The Gray Monk

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February 10, 2006

A moderate voice at last!

I watched the Clive James late night chat show last night with mounting hope that, at long last, the trend to pander to the sensibilities of a fanatical few among the Muslim community could be at, at least, the beginning of the end. My only question is; why was the discussion and the young lady around whom the interview centred, shown so late at night? This should be shown and repeated often on daytime and on prime time broadcasts!

The young woman, and I regret that I do not have her name, was passionate, Muslim, and vehemently opposed to the demonstrations last week, the radicalisation of her faith and - absolutely fabulously - opposed to the Police's "softly, softly", handling of it! As she pointed out to the other members of the panel - both politicians from major parties - had it been BNP demonstrators, the police would not have held off "for fear of provoking a riot", they would have waded in and caused one! Frankly she outclassed both the politicians who were back footed and had to accept that she was not only right, but far more representative of the majority of Muslims in this country than those one normally hears and sees in the papers and on TV. Commenting on the hysteria surrounding the publication of the now infamous cartoons, she pointed out that these had been published in Cairo a month after they appeared in Jyllands-Posten and had created almost no comment - then, three radical Imams from Denmark made a trip to the Middle East and evidently spoke to people she called "Radicalist Islamic Godfathers". Within weeks, all hell had broken loose, something she vehemently decried!

It was refreshing, to say the least, to hear such a passionately put case from someone who is quite definitely moderate and believes in practicing her faith, dealing with the conflicts in a modern world. I think both politicians were taken aback by her saying bluntly that the disaffected young Muslim men who run about shouting anti-Western, and particularly anti-British, slogans should be told to go and live in any of the countries they consider so much better for Muslims. As she said, they don't know what they are talking about, but if they are so sure they want to live in countries where poverty is institutional - send them on their way!

I sincerely hope that this young lady gets the support she deserves from the rest of the moderate Muslim community. She made a lot of sense and showed incredible bravery by coming on the show and speaking out as she did. The fact that she was not wearing a Hijab and was modestly dressed in smart casual and distinctly "Western" clothing, is probably more than enough to get her onto the radicals hit list. The fact that she has spoken out against them, is more than enough for one of these idiots to try putting out a Fatwah. Let us hope that our police are, for once, alert to this and take steps to deal firmly and quickly with anyone who even thinks about it!

Her argument needs to be widely heard and it needs to be debated at every level of our society. She made the telling point that the UK is at least twenty years ahead of the rest of Europe and - her words - centuries ahead of the the Muslim world. Anyone who wants to destroy that is a fool.

Her final arguments were all directed at the government and the police, as she made an impassioned plea to them to stop treating Muslims as somehow "different" and needing "special consideration". She argued that this is only stirring up even more hatred among the likes of the BNP and encouraging the radicals among her community who think they are untouchable. She made a very firm plea, and both politicians could only nod sagely as they listened, for Muslim radicals and troublemakers to be treated in exactly the same way as would any white or Christian radical or troublemaker.

It was really refreshing to hear someone from the Muslim community speaking out so forcefully againt the radicalisation of her faith. Let us hope that the government and the Muslim Community, now swings behind her and deals with the radicals. They have no place in our society.

Posted by The Gray Monk at February 10, 2006 10:46 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Mark Holland at February 10, 2006 06:04 PM

Posted by: The Gray Monk at February 13, 2006 07:20 PM

Posted by: alan wilson at March 18, 2006 01:47 AM