London mayor: Muslims demonized like Jews

The mayor of London said Muslims are demonized like Jews were in the past.

“Over recent weeks we have seen a demonization of Muslims only comparable to the demonization of Jews from the end of the 19th century,” Ken Livingstone said Monday.

He referred to recent comments from British Home Secretary Jack Straw questioning whether it’s appropriate for Muslim women to wear full veils in public.

Livingstone’s comments were made in connection with today’s launch of a coalition comprised of legislators, unions, campaign groups and Muslim groups to confront Islamophobia in Britain.

http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=5670

Questioning whether it is appropriate for Muslim women to wear full veils in public is comparable to the plight of the Jews in the 19th century? Is this a joke?

I Dun Get It

Keltoi said:

Questioning whether it is appropriate for Muslim women to wear full veils in public is comparable to the plight of the Jews in the 19th century? Is this a joke?

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Muslims actually get abused because of what the media portrays about us. The jew situation took steps, and the concentration camps never just happened within one day - but it was a gradual change. And Allaah Almighty knows best.



Peace.

Keltoi said:

Questioning whether it is appropriate for Muslim women to wear full veils in public is comparable to the plight of the Jews in the 19th century? Is this a joke?

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To answer you, let us take a close look at the original post:

The mayor of London said Muslims are demonized like Jews were in the past.

“Over recent weeks we have seen a demonization of Muslims only comparable to the demonization of Jews from the end of the 19th century,” Ken Livingstone said Monday.

He referred to recent comments from British Home Secretary Jack Straw questioning whether it’s appropriate for Muslim women to wear full veils in public.

Livingstone’s comments were made in connection with today’s launch of a coalition comprised of legislators, unions, campaign groups and Muslim groups to confront Islamophobia in Britain.

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Begining in the late 1800's there was a slow continuous destruction of the few rights jews had. The out right viciousness did not occur over night. It took a few years. In the late 1800's Jews had essentialy the same rights of other citizens. Yes, there was blatant prejudice and bigotry, but had not yet become solidified in law.

As we rolled into the 2oth century what was bigotry by individuals was becoming national law. Restrictions of religious rights, forced to live in Ghettos, By the late 1920s required to wear labels pointing them out as Jews. From there it progeressed rapidly.

It is true we have not yet reached the level of intolerance shown to the Jews by the 1930s. But, we see restrictions and bigotry opening up the probability that we may soon face the same fate.

Mayor Livingstone is a Jew, right?

north_malaysian said:

Mayor Livingstone is a Jew, right?

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No. He's not a Jew.

Lets just hope more people recognise this and stop the islamaphobia

Salaam oe alaikoem,

Well it's true wat he have said. That is something muslims in the Netherlands starting to say know. First nobody looked at the mulisms. They maby didn't even know what muslims are. But now with the time, they look more and more to muslims. Muslims did that and they do that and so on. They talk about terrorism, but there isn;t any. Just look to Iraq.
Look to the palestinian people. They are fighting for their freedom, for their children, for their country, but O no !! they are Terrorists. The Jews are victims and muslims are the bad guys.

Last week i told them at school that I don't have trust in this situation now. That I feel that we or at least or children will be in a real war.

Allah ie hfad....

But that is how I feel. So I agree with the idea that muslims are demonized like Jews were in the past. If we aren;t then we will be...

Wa alaikoem salaam

Abdulwaheed said:

Lets just hope more people recognise this and stop the islamaphobia

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I don't think there is a good chance of stopping Islamophobia as long as there is a war going on between some Muslims and the UK government. In other words, as long as many (British) Muslims see the UK as their enemy and vise versa.

Good onya' Mayor Livingstone.

The media has a responsibility.

So far, it is not living up to it.

SirZubair said:

Good onya' Mayor Livingstone.

The media has a responsibility.

So far, it is not living up to it.

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I disagree. The media are just the messenger in this. Lets not blame the media for these hostilities between many Muslims and many Westerners. There are real and serious issues which are causing this rift.

Besides, I think kaffirophobia is a much bigger threat .

Did you know, the government is the one who actually controls what goes on in the media. I havn't yet seen one proper muslim documentary which shows the true teachings of islamic monotheism etc. yet theres so much on at prime time such as muslim homosexuals, or women not going to masjids.


Why is that? It's because if they show the true faith of islaam (of worshipping the Creator, Allaah Alone etc.) many people will start agreeing with islaam, or start leaning towards it. They don't want that, they just want the prejudice to increase, and the government can laugh at what's going on, the same way the governments never did nothing about the jews until everything was over.


Many people say that we can learn from the past, but if it's an advantage for themselves - they not going to stop that evil are they?

Fi_Sabilillah said:

Did you know, the government is the one who actually controls what goes on in the media. I havn't yet seen one proper muslim documentary which shows the true teachings of islamic monotheism etc. yet theres so much on at prime time such as muslim homosexuals, or women not going to masjids.


Why is that? It's because if they show the true faith of islaam (of worshipping the Creator, Allaah Alone etc.) many people will start agreeing with islaam, or start leaning towards it. They don't want that, they just want the prejudice to increase, and the government can laugh at what's going on, the same way the governments never did nothing about the jews until everything was over.


Many people say that we can learn from the past, but if it's an advantage for themselves - they not going to stop that evil are they?

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Exactly. Nuff Said.

Fi_Sabilillah said:

Did you know, the government is the one who actually controls what goes on in the media. I havn't yet seen one proper muslim documentary which shows the true teachings of islamic monotheism etc. yet theres so much on at prime time such as muslim homosexuals, or women not going to masjids.

Why is that?

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Because thats what these non-Muslims think is important.

It's because if they show the true faith of islaam (of worshipping the Creator, Allaah Alone etc.) many people will start agreeing with islaam, or start leaning towards it. They don't want that, they just want the prejudice to increase, and the government can laugh at what's going on, the same way the governments never did nothing about the jews until everything was over.

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Complete nonsense in my opinion . Why do you think journalists would be any different from the rest of the people? Journalists are just as much a product of the society in which they are born as the rest of the people. They write and talk about the issues that shock them and interest them, not on what interests Muslims.

Unfortunately for you, many aspects of Islam scare them, because the UK is highly secular. I can assure you that many people who do bother to have a detailed look into Islam are not always pleased with what they see. You can see the same with many non-Muslims on this forum, not many are being convinced IMHO.

I think the lack of pro-Islamic programming has to do with the lack of Muslims working in the media. Get to it, people!

KAding said:

I disagree. The media are just the messenger in this.

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A messenger that picks and chooses which facts to relay, resulting in a distorted picture.

Lets not blame the media for these hostilities between many Muslims and many Westerners. There are real and serious issues which are causing this rift.

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That is true. And the media (along with a host of other issues, including some Muslims and some racist skinheads) are one of them.

KAding said:

Because thats what these non-Muslims think is important.

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So you mean that it's more important for the public to realise that there are homosexual muslims living in the uk, or the fact that islaam doesn't promote these terrorism acts?

Complete nonsense in my opinion . Why do you think journalists would be any different from the rest of the people? Journalists are just as much a product of the society in which they are born as the rest of the people. They write and talk about the issues that shock them and interest them, not on what interests Muslims.

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Muslims are the public too, somehow their media doesn't seem to come up on tv. There are muslim journalists too.

Unfortunately for you, many aspects of Islam scare them, because the UK is highly secular. I can assure you that many people who do bother to have a detailed look into Islam are not always pleased with what they see. You can see the same with many non-Muslims on this forum, not many are being convinced IMHO.

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Knowing that there is one God who should be worshipped is scary? How come that's not scary for the christians? There are alot of christians within the uk, and alot of people [no matter what faith they belong to] who actually believe in a God or 'Higher authority.'


Most of these people hate islaam because they don't see it's true side, why? Because the media portrays that and even members of the government (i.e. Jack straw) do a good job of it. If you ask any guy walking in the street if they know about what islaam is, they won't know that its to worship the Creator, Allaah, but instead, they'll just think its a religion of terror, why? Because of the media. The media won't allow that stuff to show up because they want to portray it as an evil religion, and their succeeding in that.

They'll use anything (even if its something as harmless as a piece of cloth) to attack islaam.





Peace.

Muezzin said:

That is true. And the media (along with a host of other issues, including some Muslims and some racist skinheads) are one of them.

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Agreed. Just like these people:



Both sides have their extremists who are causing this rift. But again, these extremists are just symptomps of real underlying issues. Issues concerning international conflict, terrorism, crime and religion vs. secularism.

In my opinion it comes down to money. A newspaper will sell more copies with the headline "Muslim women barred from Masjid" than "Muslims unite peacefully to worship one God." I don't think the media really cares about much else.

I think the problem is not just for Muslilms. Headlines like "US gives X dollars to improvished country" are not as catchy "US troops brutally murder X Iraqis" and therefore not as common or talked about.