New Statesman: Britain has nothing to fear from Islam ~ but on the contrary this politico-religious system must be challenged !!

Beyond the pity party - the New Statesman ~ a Leftist magazine which has an Islamic [and some would argue supremacist] senior editor - likely contributor if not entirely penned this article ~ just doesn't get it!

This article was taken from the Everything You Know About Islam is Wrong edition of the magazine.

It ends with ..

British Muslims, alienated, frustrated and under siege, need 'our' support.

What does it mean if the editor is a Muslim ~ and then writes Muslims need 'our' support? Possibly the hijacking of the Left! Or the Wizard behind the Left's Oz has been replaced!

More than half the people of Britain are strongly opposed to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood. Only a quarter of Britons feel positive towards Muslims, while more than a third report feeling "cool" towards them. These are the ominous results from the latest British Social Attitudes Survey. So is Britain anti-Muslim? Is there a place for Islam in British public life?

Innocuous question ~ Islam in British public life ~ or Islamization? Maybe if people saw that churches could be more easily built in the Islamic world they would feel better. 

This magazine is proud of its secular, liberal heritage. Our interest in Islam and Muslims is not religious or theological. But it is clear that, politically and culturally, Islam matters, and on a range of global issues, from the so-called war on terror to the Middle East peace process to the future of Europe. Here in Britain, much of the debate over terrorism and extremism, as well as race, immigration and multiculturalism, revolves - rightly or wrongly - around Muslim communities.

This is the first veiled reference to political Islam. It is a Leftist magazine. And Muslims have attached themselves to the Leftist cause ~ possibly not because they believe in it - in its entirety - but see it as a vehicle for the Islamic political cause.

Then one could argue is the chopping off hands undemocratic - because more people selected it.

Immigration ~ let's face it Muslims across Europe have given new meaning to family reunification. Generation after generation each child is used to secure a spouse and an EU passport for those in the old country. 10% or less Muslims marry outside of their group or extended family ~ with those of any race.

Immigration could be viewed as being used to facilitate a new state within a state - one that adheres more to the principles of Islamic Shari'a law.

Multiculturalism allows this to exist ~ if a Muslim man wants 4 wives - all immigrants - the state pays for it. The very idea of multiculturalism is averse to integration. Which allows these parellel societies where most of the marriage partners are selected from abroad - bringing the old ways with each generation - and along with it - the new radicalism.

Since 11 September 2001, and especially since the attacks in London on 7 July 2005, many Britons have come to fear their Muslim neighbours: they worry about the bearded young man with a backpack sitting next to them on the Tube. There is also a widespread lack of knowledge about the central tenets of the faith itself and the basic fabric of British Muslim life. Fear and ignorance are a toxic combination, and myths and misconceptions abound.

What was that again "This magazine is proud of its secular, liberal heritage. Our interest in Islam and Muslims is not religious or theological." Sounds like readers are being order to take a lesson in Islam. "There is also a widespread lack of knowledge about the central tenets of the faith itself."

He states that after the London bombings ~ Brits fear Muslims. Nevermind that we could add a few more to this - there was the attack on Theo Van Gogh, the Salman Rushdie fatwa and on and on... fear is a survival instinct. There is an unconscious trust between people and people fear others for different reasons. If someone is seen to be likely to be a thief ~ then you might fear that either that person or someone like them might steal from you ~ and there is - place or situation - if you are walking home late at night - you might be more fearful then if you walked there in the day. What Islam/Muslims have done with their attacks is that they broken the trust that people had of each other while on public transport - planes, buses. And it is here that Muslims have become suspect ~ because people's raw instincts move them to act in the interests of their own survival.

There is no political correctness ~ when a guy pretending to asleep lights his underwear on a plane ~ there is one instinct - that of survival.

Contrary to popular opinion, polls show that the overwhelming majority of British Muslims are integrated, loyal, non-violent and eschew religious fanaticism (mag. page 26). But the antics of a small cabal of British-born Muslim radicals - exemplified by the buffoonish Anjem Choudary and his Islam4UK group (now banned by the Home Office) - bring the entire Muslim community into disrepute in this country.

Here is the problem for Muslims - the 'buffoonish' Anjem Choudary says - yes when we have our Islamic State in the UK ~ we are going to introduce flogging and amputations. But then hear the head of the Shari'a Council in the UK ~ saying Britain would be better off with amputations and other Islamic punishments. And  hear the current leader of the Muslim Council of Britain ~ that one day Britain will have Shari'a law integrated into British law. Here one only speaks louder than the others.

Yet publicity-seeking hotheads like Choudary have been aided and abetted by a sensationalist press that often conflates the actions of an angry minority with those of the peaceful majority. Islamophobia now seems rife - in the words of one conservative commentator, "prejudice against Islam . . . is Britain's last remaining socially respectable form of bigotry".

"Prejudice against Islam" ~ but Islam is an ideology - a body of instructions and some spiritual content. This is the free world!

In 2008, researchers at Cardiff University revealed that more than two-thirds of the stories about Muslims published in the press since 2000 identified them either as a source of problems or as a threat - culturally, as well as in security terms. More than a quarter of the stories propagated the idea that Islam is dangerous, backward or irrational.

This reminds of when Britney Spears was having her troubles ~ and there was one guy/ fan on Youtube ~ who said LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE !! Sometimes bad press is an indication that there is a need for help ~ some sort of intervention needs to take place. Islam is prime candidate!

This relentlessly negative coverage of Muslims and Islam must end. The liberal left has always defended minorities in this country - be they Jewish, black or gay. Today, it is Muslims who are demonised and bear the brunt of racist attacks. "I try to imagine how I would feel if this rainstorm of headlines substituted the word 'Jew' for 'Muslim'," wrote one leading Jewish commentator, in the wake of the 2006 row over the niqab, or Islamic face veil. "I wouldn't just feel frightened, I would be looking for my passport."

Box of tissue ~ target!

No religion or community is beyond scrutiny. There is a debate to be had about the role of Islam in modern Britain. British Muslims find themselves at, or near, the bottom of various socio-economic indices: poverty, unemployment, literacy and life expectancy. But the American Muslim experience offers hope. Muslims in America are among the nation's brightest and best-adjusted minorities: in a Gallup poll, 41 per cent of American Muslims said they were "thriving". This figure drops to 7 per cent in the UK.

Here's Dalia and her wonder working statistical wand!

Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst Executive Director, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies


In Britain Muslims are at bottom of rung ~ poverty, unemployment, literacy and life expectancy

One just has to look at the UK's immigration policies ~ as soon as the Muslim child is old enough they are put out to marry a family member from the old village ~ many have low levels of education ~ don't have a good grip on the language ~ Muslim girls may often have a higher level of education than the husbands they import ~ and this is the norm.

If the child refuses to go along - with this marriage scheme - then there is heavy coercion, attack and can even result in an honor killing. What is amazing is that this is happening in both America and Canada too. Almost all the honor killings in the US and Canada are related to arranged marriages to relatives overseas that have gone bad. It is just that at the moment no one connecting the dots.

In addition the US has less than 1% Muslim population - with a significant portion of these either first or second generation converts to Islam. Cultural Islam is less of an issue for new converts. Marrying a close relative and honor killings are rarely if ever heard of in the convert community ~ but that could change.

President Obama has appointed the pollster Dalia Mogahed, a veiled Muslim woman, as one of his advisers on inter-faith relations. She acknowledges (on page 32) that, as "corny as it may sound", she is proof of the "American dream". Is America's "melting pot" a better model for the integration of Muslims than Britain's multicultural experiment?

Interesting one Dalia ~ the Gallup Gal ~ as every chance she gets she talks about Shari'a law and how "its misunderstood." Does she see her position as a route to one day implementing Islamic law in some form. She even claims women are treated well under Shari'a ~ mind you that is ~ as it is supposed to be. Here we go again with the Islamic fantasists ~ in the real Islamic world this Islam doesn't exist. But people do! And even Islam is weak in the way of people's will!

Or does secular, democratic India offer a better alternative? That is the argument of Ed Husain (on page 28), the former self-described "Islamist". Acknowledging the way in which many Muslims have been radicalised in recent years, he makes a bold case for reconciling a new form of political Islam with liberal democracy. Husain and Tariq Ramadan (on page 22) remind us that the strength of Islam has always been its ability to adapt to different circumstances and cultures.

It could be that soon the mention of political Islam will frighten people more than the threat of terrorism. Islam in its true form is a political, religious and legal system ~ supposedly scientific but lately it has not been able to conjure up a single workable piece of technology. There is zero in the way of modern technology coming from Islam ~ and as for its original science ~ gotten historians say from the fruits of its conquests. Such as it would be if western society fell to it!

This insistence on political Islam bothers people - because many would prefer if Islam remained in the mosques and did not meddle in politics or the legal system. This is where many are worried because they see an Islamic state developing. One where rules are set by squabbling clerics ~ and not we the people. A theocracy.

If we talk about political Islam then we have to talk about the Koran ~ followed by the Shari'a. It clearly lays out in the Koran that Muslims are to be given priority under the law. Which is the most fundamental contradiction to what we believe in a free society.

Often when Muslims look at western society they have a certain element of disrespect for it. There is no homogeneousness to it. There are no religious police laying down the religious / moral law. People are free to come and go from religions. Women are not tightly controlled. And they view this apparent disorder as being weak. Or ripe for the order of Islam.

But to insert Islam it has to attack the thing that ties this free wheeling thing together. And that is the freedoms that we hold dear - some of these are hard won and hard fought for ~ to attack those - to insert or impose an Islamic order ~ will lead to conflict. Will lead to strong opposition. The west is a hive mind too - but based around freedoms and respect for rights.

What else is worrying about political Islam - is that since it is based on the Koran ~ then it can't take criticism ~ in a way that a normal political ideology would be deciphered. It will expect special religious protection.

Islam was brought to India by the sword - many converted in order to save their lives. Showing that its ~ all encompassing social and legal system ~ is not so easily brought to new areas.

Misunderstanding Muslims can only lead to further tensions and will make civic harmony impossible. This week, the magazine attempts to offer a more nuanced understanding of a range of contentious issues, in particular whether Islam is compatible with the values and principles of western liberal democracy. Meanwhile, British Muslims, alienated, frustrated and under siege, need our support.

Misunderstanding of Muslims ~ it was the Muslims who first introduced the idea of an us and them - by saying that they were a part of an Islamic body or Umma - of which they respected its membership more than being British or other nationality. Just like in the Islamic world it is common to blame the west and Jews for all their social ills - it seems that this is an attempt to blame others for what Muslims need to take responsibility for themselves. What has changed in western society are Muslims.
It is time for Muslims to scrutinise themselves ~ and Islam.