Muslims, Islam and violence.
Now before anyone goes off half-cocked and starts accusing me of racism and the like, this has NOTHING whatsoever to do with ANYONE'S colour or nationality, this is purely about religious beliefs.
I'm getting somewhat confused and more than a little worried over the reaction of several, several thousands followers of the Muslim faith to these cartoons published in the Danish press.
Over the past few years, pretty much since 9/11, I've listened to reasoned debate and believed the Muslim spokepeople when they've said that Muslims are on the whole an understanding and moderate group of people.
So why burn the Danish consulate then?
Why walk the streets of London with placards announcing "Slay the non-believers" and "Kill the offenders of the Prophet"?
As usual, 'spokepersons' and 'religious leaders' have doen their thing of distancing themselves from all this and saying that it's an extremist minority, but I'm finding that increasingly hard to believe.
The estimated 15,000 that burnt the Danish consulate and then went on to storm the Norwegian consulate and just generally smash it up don't seem like much of a minority to me... and I'm ALWAYS wary of anyone who chooses to hide his face whilst demonstrating in this country... why hide your face unless you've either got something to hide or fancy breaking the law?
As I see it, the problem we have is that if we make any moves to curb this behaviour, the LAW will be branded as anti-Muslim, and then we've got real problems...
It seems that there is an increasinly large number of Muslims who fancy having a go at anyone who so much as questions the faith... but surely any faith worth it's salt can stand up to a bit of questioning?
And as for ridiculing the Prophet, well, that's the way fo the world now. The Christian faith has had Jesus and God made the butt of jokes for YEARS, in fact just about any religion I can think of has been made the subject of some joke or other, yet you don't see their followers running off to set fire to flags and torch an embassy or two.
Perhaps the Muslim faith is open to too much interpretation, or perhaps, as I suspect more, the various religious leaders have done an appallingly bad job at curbing and controlling the so-called 'extremists'?
We're always hearing about how we should be a TOLERANT multi-cultural, multi-racial society, and I have absolutely NO problem with that at all, to be perfectly honest I don't regard colour as an issue, I couldn't care less what colour someone is... And as for different religions, me being about as religious as a brick means I'm perfectly happy with whatever faith you are... I simply don't care.
But when your faith dictates that the 'un-Godly' shall be killed, then I have a MAJOR problem, with you and your faith.
I mean, come on, get a grip. I think it's time to gain some perspective on this cartoon issue. It's just a few cartoons. A tolerant, balanced religion would either just ignore it or perhaps demand and expect an apology... and they'd probably get it too.
I think that those who say they are the Muslim religious leaders all across the world need to get a serious grip on their followers... they're out of control and very, very dangerous. Appearing on TV and distancing yourself from the violence, saying that most Muslims are peaceful is just not good enough. 15,000 rioters isn't an extremist minority... that's the activist section of a major religion.
FOOTNOTE:
I've just heard on the news about a Muslim girl fighting her school to allow her to wear the full Muslim clothing that completely covers her up. The school made some consessions to allow the girl to be covered up in line with her religion but she's decided that's not good enough and wants to go the whole way.
The school has won the case in county court but being told 'No' isn't stopping this girl, who is taking her case to the High Court.
So let me get this straight: In a country that actively preaches tolerance and integration of varying cultures, a follower of a religion that claims to have few extremists is, despite having concessions made in her favour, now taking her school to court at the taxpayers expense so she can wear what she wants?
Sorry, if I was the judge my answer would be a firm 'No'. If the school is good enough for her to choose it to learn in, if our education and health system is good enough for her to take advantage of AND considering the school has already made concessions in its uniform policy EXPRESSLY for her, then she can either give a bit herself or find a school that will allow her to not budge an inch.
It's pretty simple, both sides to to exercise a bit of 'give'... This country will NEVER be a peaceful place to live unless we ALL practise a bit of tolerance.