What did your speech on radicalisation this week actually mean to someone like me?
Despite being born in Manchester, growing up here and being a proud Mancunian (let’s overlook my support for Liverpool FC), for the first time in 37 years I feel as though I don’t belong. And yes, I am Muslim. Just a British Muslim.
I used to hear the term “Muslim community” and think of a peaceful hard-working community who settled in the UK to create a better future for generations to come. Now I hear that and it paints a picture of a misunderstood, frightened community under attack and feeling the need to continually apologise and defend its religious beliefs.
There have been many responses to your speech, and some well-researched analyses. But I need you to listen to someone like me. I need to have confidence that the person shaping my children’s future has an understanding of the impact of legislation imposed by you and your government. [2495 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 935 votes] If you are appearing Westernised, you should have no problems. It is the "men only" mosques, women compelled to hide their faces, children not allowed to mix with non-Muslims, and the impression some Muslims give of despising Western culture, while freely enjoying its benefits. There is also the issue of forced marriages, and the fact that places in the Koran talk about killing infidels. These are some of the factors which lead us to fear Islam.
We do not claim the west is blameless, but we do not see a large part of the Muslim world trying to be members of our society. In fact many of them seem to want to create the sort of culture their families came here to escape.
[2ND 816] So you can speak out against a speech which denounces the violent tendencies within some in your religion, but did you (or even do you) speak out against those very same violent tendencies when outrages are carried out in the Prophet's name?
[3RD 712] Ok so 38 non-Muslim British Tourists were killed the other week for the crime of being British and non-Muslim. But according to your shameful article you are the victim ? Utterly disgusting.
[4TH 697] The Guardian prints lots of these articles - British people of the Islamic faith moaning
I am more than happy to supply an article listing my issues with Islam. I wouldn't charge the Guardian a penny. If they are obliged to make a payment, it could go to Help for Heroes.
They have my email address. I eagerly await their request
[5TH 649] Are you from Palestine or Iraq? Why should their fate concern you any more than any other British person? I don't care more about white people or atheists in foreign countries than any other particular human being, why do you care about Muslims more than others?
Britain doesn't have 12 different foreign policies for each section of its population it has one foreign policy. You have the right to disagree with it but it should not be a marker of your British identity. What an earth is needed to be explained to your two boys that isn't needed to be explain to any two boys in the country.
[6TH 586] Actually the more I read that particular passage the angrier I get. Should a British Prime Minister come round and explain to every white Christian child in the land why our government bombed Christian Serbs because they are white and Christian? What would you like him to explain to your boys? That actually it has bugger all to do with your religion and that their Mum is acting the victim for some reason, that their Mum cares more about strangers in a land she has never visited than the fate of the UK's soldiers?
I think the Iraq war was a colossal mistake and that Blair and Bush are criminals but that has nothing to do with my religion or lack of it.
[7TH 537] 'Actions of a few.'
How long will you keep willfully deluding yourself and pumping out this propaganda? It is not just a few, 1/3rd of young Muslims in this country believe those that switch religion from Islam should be executed and close to half had sympathy for the London bombers.
It is not just the few. Radicalisation and danger is rife within the Muslim community. The only time we hear from self proclaimed moderates like yourself is when someone criticises Islam, as opposed to when Islam attacks someone else.
Sick of it. Islam and the modern world are incompatible.
[8TH 459] That bit struck me the most too.
It suggests that even in the most moderate households, the fate of fellow Muslims around the World is a reason for discontent and bitterness towards Governments who weren't even in power at the time. So, really she means the West!
The writer doesn't want to let her children watch the news in case they are exposed to some islamophobia in the reporting of the Islamist attrocities, not that their fellow countrymen might be the targets of the terrorism. But the fates of fellow Muslims from many years ago is a concern she has about explaining it to her children at some future date! [Guardian Cif] Read more
