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| Britain | |||
| Veil row 'could trigger riots' | |||
| 2006-10-22 | |||
THE row in Britain over Muslim women wearing veils could trigger riots and worse, the country's race relations watchdog chief warned today. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said the divisions exposed in the debate that his dominated British media for more than two weeks risked sparking "fire" on the streets.
"All the recent evidence shows that we are, as a society, becoming more socially polarised by race and faith," Phillips wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper. "The only place where this may not be true is in our schools and the main reason is that in many of our cities things cannot get any worse." He called for a "civilised" debate on race.
Jack Straw, the leader of parliament's House of Commons and a former foreign secretary, sparked renewed debate when he disclosed that he asked Muslim women to remove their veils when they came to consult him in his constituency. Straw represents the industrial northwestern English town of Blackburn, which has a large Muslim minority of South Asian origin. Phillips criticised Muslims who had lambasted Straw. "The so-called Muslim leaders who initially attacked Straw were wrong," he wrote. "They were overly defensive and need to accept that in a diverse society we should be free to make polite requests of this kind." He warned the veil debate was becoming dangerously polarised. "On one side of the trenches we have those who want a fully fledged auto-da-fe (burning of a heretic) against British Muslims in which anything any Muslim does or says must be condemned as a signal of their willful alienation and separation. "On the other hand the defensiveness of some in the Muslim communities has hardened into a sensitivity that turns the most neutral of comments into yet another act of persecution. "This is not what anyone intended and it is the last thing Britain needs."
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| Posted by:tipper |
| #12 I think it will all depend on whether or not the Dems take the house. If the Dems take the house expect anti-semitism to escalate. Expect multicultural clotted jibberish to be presented as intelligent fact. Expect complaints of immigration issues to be dismissed as racist xenophobia. The logic for some is that the Senate is going to take the house, so it's a good thing if the House goes Dem cause the Senate will keep the crazy stuff from passing. The problem is that the House Dems will give rise to endless discussions about impeachment, 911 conspiracy, Israeli oppression, palestinian plight, bleah, bleah, bleah and it will stall the work that urgently needs to be done for the next four years happens to protect us. If the Dems lose, they won't be able to get their "will of the people" wagon in gear. The Dems are wanna be Europeans. So don't be surprised when they help bring Europes problems to us here at home. |
| Posted by: anon 2006-10-22 21:30 |
| #11 There are many people here that believe that 9/11 was somehow our fault. I've personally met people who espouse such tommyrot. It is the root of self-loathing anti-Americanism and a millstone around the neck of our War on Terrorism. I'm really glad you enjoyed Fjordman's article, JohnQC. Anything the man writes is worth reading at least once. It truly pains me to concur with you that our nation will probably have to suffer something far worse than another 9-11 before the populus wakes up. We must immediately ban both burqa and veil to begin winnowing out those who refuse to assimilate. Much harsher measures will probably be needed to catch those who will cheerfully doff them in the name of taqqiya. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-22 21:15 |
| #10 Zenster, I read Fjordman "Suggestions for Solutions" with great interest. I think he is right on target. I am skeptical that America will wake up to the danger and do anything about it before another 9/11 occurs or we lose a city to a jihadist nuke. There are many people here that believe that 9/11 was somehow our fault. How they came to this conclusion beats me. We have too many people that are concerned about PC, multiculturalism, being liked, diversity, ignoring illegal immigration, spending hard-earned dollars on the UN and providing aid to less than supportive or "enemy" governments. It seems to me the left wing in this country would like to see America defeated. We have a main stream media that seizes upon everything that is counter to America and keeps up the drum beat continuously, e.g. Guantanamo, Afghan prison torture (?), terrorists rights, murder by Marines, etc. ad nauseum. The press tends to be arrogant elitists that truly believe they know what is best for everyone else. If a hostile press, the left, and the PC adherents can be defeated, then there might be a chance to implement what Fjordman recommends. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2006-10-22 20:45 |
| #9 #8 If we are to survive the onslaught of Muslim infiltration... If we are to survive the onslaught of Muslim infiltration, we need to stop the influx of Muslims, and start deporting the ones that are here. |
| Posted by: NoBeards 2006-10-22 17:55 |
| #8 For once and all, Islam must be saddled with its rightful label of Abject Gender Apartheid (hat tip VDH). Even without the horrors of terrorism, Islam's institutionalized abuse of women alone would still discredit it anyway. Churchill's comparison of how Islam treats women and the practice of slavery is absolutely spot on. As Fjordman proposes in his typically excellent article, "Suggestions for Solutions": But above all, we should use the time to make the West Islam-unfriendly and implement a policy for the containment of Dar al-Islam.If Britain has any sense, it will ban both the burqa and the veil so as to gradually institute policies that are unfriendly to Muslims. As Fjordman notes about writer Raymond Kraft's observations: The Islamic movement “has turned the civility of the United States and Europe into a weapon and turned it against us. It has weaponized niceness, it has weaponized compassion, it has weaponized the fundamental decency of Western Civilization. We have become too civilized to defeat our enemies, perhaps too civilized to survive.”If we are to survive the onslaught of Muslim infiltration, a fine starting point is to begin weeding out all of the extremists who cannot possibly tolerate the least adjustment or integration with host cultures. Banning the burqa and veil are a perfect way of enforcing such integration. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-22 15:16 |
| #7 Oh hell, some people just cannot take a joke. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2006-10-22 14:19 |
| #6 Let them riot, then shoot them. Rioting is a small act of rebellion, saying that if the rioters don't get their way, they will smash, burn, and destroy the property of others. This is not "free speech" but terrorism. It should be treated as such. Shoot them. Shoot as many as you can find. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-10-22 14:15 |
| #5 This guy, Trevor Phillips, is a prime example of the ever thinning bloodlines of the British upper crust. The only person named Trevor in recent memory with any detectable hint of testosterone is Trevor Hoffman. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-10-22 13:54 |
| #4 Riots? Let them try. It'll be a test of Britain's dhimmitude. I hope, for all our sakes, Britain passes the test |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2006-10-22 13:13 |
| #3 Let them riot. Deport the illegals and jail the rest. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-10-22 13:03 |
| #2 The British gov't. should make it illegal to wear a veil in public. This would define the issue. Any street distrubances should be met with overwhelming force to declare that this is not to be tolertaed. Statements by this prick merely energize the Muzzies. |
| Posted by: SpecOp35 2006-10-22 12:49 |
| #1 Gosh, wouldn't that be, like y'know, illegal 'n stuff? |
| Posted by: .com 2006-10-22 12:33 |