Meanderings of a Monkey Juggler

I wasn't going to write this up on this site.  It was more an exercise for me to get some thoughts down whilst watching a TV show.  But now, having seen the news re potential terrorist threats against the UK I thought it would be worth rehearsing publicly.  What follows are the thoughts I wrote down when watching a TV show called "What Muslims Want".  It was a thoughtful show hosted by a very respected news presenter (Jon Snow) and attempted to make some sense of the results of a research questionnaire about "What Muslims Want".  They asked 1000 muslims in the UK from a variety of occupations and ages a few questions. 

Here's what I wrote:

The thesis: Integration has stopped.

Muslims seem to think 9/11 was set up by USA and Israel. (50% of respondants)
Princess Di was killed because she was dating a muslim. (40%)
It could be argued that it's likely that people that believe any of the religious bollocks are soft-minded enough to believe this sort of crap.

82% feel British.  That's nice.

The younger ones are more radical and more conservative.  They all witter about the Iraq war.  Not one mentions that it's muslims killing muslims more than westerners killing muslims.  It's the US's fault that some muslims blow up mosques in Baghdad?  Yeah right.

23% felt 7/7 bombings were justified.  Scum.
The bombings were the fault of the UKs foreign policy?  No the cause was 4 poor deluded fools with a mis-directed grudge (with no basis) and no intelligence.

Adulterers should be stoned to death (a 20-something UK citizen).  And what about witches?
At this point another muslim man intervened and argued against him.  This was good to see but I fear the interloper is a quieter voice.

66% said women should not be forced to wear the hijab themselves.  This means 34% think they should be forced.  Hardly an overwhelming argument for the lack of oppression of the muslim woman.

Over half feel gay people should be banned from teaching! Surely your child's faith that gayness is obscene would protect their virtue from such deviates? Or do you feel that the lure of being gay is stronger than the pull of your religious education you've forced on sorry gifted to your children?

40% are offended by the UK's "bad moral behaviour".
67% think UK parents give children too much freedom.  I'd agree with them on that one.

"56%" of muslims think that they are "under attack". Well duh?  I know they're stupid enough to believe all sorts of bollocks but I can't believe that they're so stupid that they're surprised that when muslims blow up bombs in the UK then other muslims in the UK will be under suspicion.

Freedom of speech:
No-one should be allowed to insult their religion.  Bollocks!
The cartoon embarrassment was mentioned - "behead the artists and publishers" - oh sweet.
"everyone should be sensitive to other faiths" - right.  And you can offend me can you? You stupid stupid wanker? I hold sacred the ideal of free speech.  How the hell would you uphold that if I can't disrespect your prophet? I have no wish to disrespect your prophet but if it pisses the likes of you off then that's a perfectly good enough reason for me to start. 

It seems that Muslims want us to give them stuff they want and they're willing to bully us to get it.  Doesn't seem very peaceful to me.

In all of this it all seems that they (incidentally if you're wondering why I'm using terms like "they" here, it's because the participants kept referring to "us and them" - so I'll carry on the mode) are actively on their way to ensuring they are seperate and this, through history has never lead to any benefits. Does Islam teach you to ignore the lessons of history?  It also seems that all this seperatism isn't based on religion but the politics of the tribe (back to us and them).  It's always good to feel part of a tribe I suppose and never leads to inter-tribe strife [sarcasm].  I thought we could have grown out of that sort of imbecility this millennium.

And all us native WASPs are all depraved and drunk and licentious.  No.  That's chavs and you may be surprised to know that many of us really don't like that aspect of our country either.  The difference is that I'm disciplined enough to make my own choices rather than having them made for me by some people interpreting a book.  We have laws to prevent this sort of thing.  The fact that they are not enforced to the standard that many want is NOT an argument for Sharia.  It's an argument for decent policing.

In summary: If you're offended by me then screw you.  I'm not harming you or your religion (unless it really is pathetically weak).  You can't believe how angry your views have made me.  I'm shaking with anger as I write this.  And you had no idea did you? I'm a positive person generally.  I like immigrants, I want friends of different faiths and races.  I want to learn a new language.  I'm against the Iraq war and generally have been against Israel and their treatment of Palestine and you have made ME this angry.  Just what do you think you've done for the average white Brit?  You are going to end up suffering so much if you feel that seperation, bullying and violence will get you what you want.  Live and let live eh? You're not special.  You deal with us the way you want us to deal with you ok?  It's called basic civility.  No more bullying, no more childish whinging about offence and no more wanting special treatment.  I repeat, you are not special.  You're just another person.  Shut up and leave us alone.  Sort your own problems out and don't expect us to pander to your (repeat: "your") beliefs. 

 

That was not exactly what I wrote down on the night.  What I actually wrote was far more sweary and offensive than that.  But my point I think is valid.

Let's start on the "us and them" business.  We hear that muslims feel that they are discriminated against.  That may be and it's a sadness to me.  But what you don't hear so much is that there are 1.5 million muslims in the country which in the main has allowed them to slot into the towns and cities with not too much grief.  Most white brits I know aren't fussed who lives near them as long as people are nice and friendly and don't give them grief.  What hacks people off is those wanting special treatment or being told to pander to peoples' beliefs (that are their own restrictions they imposed on themselves).

I deal with plenty of muslim people at work.  The vast majority are lovely and friendly and I have no problems with.  Occasionally you find one who is clearly horrified either that I'm a man (some women do this) or that I'm white.  Screw you! 

Think of it like having guests (or even neighbours).  If I invite a guest in and he spends the time criticising my record collection then I'm not too disturbed.  If he decides that my record collection is so offensive he's going to plant a bomb in the bedroom so he can kill the idiot with the stupid record collection then I might be narked enough to kick him out should I discover the plot.  I can live (as indeed the vast, overwhelming lot of white Brits can) with people who have different ideas.  I'll go further; I welcome people with different ideas.  But hospitality does start to wane somewhat given the sort of grief that some morons want to kick out.  The problem is also that we don't know who amongst the group are the idiots with the bombs.

Who are the terrorists harming?  No-one but their own community.  There may be a few people killed in an attack (even up to a couple of thousand at worst) but how many normal muslims are going to get grief from dickheads of the white community.  I repeat something I mentioned earlier: if I feel angry with how some muslims are dealing with the fact they don't live in a muslim country then there are a hell of a lot more people out there who aren't as thoughtful as me and will take it out on their community (and the poor hindus, sikhs and asian christians who'll get lumped in to the same "brown" group by the idiots).  It seems that the thought "I don't like this country therefore I'll leave" is too big a mental leap for these mentalists.

"Ah but that's not the point is it?" you cry.  They don't like the fact that our country is interfering in their homeland's affairs therefore they'll interfere with ours.  True but then they handily skip over the fact that we had the largest ever demonstration in this country a while back.  What was it for?  Oh yes, supporting that view. Oh and it's not the west blowing up huge numbers of civilians in Iraq (now) it's other muslims but this rarely gets raised and never discussed. Never mind we'll just kill some people anyway and get to shag some virgins as part of the deal; cool. 

And to make matters worse the extremists will look at the security response and think; "They're stopping muslims.  Look, look, they're stopping muslims!" at the airport for example.  It's therefore clear that the whole of the UK white community is utterly Islamophobic therefore they are our enemies.  And some idiots will believe them.  Since white people have no talents except as oppressors.

Oh I don't know and I'm bored now.

Have fun.  (Please?)