becca333
Posts: 1050
Joined: 4/11/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyEllen A press release from a hitherto unknown neo-nazi group was delivered simultaneously this morning to the British Home Office, Scotland Yard and the headquarters of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, warning that it planned reprisals directly targeting Muslims should terrorist attacks continue. The release, said to have been issued by a group calling itself GB88, mentioned specific threats against Mosques in all parts of Britain, and vowed to “level” undisclosed targets during Friday prayers should its demands for an immediate halt to attacks in the UK and against British forces overseas not be met. The statement is also believed to have called for the internment of all Muslims in Great Britain within the next month and in the meantime for them to be placed under house arrest, pending what it ominously described as “processing”. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Fortunately, the above “news story” is totally fictional. So why did I bother to write it and post it? Well, I’m pretty much sure it will get a lot of attention, and maybe quite a few comments too. But mainly, my point was to ask the question as to whether the radical elements of Islam have shot the religion to which they claim to belong, squarely in the foot? The way I see it, many of us in the west had a lot of sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. Many of us had a lot of sympathy for the Iraqis under Saddam, and many more strongly disagreed with the strategic blunder that was the invasion and is the occupation. Yet I wonder how much sympathy we can maintain, when it is not those responsible who suffer radical Islamic reprisals but we the innocent ordinary people? The “news story” I wrote is meant to turn the situation around, by way of innocent ordinary Muslims becoming the target for reprisals by our own hot heads. Do we see the similarities between my fictional neo-nazis and the radical Islamics or do we choose sides? Do we in some way sympathise with the nazi threats or even support them as “getting our own back” whilst condemning the Islamic radicals, or reject the hatred and violence of both sides? And, do we give any consideration to the antagonism and injustices felt by either side as not so much a justification, but an explanation for their words and actions? E If this were true the Muslim extremists would celebrate - it'd give them a lot more angry young muslims to politicise. The terrorist question isn't an easy one, and I don't know the answer, but we need to look at what's going on from the right perspective before we can begin to find a solution. When we see the bombings - London, Bali, World Trade Centre, and so on - places or people in the West are the targets of the bombs. But we are not the target audience. Islam is going through great changes, the majority of muslims are, or would like to be, moderate. Many are moving towards the West, or making changes in their form of Islam to cope with today's world. This is incredibly threatening to the extremists, and they respond as so many other extremists have over time - demonise a group to blame (the way Nazis picked the jews. Well, the way practically everyone picked the jews at some stage in history), and get back to 'the good old days'. Pol Pot drove his nation back a century or more, and killed millions. The KKK, strange religious sects living in bunkers in mountains, all fundamentalists are pretty much the same. They are desperate for the power to control their group, and to bring the rest of their particular sect back under strict control - as did the Taliban. Fundamentalist muslim terrorists have killed countless thousands, tens of thousands, and more. And the majority of the victims have been other muslims. Moderates. To force others back under stricter control. Bombs in the West aren't designed to take us over, or force any particular changes here. Whatever we do, they'll use. The target audience are other muslims. It's to get brownie points - "Look at us, how powerful we are, we're winners! We're teaching the hated enemy! Now do what we say." If our response is to be stricter, it'll cause resentment among innocent muslims in the West, and make a fertile ground for more converts. If we try to be nice and understanding about it all, it'll be seen as weakness. I have no idea of the way to go from here, we need to find a way to free the moderates and tone the extremists down, remove their power base, whatever. But we must not see ALL muslims as one huge, consolidated enemy. Because if that's how we treat them, they will be.
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