutions in which people don't suffer badly. If this problem is ignored indefinitely then it will come to a head at some point. Minor tensions will escalate into major tensions, major tensions will translate into major tradgedies and major human suffering, all for minor differences between people that really shouldn't matter.

What is truly sad is that the people trying to stifle any criticism of anyone are trying to stop tensions and make things more peaceful, but in fact they're likely contributing to degradation of the peace in the long-term as anger and hatred bubble below the surface instead of being voiced in the public sphere and driving change.

Hole in one.