MY TWO PENNETH WORTH

Ages ago - before I could do THIS - I wrote in admiration of Baroness Warsi who seems to have upset a lot of people lately by branding Brits Islamophiobic bigots.

She said :

"Indeed, it seems to me that Islamophobia has now crossed the threshold of middle class respectability.
For far too many people, Islamophobia is seen as a legitimate – even commendable – thing. You could even say that Islamophobia has now passed the dinner-table-test.
The drip feeding of fear fuels a rising tide of prejudice. So when people get on the tube and see a bearded Muslim, they think “terrorist” …when they hear “Halal” they think “that sounds like contaminated food”…and when they walk past a woman wearing a veil, they think automatically “that woman’s oppressed”. And what’s particularly worrying is that this can lead down the slippery slope to violence.
We need to think harder about the language we use. And we should be careful about language around religious “moderates”. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. It’s not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of “moderate” Muslims leads: In the factory, where they’ve just hired a Muslim worker, the boss says to his employees: “not to worry, he’s only fairly Muslim”. In the school, the kids say “the family next door are Muslim but they’re not too bad”. And in the road, as a woman walks past wearing a Burkha, the passers-by think: “that woman’s either oppressed or making a political statement”.


I don't recall any of the above fears and prejudices in the UK until Bush and Bliar waged war for oil in the Middle East. The guilt at anti-Muslim feeling should be laid squarely at their feet.

Their war - that still entangles us - brought with it a wave of asylum seekers from war torn countries with vastly different cultures. They came too many and too fast to the UK. It caused insecurity, fear and conflict in big and small communities - some of which changed more in a decade than in half a century.

Unrestricted EU migration compounded the problem and the anger that began to build bit by bit.

Anyone who complained like Gillian Duffy were branded as racists. That's when rage came because the British people are, by nature, a tolerant people and they feel misjudged.

I don't believe that the British white or otherwise cause racism as Warsi suggests. Those who believe in Islam and integrate with white, Black or Asian neighbours are not seen as an enemy. I find people mostly wary of those that the Govt has told us to be wary of.

And then there are those who add insult to injury and bring the Muslim community down with them like Shaykh Asrar Rashid.:

"A RADICAL cleric sparked fury ­yesterday by branding the Queen a “disgusting woman” and slamming British Muslims who join the Army.
Ranting Shaykh Asrar Rashid also suggested white people were the main cause of racism.
The controversial imam, who preaches in mosques in Birmingham, told radio listeners the Queen was a ­“disgusting woman because she knighted Salman Rushdie”."

There's simply only so much people can take. To some of us(relatively) white British, his comments about Her Maj are shocking and akin to saying something blasphemous about Mohammed.

I do believe there is a fear of Muslim culture among Brits which is provoked by people like Rashid who use Islam for their own medieval purposes. Baroness Warsi and the wider Muslim community must find a way of bringing these people under control because British patience is simply wearing thin with it all.

I'm encouraged by this response to his appalling comments though :

A spokesman for the Muslim ­Council of Britain said Rashid’s comments on the Queen were “disrespectful” and “disgusting”.
He added: “As Muslims we are ready to show respect to leaders.
“We may disagree with some of the things she might do and say but that does not give us the right to be insulting to her.
“Theologically speaking, there is nothing that prevents a Muslim joining the British Army. To date there are 350 serving Muslim officers, men and women, in the Army.”


Those of us who are British despite our colour, ethnicity, background, or religion, are in this war together. We are not Islamophobic - we are Fundamentaphobic. We generally hate extremism of any kind no matter what the issue. We respect other cultures and simply ask for the same respect and consideration.

We don't take kindly to insults to our head of state, or our forces when our children are being killed in the same war that is killing Muslims as well - the one that we all agree we didn't want.
.
It's time we were out of Iraq and Afghanistan and the radical nutters who bite the hands that save them here should be kicked out of the UK - but we should never smear all Muslims with their bile. They don't all hate us nor want to force their culture upon us and Brits should be free to resist if a clash of cultures causes us to go against our own rules, laws and moral boundaries.

BRITAIN'S POLITICAL SHAME

This is the first chance I've had all day to write up my thoughts on the Question Time programme last night. I didn't want to use a photo of Nick Griffin because, quite simply, I'm sick of the sight of his face after seeing it all week plastered over every newspaper and TV screen. Baroness Warsi is much more attractive, and for me, the best speaker last night.

She is sharp and witty and she has an incisive mind. She'd also done her homework and it was certainly news to me that so many Asian people stood by our side during two world wars. I guess the more educated amongst you probably already knew.

I felt Griffin was set up but then the BBC was never going to make it easy for him. Within minutes I was cringing and squirming in my seat. Car crash TV without a doubt and strangely compelling. I honestly turned on the telly with an open mind to watch and I had no preconceptions. I wanted to hear what he had to say and I wanted to believe that he wasn't really racist. He talked crap, not very intelligently, and his comment that "The Klu Klux Clan is a fine organisation" was all I needed to hear to persuade me that the new BNP is much the same as the old one. Only one of his policies seemed to make sense and that was to keep the Olympics in Athens - their place of origin. I've never understood why, when we are so skint as a country, that we are ploughing so much wasteful money into the 2012 event. Why should it matter if it's held here or not? I understand some houses have been demolished to make room for this - and I'm guessing they are mostly white working/underclass who have been moved on. The Londoners among you can probably put me right on this but I'd be interested to know.

Certainly if the games were held in Athens, then China's residents wouldn't have been kicked out of their homes to make way for the event there last year. Anyway, I digress slightly.

The BNP is, unfortunately, gaining the support of mostly white underclass who politicians have ignored and, let's be honest, a lot of bloggers have slagged off. They feel excluded and discriminated against and they see Griffin as the only person who cares about their rights and their plight. Labour is more to blame for the shameless way the party has halted social mobility for these people effectively trapping them without hope of escape - ever.

When one of these families - very much in the minority - has a Baby P case, the majority are tarred with the same brush and knee-jerk reactionary laws are made against them. They are told they are bad parents, they are benefit cheats, and that they are the scum of the earth. Chavs. One such chav, who gave a three year old child a cigarette to smoke, was debated the week before on QT. One person in the audience said it was a good job he had been found out because it would probably end up as another baby P case. This was an asumption based on two things - he smoked and he was a chav. That's why this class of people is so angry and see hope in a scumbag like Griffin. They have no one else. Politicians don't even knock on their doors at election time. They don't think they are worth the effort of reaching.

The BNP can be beaten but we need our main stream politicians to get their heads out of their arses, for want of a better phrase. When I look at the likes of Peter Hain, I just know that won't happen. He doesn't want to make anyhting right. He just wants to condemn, continue to condemn, and say "because I don't like it, you can't do it." Sorry Peter, if you want dignity to return to our people then I suggest you stop looking down your nose at those less fortunate then yourself who you clearly despise.

My initial reaction was that Griffin was such an idiot that he would lose votes and his EU seat. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case. The news this evening was reporting how people stopped him in the street to shake his hand and how there has been a surge in support for the BNP.

We need more than ever for our main stream politicians to show us they have some talent, some compassion, and they are prepared to listen to make changes that people want.

I know the smoking ban is leading some people to the BNP. By just amending this, a lot of those disaffected and disenfranchised smokers would return to their old parties. There is no reason why they should at present. I would say that voters who have been turned away from their traditinal voting habits because of the smoking ban should vote UKIP. That is a party of hope. It isn't racist. It does knock on the doors of the underclass, the lords, ethnic peoples, and the empirical Britons. It is a party for all and our best hope of squeezing the BNP out.

I am glad Griffin was on, however, because I felt it was time we had the racism debate - a taboo subject for too long - and I felt the air had been cleared. Politcians need to take a very serious look at what is happening in the political process. It isn't about their own personal careers - take note Mr Camoron with your all women shortlist of favourites and the pets you are flying into safe seats - it is about the service they should be giving the British people. Our British people and not Griffin's "British" people. I'm not sure he even knows himself what he means.

Labour MP Diane Abbott hit the nail on the head when she said on This Week - after Question Time - that when Mandleson, Brown, and Blair created New Labour to attract the middle class vote, they were warned it could lose them their core vote. Mandy said these core suporters had no where else to go and so it didn't matter that the Party had abandoned them. Well, Mr Mandleson, are you listening and are you watching? They have found somewhere else to go. This is yet another example of the grave damage you and your party have done to the UK. I hope that you are proud of yourselves. I am sure that when we the voters kick you out, the last place you will want to live is in this hellhole you have helped to create.