UK Muslims face far-right revenge attacks

I won't go so far as to say the the British Muslims deserve this kind of harassment but I am sure they should have seen this coming from a long way off. Of course, what I know about life in the UK is only what I read in the papers, but I get the impression, which is probably the same impression made on many British people, too, the British Muslims have been having a great deal getting all kinds of benefits and protection from the laws of the land while the British non-Muslims are getting a raw deal. I mean, if there isn't any strong undercurrent of resentment against the British Muslims, what happened, as detailed in the article, simply wouldn't have happened.

I hope it's not too late for our Muslim brethen in the UK to wake up to the situation and start working on reaching out to their non-Muslim neighbors and practice at least one of the teachings of Islam which says that a Muslim's iman is not considered to be complete or in good order if his neighbor goes to bed on an empty stomach. From what I remember, a neighbor is anyone in the 40 houses to the right, 40 houses to the left, 40 houses to the front and 40 houses to the back. And I don't remember learning or reading anywhere that a neighbor must be a Muslim to be counted as a neighbor.

format_quote Originally Posted by Ali Mujahidin

Of course, what I know about life in the UK is only what I read in the papers, but I get the impression, which is probably the same impression made on many British people, too, the British Muslims have been having a great deal getting all kinds of benefits and protection from the laws of the land while the British non-Muslims are getting a raw deal. I mean, if there isn't any strong undercurrent of resentment against the British Muslims, what happened, as detailed in the article, simply wouldn't have happened.

It's best to start from the beginning. From my understanding ethnic communities were often neglected by the government. These communities were often involved in manual labour. However, many still struggled to get jobs due to their accent, background, lack of skills and so on. Therefore, many members of ethnic communities began to open their own businesses due to lack of employment opportunities and family commitments. Still ethnic communities were often ignored which resulted in high unemployment, poor maintenance of street, poor access to job opportunities and so on. This lead to some sort of ghetto culture and gangs. Also there were some British people that disliked foreign looking people and you had minor scuffles.

Eventually these scuffles lead to major riots. This is prior to 9/11. Now after 9/11 the attention was all on Muslims and we all know what happened afterwards.

The government attempted to help ethnic communities through positive discrimination, translated articles, better access to housing and benefits and so on. This was to help communities that were already struggling. When the mainstream media reported this it looked as though ethnic communities were getting a better deal which is not true.

If you speak to some British people you will realise there are actually afraid of ethnic communities. It's different to them and they don't feel comfortable. The feeling is mutual to ethnic communities hence why so many of them become self employed.

format_quote Originally Posted by Ali Mujahidin

I get the impression, which is probably the same impression made on many British people, too, the British Muslims have been having a great deal getting all kinds of benefits and protection from the laws of the land while the British non-Muslims are getting a raw deal.

I think that's an unfair view, they haven't been getting a better deal overall, and in many ways they've had a harder time of it. That's not specifically to do with being Muslim - it's immigration in general. It's not specifically race related either - the biggest immigration in recent years have been from Poland, Romania and other EU accession states.

However, if you have something that makes you stand out visually (by your race or the way you dress) then plainly you are more like to bear the brunt of resentment.

Large scale immigration places strains on any society. How many countries have a clean record on this? The UK has been relatively open to immigration and (up till now) has granted citizenship relatively easily.

Killed soldier Lee Rigby would not have wanted his death used to excuse reprisal attacks, his family have said.

The family's plea came amid reports of a rise in anti-Muslim incidents since the murder in Woolwich last week.
In a statement they added: "We would like to emphasise that Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to carry out attacks against others.
"We would not wish any other families to go through this harrowing experience and appeal to everyone to keep calm and show their respect in a peaceful manner."

Meanwhile, Drummer Rigby's regiment the Royal Fusiliers have issued a notice to veterans and serving soldiers warning them about being associated with far-right groups.
Brig Ian Liles, regimental secretary to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, wrote: "It is wrong and disgraceful that the death of one of our own should be exploited in this manner and that dishonour, by wrongful association, is brought on to the regiment."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22725999

@Independent
@GuestFellow

I imagine both of you are living in the UK so you have a better understanding of what's actually going on at ground zero, so to say. I thank you for illuminating me.

However, there is such a thing as perception of the truth as opposed to the truth. The perception of the truth is more powerful than the truth itself. The truth, like you said, is that the British Muslims are not getting a good deal but if the perception is that they are, then that's the viewpoint that will prevail. I really wish all the best for our Muslim brethen in the UK. However, as in many other places around the world including where I live now, perhaps it's time for our Muslim brethen in the UK to review the situation and seriously consider reaching out to the rest of the community they live in, instead of letting something like Woolwich to happen before they come out with announcements of 'condemnations'. That would be kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

format_quote Originally Posted by Pygoscelis

Maybe the UK should restrict immigration more until they can settle things down and a equilibrium is reached?

I'm no expert on the UK.

Well there are so many statistics making all sorts of claims. We do not know how many people there are living in this country. That's impossible because there are people that sneak into the country. Therefore, these people are not accounted for in the statistics. What we do know is that at one point due to increase employment regulation and decrease in birth rates in the UK lead the companies to recruit overseas. Some businesses prefer to recruit immigrants to avoid employment regulations.

The conservative government made attempts to restrict immigration. From my understanding non-EU immigration has been restricted but restricting EU immigration is very difficult.

The immediate problem is not the population size. It's more to do with perception. The country is facing cuts in social services and people are blaming each other. The mainstream media tends to spice things up. So there is already some sort of hostile atmosphere. With the perception issue you can restrict immigration until there are no more immigrants (which will hurt the economy but that's a different story). However, some British people will continue to view Black/Asian British people as immigrants. This is not going to change anytime soon.

format_quote Originally Posted by Ali Mujahidin

@Independent
@GuestFellow

I imagine both of you are living in the UK so you have a better understanding of what's actually going on at ground zero, so to say. I thank you for illuminating me.

However, there is such a thing as perception of the truth as opposed to the truth. The perception of the truth is more powerful than the truth itself. The truth, like you said, is that the British Muslims are not getting a good deal but if the perception is that they are, then that's the viewpoint that will prevail. I really wish all the best for our Muslim brethen in the UK. However, as in many other places around the world including where I live now, perhaps it's time for our Muslim brethen in the UK to review the situation and seriously consider reaching out to the rest of the community they live in, instead of letting something like Woolwich to happen before they come out with announcements of 'condemnations'. That would be kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Very unlikely that's going to work. If the economy gets better you will have less hostile relations between communities.