Debating Islam4UK
Well, this is a smart PR move. Islam4UK (wonderful use of text speak there, especially given this is an Islamic fundamentalist group) won't carry out their controversial plans for a march if Gordon Brown debates with them. It's a smart move as it has got lots of media attention for what is the very definition of a tiny group. Yet there is no way that Brown can debate these people. Here's the reason why:
Islam4UK seeks the introduction of sharia law in Britain and has links to Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammed who has been banned from entering Britain. The group's website gave no indication of when the march would take place.Make no mistake about it, this is a fundamentalist group. If Brown debates them, then he is debating extremists. As soon as he has done that, then he is open to the charge that he is being elitist and almost racist against white people by not debating say, oh, I don't know... the BNP. Or the moronic EDL. As soon as he debates Islam4UK, then he's got to debate every extremist who comes along with a plan for a faintly upsetting march. And there is no way that Brown - a man who hates any sort of situation where it isn't him talking and others listening - would ever let that happen.
Of course, I'd argue that he should debate Islam4UK and every other group who wants to talk to him. Not on the TV necessarily, but as the Prime Minister of a democracy who must hold views that are worth defending (especially against religious fundamentalists), it would be nice if he actually engaged with his people. Rather than hiding in 10 Downing Street like a mole with agoraphobia.
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 9:39 am
2 Comments
2 Comments:
This really infuriates me; if these people who are part of Islam4UK want to raise awareness of their cause, that being that they want Sharia Law in Britain, then let them bugger off to an islamic country. If they don't like our western values and don't want to live as we do, then sod off! It's very simple.
Saying you don't approve of someones values or way of living, when you have been living in that particular country, is like going round to somebody else's home, enjoying their hospitality, then insulting their furniture or wallpaper. It is just very rude and you don't do it.
There is an old saying, when in Rome live as the Romans' do. As I say, if these people don't like our western values and democracy, then bugger off to Pakistan or some other islamic country.
Or "if you like Russia so much, why don't you piss off and live there?"
Sorry, I don't really agree with you. We are a liberal democracy where people should be free to live and spout whatever views they like, no matter how controversial. Then, those who don't agree can use that liberal society to critique what the fundamentalists are saying.
Brown is simply defaulting to what has, unfortunately, become the standard position in this country: "I don't like what you are saying, so therefore I'm not going to listen." Whereas the response should be "I don't like what you are saying, so I'm going to listen to what you say, and then tear it apart in a debate with you." Now that would be democracy in action...
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