I'm not racist but
A marvelous example of stupidity in the guardian recently- a story about a now unused methodist church being used by Muslims as a mosque, and the opposition from the community. They feature an example of protest from Caroline, who says, "I'm not racist but I don't think they should have given it permission. It will lead to more Muslims coming to live here and we'll end up like Blackburn." Caroline will be voting BNP this election. Now I know everyone is very familiar with the "I'm not racist but," tactic, but how stupid do you have to be to think that not wanting more Muslims to come to the area... isn't racist.It is somewhat baffling, and somewhat depressing, that people still exist who hold these views.
posted by Mr K @ 3:18 pm
3 Comments:
Probably because Islam isn't a race doh
Besides which, we all have preferences with who we prefer to live with, this is how communities are formed after all with groups of people who sound similar, have interests in common with each other and to yes to a degree look like each other. If this wasn't the case we'd all be smal groups of nomads wandering aimlessly through the hills and valleys of europe - oh wait!
Of course with you being so PC I'm sure you would welcome with open arms a high security prison in your neighbourhood or perhaps a social housing estate full of chavs or perhaps you would have both
Here is something even more depressing, my child and five other classmates spent the morning "colouring in" in a Glasgow primary school because the rest of the class had no English and had to have an ESL teacher come to take them out.
Sometimes you can have just too much enrichment for your own good.
Sorry to depress you further, I'll be voting BNP with my two Scottish votes.
Hmm, nationalist you are of course correct that Islam is not a race, so I suppose discrimating against people of a particular faith is not technically racism. However, it does not of course make it right.
You make it sound reasonable that we all have preferences of who we like to live with, indeed we do. We all have our groups we choose to socialise with, but I wouldn't try and keep a group out of an area because I didn't want to socialise with them. Besides, I don't think believing in Islam is a reasonable thing to discriminate against someone for. Sure, if they hold unreasonable beliefs along with that faith, then of course it might be different, but as long as they respect British law then I see no reason to keep any particular person out of an area.
I also rather think comparing a mosque to a high security prison or a social housing estate is a somewhat unfair comparison. In this case the area in question has a large Muslim population- there is a demand for this place of worship..
Christa... well that is somewhat of a different issue to what I was writing about. Obviously this is probably a fault with the schooling system, and the distribution of immigration- obviously if there are many immigrants with few english skills coming into an area at once, this could put a stretch on the schools in the area to cope. This is certainly something that needs to be tackled if it's a real issue, and maybe isn't, I just don't think the BNP have the answers.
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