As if it wasn't enough....
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
To have the threat of the BNP, we now have the English Defence League (EDL) to worry about. Now that the BNP have gone mainstream- suits, appearances on flagship BBC shows; the EDL have filled the violent, thuggish hole that the BNP have left. For those who don't know much about the EDL, let me fill you in a little bit. "United Peoples of Luton", formed in response to a March 2009 Islamist protest organized by the extremist group Al-Muhajiroun and including members of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah against Royal Anglian Regiment troops returning from Afghanistan. The League states that it opposes only "jihadists", rather than Muslims as people, although members were reported to have chanted "We hate Muslims" at pro-Palestinian demonstrators at counter-demonstrations in London on 13 September 2009. So there is a brief outline of how we got the EDL in our lives.
So the EDL claim to be "anti-Jihadists" rather than Muslim people. But this is such a transparent facade which meagerly trys to mask the underlying racism that fuels the EDL. Recent demonstrations by the EDL up and down the country, have all ended with cases of racial assault, and destruction of Muslim owned shops. So this rubbish about being anti-Jihadist not anti-Muslim, is a load of old bolderdash, and is being used to cover the EDL's real violent aims. They make all these claims about making "our streets safer", but do they say how this would be done? No. From previous experience and interaction with members of the EDL, it would seem that their solution is to ban Islam from the UK, and destroy all Mosques. Aha, yes EDL, this is a a very peaceful movement isn't it?
Obviously, dealing with Jihadism is a very difficult thing within the UK, but just because there have been terrorists attacks from Muslim-affliated groups, doesn't mean we should attack Islam itself. The majority of the UK Muslim population are peaceful people who wish to carry out their lives and religion in peace, and the number of Muslims in favour of Islamification are very small, or even none. In my opinion, I don't think this is even an issue that us non-Muslims really have a great deal of say in. The Muslim community and the Muslim Council of Britain are engaged in the fight to stop young Muslims being goaded into extremism and it is for them to alleviate problems in their community, and it is our job as the non-Muslim population to support them on their cause in whatever way the Muslim Council see fit. We should engage with this community, rather than pushing them away and branding them all "Jihadist", which ultimately is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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