Thursday, 14 April 2011
Change
I was talking to my friend Asher sometime last week, and he made the point that perhaps part of the reason that British people can be so racist and intolerant (in response to my blogs about Islamophobia) is that we just don't like change. Whether it's biological or not I don't know, but there's something in us all that just loves routine and security. We're monogamous (most of us anyway!), we all strive for the nuclear family and a nice house, car and well paying job. (I am aware that not all people do but due to the nature of this blog I'm going to have to generalise to your average, stereotypical Brit). Everyone tends to relish knowing that while they've still got their 9 - 5 job and cushy lifestyle, everything is in it's proper place. It's not that people are just out to hate others - it's just that people try to do the best with what they've got and this includes the prioritising of having a place in society, and if anything threatens that (for example immigrants setting up their own businesses or wearing clothes specific to their culture or insisting that people be tolerant to their religious beliefs), this can envoke hostility from your typical Brit. For example, I was reading a recent debate on the ITV news Facebook page about "banning the burqa", and one of the debate-ees (that's not a word I know) made the bloody brilliant point that if Mulims ask for ANYTHING in this country, they get the same response "GET BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY YOU FUKIN PAKI", regardless of whether the Muslim in question is from another country or not. Anyway, Asher's point was that people hate change and anything that threatens their place in society but to be honest, I am still of the opinion that a lot of people are just vile racists, call me narrow minded for refusing to see the bigger picture but I just don't have it in me to sit and justify this behaviour by saving that these people may feel threatened.
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2 comments:
There are seriously strong arguements for banning the burqa/niqab, however the EDL somewhat ignore the important arguements, such as gender inequality and lack of freedom of identity, and focus instead on the rather crude arguement of "their not being British". Whatever that means.
The problem I have with the EDL, and the BNP for that matter, is largely their ignorance of facts. I can accept their distaste for specifically ugly parts of Islam, such as the existence of the Burqa, and its support for the death of all non-muslims, but when they fail to acknowledge similar virtues in Christianity, it disgruntles me.
It is a fool who does not accept there are economic implications to immigration, but there are also social ones. The trouble is, those social implications used to be the introduction of fascinating and vibrant new cultures to a rather drab Britain, but they are now racist and ignorant englishmen who think that the only economic implications are that they no longer can get a job.
I think that what these people campaigning against a religious law don't realise is that Britain is the only country other than Iran that actually employs religious figures to make major decisions in government matters, maybe we should make the whole government secular and not just anti-Islam.
I wouldn't be surpriseed if the EDL aren't Christian but they don't seem to mind that we have bishops in the house of lords.
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