A Racist By Any Other Name

[shaved_ape]

To tie in with the anniversary of 9/11 racist groups (organising on Facebook) have called a protest outside the central Mosque in Harrow. Groups such as 'Stop Islamisation Of Europe,' 'The England Defence League' and 'Casuals United' (rent-a-thug football hooligans) are backing the protest. They claim not to be racist as 'Islam is a religion, not a

Comments

[shaved_ape]

Having just re-read what I wrote, apologies for all the typing errors! It was almost 3am my time when I wrote the last comment and I was a bit an auto-pilot. That may be why the language was a bit disjointed, I was typing as I thought with little regard for formal English!

Anyway... I totally agree. I would appose any "religious incursion into governance" be it Christian, Muslim, Mormon or scientologist. I support the right for every person to be free to worship whatever they want, but equally I am for the right NOT to worship.
The people I am demonstrating against are using the language of someone fighting religious incursion (more into their sense of 'English i.e. white culture' than governance) but there is no incursion taking place - its just a cover for their racism.
The fact that they have chosen the anniversary of 9/11 to stage their 'protest' is just another level of inflammatory nastiness.

As a minor point I think it is worth distinguishing between religion and the individuals who practice it. I agree that there are few comparable sources of persecution in the world than religion, Christianity and Islam being two of the worst offenders, but this is often different from an individual person who may have religious beliefs. Sure some religious individuals are responsible for pesecuting others, but most probably arent. All of that aside, Im not going to the demonstration to "stand up for" any religion - Im going to stand up for a minority group in my society who are coming under attack from racist bigots. The only reason why the religious aspect has been mentioned is because this is the battleground the racists have chosen for their attack. They could have chosen a gay bar to attack homosexuals, a Carribean cafe, a community centre or any number of other targets - I would still be there.