Theresa May says the terrorists have nothing to do with Islam. Everyone is saying it, I fully disagree. It’s like saying the homophobic Christians of America have nothing to do with Christianity, when they clearly are part of the religion. Discounting them doesn’t make them any less part of Islam. No one wants any responsibility, because it dirties the already hideously tarnished view of their religion. Pedophilia is as rife in Islam as it is in Christianity (let’s not pretend it’s a Catholic only problem) and no one is taking responsibility for that, and it works in exactly the same way with extremism and bombing and shooting.
Even the French themselves are saying they don’t want your prayers because funnily enough they’ve had enough religion.
Here are some nice figures for you, the name of the survey is in there so if you want a citation go and find it.
Selection of ComsRes questions after the Hebdo attacks:
- If someone I knew from the Muslim community was planning an act of violence I would report them to the police – 94% agree
- I know Muslims who feel strongly sympathetic towards people fighting for IS and al-Qaeda – 8% agree
- Muslim clerics who preach that violence against the West can be justified are out of touch with mainstream opinion – 49% agree
- I would like my children to go a Muslim state school if I had the choice – 31% agree
- I would rather socialise with Muslims than non-Muslims – 13% agree
- If I could I would leave Britain and go and live in another country – 14% agree
- Some 35% said they felt most British people did not trust Muslims, and a fifth said they thought Western liberal society could never be compatible with Islam.
But 27% of the 1,000 Muslims polled by ComRes said they had some sympathy for the motives behind the Paris attacks.
But please go on and tell me these opinions are not mainstream within Islam. There are some pretty alarming figures in there.
So now we have done the bashing, what do we do about it? I believe there are solutions that can be made through diplomacy. Stop paying attention to people like UKIP, BNP, Biffers First.
Stop trying to disassociate and instead open conversation with British muslims, how can you ever fight a war against ISIL if you can’t even gain the trust of people living in your country. You don’t have to agree with their Ideas but you can change them. We live in a nation of free speech(sometimes) and freedom of ideas, but not shit ideas, you can enlighten your neighbours.
A clear objective should be to cease the segregation of minorities, stop faith schools, this is a key problem caused by the Tories, make hate groups a thing of the past, teach critical thinking, no child should be forced in to a religion and as a nation of free thinkers we can bring about these changes. Muslims need to make an effort as well, they need to integrate and not live outside of society.
We must address the cultural problems we have caused ourselves in our own country if we are to be more cohesive and stop the hate on both sides.
I wont pretend that any of this is easy or will happen over night but it’s a step forward.
Tom Brown
