Temperama: New Generation Network Race & Faith Manifesto

I've been slow to engage with the debate sparked by the manifesto to which I'm a signatory. That's been partly because other demands have crowded in this week and partly because those who drew up the document have, rightly, been taking the credit and the lead in defending it against its critics. But that doesn't mean I won't be advancing the manifesto's arguments here and on Comment Is Free from now on or simply highlighting reactions to it - such as this passionate comment inspired by this CiF piece written by Sunny. It's by Freemefromfascists.

"Yes Sunny your ideas are fair and just.
The only issue is that there is a minority of vicious racist islamists infiltrating the UK and we need to tackle these elements for the protection of civil society. I was made aware of this last month on an anectodal level. I had a Somalian cab driver take me home from town from business. He was a very clever guy who had lived in the UK for over a decade. He told me that he had 2 big problems in life. The first was the problem of racism from white (BNP type thugs) that habitually harrassed his wife when shopping in Hayes Middlesex. This was containable, she just went out when kids were at school to do the shopping (as many of the racist white thugs were school agers from the estate they lived in). But the second problem troubled him most, and he felt very depressed and unhappy about this problem. In the past 18 months, 2 of the nearest mosques he attended (Sunni mosques) had got new arab imans. The first started preaching violent hatred towards western society and encouraging jihad amongst young muslim men. He argued against this and was threatened and physically assaulted by the new order of clerics running the mosque. He moved to the second mosque nearest his home near Hayes, Middlesex. This mosque also had a new imam who was an arab. He was even worse, and started to explain in sermons how jews were devils and it was a duty for muslims to, if necessary, kill jewish children. When told that this was against the koran the imam used surahs to back his argument and said that jewish children had no souls are when they died they could not go to heaven. When he argued that this teaching was against Islam as well as against the law a group of the arab iman's followers attacked him viciously and threatened his family if he ever attended the mosque again. This real threat is not made up, I heard this from a pious and decent sunni muslim who felt far more threatened by islamic fascists who are taking over formerly mainstream mosques than racist BNP types. I fear that this man's story represents the tip of the ice berg and I am still wondering about informing the authorities about what may be going on in the mosques near Hayes Middlesex.

Sunny I would like you and the guardian to look into these types of events. Of course there are many events the tabloids pump up just for a story headline and muslims in general have had a torrid time of it in the past year or so since the 7/7 terrorist atrocity. However, there seems to me to be some fire with this smoke. A free social democratic society should not tolerate such evil, and it is apparently a real happening in our muslim community."

Sign the manifesto. Spread the word.

Comments

I have heard stories like this before too and I think it may be happening more and more. We MUST offer our support to Muslims who are living under this kind of threat. Their lot is only going to get worse if the internal oppression is allowed to grow.

Posted by: Noosa Lee | November 24, 2006 at 10:15 AM