Fear of Islam In The UK

[Lightkeeper]

The enemy within? Fear of Islam: Britain's new disease

Suspicion of the Muslim community has found its way into mainstream society – and nobody seems to care. By Peter Oborne

In Britain today, there is a deepening distrust between mainstream society and ever more isolated Muslim communities. A culture of contempt and violence is emerging on our streets.

Sarfraz Sarwar is a pillar of the Muslim community in Basildon, Essex. He is constantly abused and attacked, and the prayer centre he used has been burnt to the ground.

Mr Sarwar, who has six children and whose wife is matron of an old people's home, is a patently decent man. His only crime is his religious faith. He and his fellow worshippers now meet in secret to evade detection, and the attacks that would follow.

The first abuse that Mr Sarwar's family suffered was in October 2001 – just after the 9/11 attacks – when pigs' trotters were left outside their door, the walls of their house were covered with graffiti and two front windows were broken.

Since then, the family has suffered many attacks, including a failed fire-bombing. In February, the tyres of Mr Sarwar's new car were slashed; in March his windows were broken again. He has now installed CCTV cameras, replaced his wooden back door with one made of steel and erected higher fences.

An investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme discovered many violent episodes and attacks on Muslims, with very few reported; those that do get almost no publicity.

Last week, Martyn Gilleard, a Nazi sympathiser in East Yorkshire, was jailed for 16 years. Police found four nail bombs, bullets, swords, axes and knives in his flat. Gilleard had been preparing for a war against Muslims. In a note at his flat he had written, "I am sick and tired of hearing nationalists talking of killing Muslims, blowing up mosques and fighting back only to see these acts of resistance fail. The time has come to stop the talking and start to act."

The Gilleard case went all but unreported. Had a Muslim been found with an arsenal of weapons and planning violent assaults, it would have been a far bigger story.

There is a reason for this blindness in the media. The systematic demonisation of Muslims has become an important part of the central narrative of the British political and media class; it is so entrenched, so much part of normal discussion, that almost nobody notices. Protests go unheard and unnoticed.

Why? Britain's Muslim immigrants are mainly poor, isolated and alienated from mainstream society. Many are a different colour. As a community, British Muslims are relatively powerless. There are few Muslim MPs, there has never been a Muslim cabinet minister, no mainstream newspaper is owned by a Muslim and, as far as we are aware, only one national newspaper has a regular Muslim columnist on its comment pages, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of The Independent.

Surveys show Muslims have the highest rate of unemployment, the poorest health, the most disability and fewest educational qualifications of any faith group in the country. This means they are vulnerable, rendering them open to ignorant and hostile commentary from mainstream figures.

Islamophobia – defined in 1997 by the landmark report from the Runnymede Trust as "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination" – can be encountered in the best circles: among our most famous novelists, among newspaper columnists, and in the Church of England.

Its appeal is wide-ranging. "I am an Islamophobe," the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee wrote in The Independent nearly 10 years ago. "Islamophobia?" the Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle asks rhetorically in the title of a recent speech, "Count me in". Imagine Liddle declaring: "Anti-Semitism? Count me in", or Toynbee claiming she was "an anti-Semite and proud of it".

Anti-Semitism is recognised as an evil, noxious creed, and its adherents are barred from mainstream society and respectable organs of opinion. Not so Islamophobia.

Its practitioners say Islamophobia cannot be regarded as the same as anti-Semitism because the former is hatred of an ideology or a religion, not Muslims themselves. This means there is no social, political or cultural protection for Muslims: as far as the British political, media and literary establishment is concerned the normal rules of engagement are suspended.

"There is a definite urge; don't you have it?", the author Martin Amis told Ginny Dougary of The Times: "The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order. Not letting them travel. Deportation; further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or Pakistan. Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children." Here, Amis is doing much more than insulting Muslims. He is using the foul and barbarous language of fascism. Yet his books continue to sell, and his work continues to be celebrated.

And we found the language of Islamophobic columnists such as Toynbee, Liddle, or novelists such as Amis, duplicated by the British National Party and its growing band of supporters.

All over Europe, parties of the far right have been dropping their traditional hostility to minorities such as Jews and homosexuals; in Britain, the BNP has come to realise that anti-Semitism and anti-black campaigning won't work if they are serious about electoral success.

To move to mainstream respectability, they need an issue that allows them to exploit people's fears about immigrants and Britain's ethnic minority communities without being branded racist extremists.

They have found it. Since 9/11, and particularly 7/7, the BNP has gone all out to tap a rich vein of anti-Muslim sentiment. The party's leader, Nick Griffin, has described Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith" and has tried to distance himself and the party from its anti-Semitic past. Party members are now rebuked for discussing the Holocaust and told to focus on terrorism, the evils of Islam, and scare stories of Britain becoming an Islamic state.

Griffin's strategy has been inspired by the press. He said: "We bang on about Islam. Why? Because to the ordinary public out there it's the thing they can understand. It's the thing the newspaper editors sell newspapers with."

Last month, we visited Stoke-on-Trent, a BNP heartland with nine BNP councillors, a council second only to Barking and Dagenham in far-right representation. The party has made this progress in large part by mounting a vicious anti-Muslim campaign. Stoke has one of the lowest employment rates in the country since the pottery industry collapsed. The BNP has tried to link this decline to Muslim immigration.

Other campaigns have focused on planning issues over mosques, a flashpoint elsewhere too. The BNP accuses the Labour council of cutting special deals with Muslim groups in exchange for support. Wherever we explored tension between Muslims and the local community we tended to discover the BNP was present, fanning discontent.

Many categories of immigrants and foreigners have been singled out for hatred and opprobrium by mainstream society because they were felt to be threats to British identity. At times, these despised categories have included Catholics, Jews, French and Germans; gays were held to subvert decency and normality until the 1980s, blacks until the 1970s, and Jews for centuries. Now this outcast role has fallen to Muslims. And it is the perception that Muslims receive special treatment that fuels the most resentment. When we investigated clashes at a Muslim dairy in Windsor, we found the perception that police had failed to investigate what seemed to be a racist attack by Asian youths on a local woman played a powerful role in fanning resentments.

But by the same token we believe that Muslims should be given the same protection as other minority groups from insults or ignorant abuse. This protection is not available. Ordinary Muslim families are virtually a silenced minority.

We should all feel ashamed about the way we treat Muslims, in the media, in our politics, and on our streets. We do not treat Muslims with the tolerance, decency and fairness that we often like to boast is the British way. We urgently need to change our public culture

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The enemy within? Fear of Islam: Britain's new disease - Home News, UK - The Independent

[angeleyes]

I think the concept of terrorism is especially frightening to people. It's a new kind of warfare and has changed our way of life. The media (something we didn't have much of in the past) contributes to that fear, but isn't entirely to blame for the headlines.

I feel for the Muslim people and think we need more input/education from their perspective. I also feel for the victims of terrorism and the fear that comes from it. I hope things change from both sides.....

[arthra]

There have been Muslims in Britain for quite a few years and only relatively recently with the conflicts in the Middle East and terrorist groups in my view has there been a problem.

The Woking Mosque in Surrey was established in 1889 .. and of course the British also acknowledged the Muslim and Hindu rulers during the Raj. Pakistan is still a member of the Commonwealth as well.

- Art

[Fahad1]

Originally Posted by Lightkeeper

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The enemy within? Fear of Islam: Britain's new disease - Home News, UK - The Independent

Actually the western media propogated lot of misinformation about Islam and the Muslims after WTC attack trying to convince the people of West that Muslims were behind this attack but they should realise and know that if muslims would have been behind such attack then not even a single muslim would have been there in the Twin Tower during Sept 11th attack?

One of my Arab friends uncle who was working there in one of the Corporate Office died in Twin Tower attack and I went to his house to offer my sincere condolence.

But let me also inform you about the fact that the most selling book after WTC attack was Qur'an which broke the record and the ratio of conversion to Islam increased after this attack. When the Western people started doing research on Islam by reading Qur'an they themselves found out the facts about Islam.

This is another Miracle of Allah(swt). God is showing the anti-Islamic groups especially the Western Media that Islam is just like a Spring,the more they press it , the more it bounces.

No matter how much they propogate against Islam,the ratio of conversion to Islam in the West will continue to increase and it is the only religion which is spreading without a sword or force.

Western people fear that Muslims will distroy by throwing bomb on them but they fail to realize that the bomb was already dropped the day Muhammad(pbuh) was born.

Regards,

[Amergin]

Originally Posted by Fahad1

Actually the western media propogated lot of misinformation about Islam and the Muslims after WTC attack trying to convince the people of West that Muslims were behind this attack but they should realise and know that if muslims would have been behind such attack then not even a single muslim would have been there in the Twin Tower during Sept 11th attack?

There has been a rather typical distrust by Britons of people who are not Anglo-Celtic. That is a part of human evolution, much like racism. It was here before 9-11 but not as often spoken about openly. It is true that the media have turned a relatively small group of Muslim extremists into "MUSLIM TERRORISTS. It was wrong to indict all of the world's Muslims. The situation was aggravated when a Mullah in London declared that Muslims would conquer and convert Britain either by preaching or a Jihadist Army. I suspect many British Muslims cringed when they heard him say that. I am worried about increasing incidence of violence. There are very few Muslims in Northern Scotland so it is not a personal fear for my family but for the UK and England where most Muslims live and working class whites are commonly bigotted.

The Media and editorial cartoons have pictured Muslims as terrorists with black ski masks, turbans, and AK-47's. Yet I remember the Oklahoma City Federal Building killing hundreds of people in Oklahoma performed by Timothy McVeigh, a Christian Identity extremist. I don't recall any newspaper calling McVeigh a "CHRISTIAN TERRORIST". Eric Rudolph, Buford Furrow, and Bob Mathhews killed many people and supported Christian Identity Dogma but none of them were called "CHRISTIAN TERRORISTS."

It is wrong to indict all Muslims for Osama Bin Ladin as it would be to indict all Christians for Tim McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, or even Adolf Hitler.

Originally Posted by Fahad1

One of my Arab friends uncle who was working there in one of the Corporate Office died in Twin Tower attack and I went to his house to offer my sincere condolence.

You could help by writing a letter to the editor of your city newspaper reminding everyone that Muslim people have been killed on 9-11, the US Embassy bombings, and daily in Iraq Muslims are killing Muslims in terrorist attacks initiated by the Bush Administration's illegal invasion of Iraq. I have written about the failure of an American newspaper about its hypocrisy in not calling McVeigh and Rudolph "Christian Terrorists" if they call Al Qaeda "Muslim Terrorists."

Originally Posted by Fahad1

But let me also inform you about the fact that the most selling book after WTC attack was Qur'an which broke the record and the ratio of conversion to Islam increased after this attack. When the Western people started doing research on Islam by reading Qur'an they themselves found out the facts about Islam.

Aye, I was one of those blokes who bought an English translation of the Qur'an to find out what it was all about. I admit I knew nothing about Islam other than the recorded history of the expansion of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, the Mediaeval Scholarly centres in Cordoba, Samarkand, Baghdad, and even Timbuktu. But I was never educated in what the beliefs of Islam were and what they implied to us. I was not converted by reading the Qur'an but that should not be a problem. I have no problem with Muslims except those who adopt terrorism or those who try to impose their beliefs on me. I do not try to convert Muslims to Agnostic Non-Theism.

Originally Posted by Fahad1

This is another Miracle of Allah(swt). God is showing the anti-Islamic groups especially the Western Media that Islam is just like a Spring,the more they press it , the more it bounces.

No matter how much they propogate against Islam,the ratio of conversion to Islam in the West will continue to increase and it is the only religion which is spreading without a sword or force.

That is our fear. We don't care if Islamic peoples believe in Islam. I don't care if Christians convert to Islam or if Muslims convert to Christianity. I do not wish to have either religion imposed on me or my family by coersion, fear, or a war of conquest.

Originally Posted by Fahad1

Western people fear that Muslims will distroy by throwing bomb on them but they fail to realize that the bomb was already dropped the day Muhammad(pbuh) was born.

Hold on Fahad, that kind of threatening talk only feeds our fear and our impression that Muslims are aggressors who convert by the sword or bomb. That last comment canceled out your previous reasonable comments. The last one that seems to justify bombing "infidels" or threatening to bomb them if they fail to surrender to the harsh penalties of Islamic governments. I am not trying to confront you but make you understand one of the reasons Muslims are feared. Your comment shows that fear of Muslims is not all from the Media. Some of the fear is understandable when we hear comments like yours and that British Mullah who threatened to conquer us if necessary with an alien Islamic Army. Do you understand why we fear Islam?

The Method Behind The Madness of Islamic Conquest » Winds Of Jihad

Amergin

[shaw-n]

There is no tolerance in Islam for the infidel (who is anyone who is not muslim), only patience, waiting for the big day when all will submit to the system.
Sure there are individuals and sects which have a better, saner view, but mainstream, dominant Islam is not that way.

The reactions in Britian are the result of all the propaganda which has been swirling through our collective brains these past few years.
Small wonder there are these kind of reactions.