I was in Timperley village on Monday when 2 Arabs and their wives passed over the other side of the shopping precinct.
Both women wore the full face veil leaving just their eyes on display, It was all I could do to stop myself from saying something utterly out of character.
Wrong I know, but unfortunately my patience is wearing very thin. My homeland is under threat yet again and as you know I love this country like no other
There was a Muslim I heard on a phone-in radio show yesterday saying he got terrified on public transport if he saw other Muslims, and would get off the bus/tube/whatever - while acknowledging that he knew people would be scared of him too, and himself being scared of being scrutinised by everyone else and beaten up if he did something that looked ‘suspicious’.
Translation: “I am getting my ass kicked here and wish I hadn’t stuck my oar in, but it’s beneath me to say I’m wrong.”
Ignorance of the Rape of Nanking would be a more valid comparison if, say, people in my country were funnelling money into the Rape and my government knew but did nothing.
A bombing campaign carried out by doctors? us invading the wrong damn country? these are some fucked up times brother.
I think the next step will be a suicide squad composed of comedians and satirists enraged by their inability to come up with anything more surreal than reality itself
I’ve seen one woman with a full-face veil in the US, and she was in Cambridge of all places. Plenty of veils on the subway, though, but they show the face and are bright, cheerful colors.
I’m glad they’re catching these guys, but it is so screwed up that they’re doctors, with every advantage a free country can give them.
I’m curious about whether the Muslim community in Britain has come out with any sort of denunciation of these people and their actions. The impression I have is that they always get rather defensive about these things rather than disowning the wrongdoers involved. Any word on that?
There are some sections of the Muslim community that do decry the actions of the terrorists but unfortunately not enough of them.
I believe the reason for this is that they themselves are possibly afraid of negative action against them for what the extremists might consider anti-Muslim behaviour
The most prominent Islamic mouthpiece in the UK, the Muslim Council of Britain, has a prominent response to the recent terrorism on the front page of its site, which includes:
So, pretty decisive. There is also to be at least one anti-terrorism street protest by Muslims.
Problem is the mad mullahs don’t listen to these guys - these guys represent decent people.
(BTW Siam Sam, I like you, but you are dead wrong in your opinion on British people’s response to the US government’s negligence regarding funding of Irish Republican terror - it’s not a “chip on the shoulder”, it’s healthy outrage at blatant hypocrisy.)
Got to agree with that. After the sympathy and outrage, I remember the next strongest sentiment I heard from people in the UK after 9/11 was “Screw ‘em, see how they like it”.
There is a train of thought that 9/11 was actually good for Britain as it turned America against any support for terrorism and effectively forced the IRA to the table. I don’t know if that holds any truth, but it’s an opinion I’ve heard a number of people express.
yes, it is the first time I’ve heard them say something more than whitewash (“don’t blame all Muslims, it’s only a small minority, but understand why some of us are angry about Iraq, Israel, etc”)
Still, I would love to hear what they say to each other privately in Arabic. Is Saturday’s meeting in London going to be conducted in English? Will the press be invited?
Why would they be speaking in Arabic? A lot of them will only know koranic Arabic, if that. The majority of them speak Urdu, I’d imagine. Many would speak Indonesian, Malay, etc. as well as the Arabic speakers.
Seriously, do you think they’ll go “Hey, Abdul, secretly I love the terrorists and wish they’d succeeded in killing the infidel, oh quick, here are the cameras - er… we condemn this outrage!”
These things should get out into the media more. For instance, is The Times reporting on that? How many people are going to visit that website anyway? Too often the Muslim response I hear – I know I’m in Thailand, but I have access to BBC and other news sources – is one of, “Well, so what? What do you guys expect?”