Will The Silent Majority of Muslims Please Speak Up?

[sambro]

Having seen yet another anti-muslim rant on AB I felt compelled to ask this question. I believe that as usual, it is the VOCAL MINORITY of muslims who shout the loudest, egged on by the media of course to grab the headlines. These people do the SILENT MAJORITY of muslims no favours. In fact I think it has the opposite effect. and turns frightened , ignorant people into racists.I have met a lot of muslim people due to my work, and have found them to be not very much different to us natives of England. ( I am sure I will have offended SOMEONE with that description) They just want to get on with their lives, just like the rest of us. They have a sense of humour , love of family, are well educated. They contribute a lot to society. Unfortunately these people do not make the headlines. Only those with extremist points of view do that. As a consequence, the general public think that ALL muslims hold extremist views.
I must add that PC , whilst in theory is a good thing. It really has taken away the right to free speech, which causes resentment and fuels racism, the very opposite to what it was meant to do. It is almost impossible to have a debate these days without being accused of some ......ism.

[jno]

I have to agree. Many Muslims are horrified at the thought of al-Qaeda, but what newspaper is going to waste space saying 'today a Muslim said he didn't agree with al-Qaeda'? But free speech is only one right we have. Another is the right not to be abused and libelled, for instance. So decisions have to be made about whose 'right' comes first.

[Oneeyedvic]

They do speak up - the paper's either don't cover it or people choose not to see it.

[ruby27]

sambro
my apologies for hi jacking the thread

just wanted to say hi to jno who I haven't seen for a while

jno don't know whether you have been kept up to date. I am still a member of your fan club but AOG has it that anyone who agree with Oneedevic's, is a member of his gang!!

[Oneeyedvic]

Go on ruby - you know you want to join

[Booldawg]

We were also led to beleive that all Germans were Nazis and all white South Africans were supporters of apartheid. Its about making your own mind up.

[sambro]

My point exactly, If some atrocity ocurrs, and a muslim extremist organization claims responsibility, the tv get spokesmen who will say this was a terrible thing , but will then go on to justify and make excuses for what has happened. This frightens and alienates people, and of course this is what terrorism is all about.
My point about the right to free speech is this. Free speech is about being able to state your opinion , even if that opinion is critical. Criticism is not abuse. Most prejudice is based on ignorance, speculation and fear. If a person is critical of a particular ethnic group, then he should be able to air his views without being shouted down as a racist. This person has a right to say what he thinks. His view is as I said earlier based on ignorance. but mostly fear. The majority of people I know are convinced that we are heading towards a muslim state. and that we are not allowed to voice these concerns for fear of being branded a racist. Why can these concerns not be expressed and debated? Why are people who are concerned about the number of asylum seekers, legal or illegal, eastern europeans etc being allowed into the country not allowed to question it ? The consequent burden on an already overstretched infrastructure ie. hospitals, schools, local authorities, is surely not an unreasonable cause for concern? People are asking (privately) when is a line to be drawn?
Am I racist for having these concerns? I hope not !
I fear I have drifted off the original thread, but I just wanted to make my point about the right to free speech being eroded, and the very negative effect that PC can have.

[China Doll]

Well I can speak up for my housemate who is muslim and funnily enough not an extremist. (Well, 'cept when I play my music too loudly, she gets a bit violent then)

Actually she's not all that bl00dy silent either but we do have a laugh about how muslims are percieved/made out to be in the media and how they actually are.

People going around living their everyday lives does not sell papers though or push the ratings up.

(I would also like to take the time to wave at jno. Waves)

[China Doll]

Also, yes, of course you're right to have concerns. But then if that's the case, you should ensure that your concerns are justified and do a little research in to whether they founded.

As the peg legged one is fond of saying (and is quite right), you can have an opinion on our country but it's best to form that opinion based on fact. Otherwise you're just buying in to the hype. (Don't think he said the latter but fairly sure that's the jist).

[sambro]

China Doll - tell your housemate to speak up for herself . This country needs people like her to reassure us that we are not all going to be murdered in our beds!

[China Doll]

Oh she does.... believe me.

The trick is getting her to shut up ;0)

[VillageVicar]

My children started their young lives in the Middle East, when we lived there for several years. Consequently, we were the minority who lived within the majority. I never thought of it at the time, but as my children are now teenagers, I stand in amazement and a degree of awe in who they have chosen as their best friends.

My son is a walking UN meeting. His best friends are Thai, Iraqi, Iranian and Danish. My daughter�s best friends are Sri Lankan, Welsh and Canadian. These friendships create their own set of societal challenges. In our community, other teenagers see my daughter as being aloof or �too good� to be around her other schoolmates. That couldn�t be any further from the truth. As she so innocently says: � I don�t want to be around people who curse, smoke, fight all the time or belong to gangs.� My son is much quieter about the whole thing. But he recently was featured in all the national papers and television when he was violently assaulted by a gang of thugs, who beat him to a pulp, believing they had killed him, left him on a park path. His crime? He was too short for their liking. It was compounded by the fact he was walking home from a fireworks display with his Thai friend.

Continued:

[VillageVicar]

Part 2

The thugs were shouting racist obscenities at the lad, which he and my son simply ignored. It was when they yelled to my son, demanding to know how old he was, that my son responded. He shouted back his age and they kept walking. But the response from one of the thugs was �you�re too short for that, so you must die!�

http://www.bexhillobserver.net/news/Battered-W illem-back-in-hospital.1871414.jp


http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/artic les/columnists/mailonsunday.html?in_article_id =435427&in_page_id=1791

Sadly, what happened to my son is typical of what happens each and every day. It never would have made the press, except for the fact that he�s the son of a priest. That, for reasons I still fail to understand, was sufficient for the press to make a meal of the situation.

I�m fortunate in that I have excellent support from our media for raising awareness of numerous social issues. However, that is not the case for most. A reporter once told me that good news never sells. It�s only the disgusting, vile, reprehensible and offensive that make money for the papers.

I�m afraid the silent majority will remain silent in the absence of more people reaching out to help those who cannot help themselves.

Fr. Bill

[Gromit]

I would just like to re-assure RAGGY ROMAN that the Manchester United threat was a total fabrication. The 'terrorists' who were arrested were quietly let go when the so called plot turned out to be rubbish. You may have missed there release. Isnstead of being on the fromnt pages of all the national newspapers and on pages 2 - 15, there was a couple of lines to say they had been released without charge on the bottom of page 63.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2 006/230206Manchester.htm

Then again, they do say there is no smoke without fire.

[sambro]

China Doll - re your comments about opinions being based on facts. These days it is very difficult to find out what the true facts are. For instance, I work for a local authority and I do know that everything to do with asylum seekers is kept very hush hush. My daughter works in a hospital and things are very bad there regarding waiting lists, budgets, etc. I am not saying that people should not come here. But if the government cannot afford to provide more money to keep essential services running properly to provide for all these extra people ,then they should be restricting numbers. We are supposed to be living in a democracy. We have the Freedom of Information Act. But it is very difficult to get at the truth.

[China Doll]

It can be difficult to find out facts but not impossible. Statistics can be manipulated.

Usually between two quite opposing views there is often a middle ground that holds the truth.

I work for the public sector too. Yes, hospitals and their budgets are a mystery unto themselves. However, the purpose of setting up a budget is to decide where and who money is going to obviously. You would not use money intended for hospitals and other services to budget for immigration/crime etc.. Similarly, in the place where I work for there are some budgets which have a bit of money in but that money can not then be taken from there and spent elsewhere. It's protected.

Sometimes it's not even about money, it's about how we use the money and resources we actually have and whether we're getting the full use of them too. I don't think the goverment is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

But I of course could be very wrong and am open to being told so. Provided it's a fact ;0)

[jno]

hello peeps, I have been basking in a heatwave in New England while viewing autumn colours, which are stunningly beautiful. Sambro, if people say things which prompt others to call them racist - well, the others are entitled to freedom of speech too. The few Muslims I know don't have any truck with terrorism; but that isn't news and won't make the news media. That doesn't make them wrong or unusual; we just have to learn to recognise that not everything we read in the papers is accurate, which is part of coping with society.

They certainly don't think we're on the way to becoming a Muslim state. I believe Oneeyedvic (whose gang I will happily join) has previously posted the actual number of Muslims living in Britain, though I can't find it; anyway, it's tiny, and Christians need not fear for their faith.

[China Doll]

Christian faith?

That one we pull out and preach when it suits us but in fact numbers show is in decline?

(Gosh... I really am in cynic mode lately! I think I'll have to go back to bed later and try and get out the right side!)

Hiya jno, missed your pixels!