Thoughts about UK extremism

A while back I was given a link to a Czech documentary about Muslims in the country titled "I, a Muslim." I have a technical problem watching Google Video, and so it took me a while until I could actually view it. When I did, I was not impressed. The documentary makers sent an informant into mosques in the Czech Republic and supposedly uncovered extremism.

But what did they find?

Material propagandizing Islam in the mosque library? A video showing Shi'ites in some Muslim country practicing self mutilation? The informant brings his atheist girlfriend to the mosque and is surprised she is only allowed to go into the women's section and can't pray with him. I wonder if he would be surprised as well if he went into an Amish service.

The documentary stresses how the Muslim community has grown in the Czech Republic, but to show extremism they have to go elsewhere: bringing videos of Muslim preachers from Muslim countries, interviewing a German Muslim who was forced into a marriage she did not want, and bringing various quotes from the Quran.

At the worse, they show a Muslim preacher comparing the Czech's Republic national hero, Jan Palach, to Muslim suicide bombers.

When I read about a UK documentary that claimed to show extremism in mosques in the UK, I thought it would be more of the same. But "Undercover Mosques" is completely different and I strongly urge everybody to see the video.

The show consists of UK imams preaching and talking, one after the other. You don't need an Islamophobe to stand there and explain things to the non-understanding public. It's all clear, and it's all in very British English.

It brings imams who openly call out for an Islamic state in the UK and who are filled with hate towards the British people around them.

Unlike a Jew who might say he would like to ideally live in a state where Jewish law is practiced, the Muslims who talk about it actually have a choice. They have several countries where Islamic law is the law of the land, each catering to a different brand. Shi'ite or Sunnite, they can live their religious life the way they see fit. The big question is then, if they suffer so much, why do they stay in England?

I suppose the answer is because they enjoy the rights and freedoms offered to them by the democracy they so despise.

You can find here everything that Muslims are being accused of doing, and it's all being said by their religious leaders. Take pedophilia, for example. Anti-Muslim sites bring the story of Muhammad and his 9 year old wife as an example of why Muslims support pedophilia. To me that is no proof. Just because Juliet was longing to marry Romeo at the age of 12 does not mean that that's the current and acceptable standard in Italy today. Societies change and needs change. What was accepted 100, 200 or 1400 years ago is not what's acceptable today.

But here in this show, you see an imam publicly supporting the marriage of an older man to a girl who had not reached puberty and bringing Muhammad as an example of why this is allowed.

There's no need for Islamophobes. The Muslims here do all the work on their own.

See also:UK: Extremism at leading mosques

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe, before the writing advices, would be better to know real life in Czech Republic. From my point of view, the document "I, a muslim", except some parts, was done well. There is not regular mosk in Prague or anywhere else in Czech Republic, and muslims have not big comunity yet. So it's better to find examples of musmlim danger in our living space, than import it from other countries.
I thing, czech people wouldn't belive the real pictures (stories, movies) from British mosks, because is too radical for them (us) and they would think it's propaganda...

Anonymous said...

Muslim store worker refuses smoker cigs

A SMOKER was refused cigarettes at a Cambridge store because the Muslim shop assistant said it was against her religion to sell tobacco.
A 31-year-old woman, who asked not to be identified, was shocked when she attempted to buy a pack of 20 cigarettes at the WH Smith store in Market Street and was turned down.
She said: "I asked for a pack of 20 Lambert & Butler and the woman behind the desk asked me if they were cigarettes.
"When I said they were she told me that it was against her religion to sell them - I couldn't believe my ears.
"I rang up the manager to complain and he said the shop assistant has to ask someone else to serve them for her if a customer wants tobacco.
"If she had just said, I can't serve you, then that would have been fair enough, but the thing that really annoyed me was the way she gave me a lecture as well.
"She started saying she doesn't agree with smoking, that it kills you - I was really gob-smacked."
When contacted by the News, the store's assistant manager, who refused to give her name, said: "It is true that Muslims can't sell cigarettes - I used to be Jehovah's Witness and I wouldn't on religious grounds either."
She said the customer should have realised the shop assistant was a Muslim, and would not sell her tobacco, because she was "sitting there in her full robes".
Asked why the store had someone who would not sell tobacco working behind the till, she said: "It is against the law to discriminate against people on religious grounds".
However, a leading Muslim denied the claim it was against Islam to sell tobacco, and said he had Muslim friends who smoke.
Asim Mumtaz, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in Cambridge, said: "I don't think there is any basis for refusing to sell cigarettes.
"Islam, like most religions, is against anything that injures health or the body, but there is no ban on cigarettes or on smoking.
"The holy Koran is quite specific about intoxicants, alcohol and other drugs which cause a person to lose control are forbidden, but cigarettes are not forbidden so I am surprised by this."
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/01/19/7dd90b31-3b22-4e90-83d9-ecd7f428dcdf.lpf

Esther said...

anonymous,

I'm voicing my opinion, and it's not more than my opinion.

I do not expect a show to show more than what is really happening.

"I, a Muslim" claimed to show extremism in Czech mosques, but I did not see much of it, if at all. The only thing that I could find extremist was comparing Palach to suicide bombers. Instead of coming out and saying that suicide bombers are unacceptable, the imam was saying that "the Czechs would do the same".

You say that it's better to find examples of Muslim danger in our living area. I agree. But in general, I felt that "I, a Muslim" did not bring facts about the Czech Muslim community and that they were not really showing what's happening there. Instead they showed the situation in other countries and came out with scary statistics just based on their informant's opinion (Muslims have 7 kids each? Where?)

I fully agree that the Muslim community in the Czech Republic is not as extremist as that of the UK, according to these two shows.

If you look at both shows, the UK version, though it contained much more shocking revelations, was much more "PC". The narrarator is constantly talking about the "generally peaceful" Muslim religion. That is something I didn't see in "I, a Muslim."