Is it time we asked British Muslims what they want?

Obviously this is not a blog aimed at gaining any kind of popularity. It seems to me that any kind of reason is subject to being pounced upon by 'interest groups' who have an agenda. And that includes gay rights, animal stuff, 'pro life', assisted dying, global warming, Palestine, Israel; all sorts of stuff in which a reasonable, measured viewpoint is trashed by people who have an agenda.

These people are not prepared to consider issues put forward for rational consideration and debate, but are more likely to 'go for the throat' of anyone who has a different view. They try to stifle debate using terms like 'bigot', 'racist', 'hypocrite' when actually these terms describe themselves more accurately than they do their opponents. Such as me.

For the record (just so you can't threaten me until I make my point here) I am pro Gay marriage, anti vivisection, pro choice, think a life is the property of the individual not the self obsessed 'do gooders', pro Israel's right to defend itself against religious nutters. I'm also pro family, pro peace and especially, pro the generosity and tolerance of people towards each other. My 'dream, such as it is, is that we recognise that we are one species and should have the intelligence to be able to live together, peacefully, tolerantly and generously.

We're a very long way from that at the moment.

So, given that 'we are where we are', and we face a serious existential threat from Islamic extremists who seem to be hell-bent on some kind of take-over of the world, I wonder whether we should now recognise that we have, at least potentially, an 'enemy within' in the UK?

You might think that 5% of the UK population being Muslim is not a threat, yet. On the other hand you might think that an inexorably growing Muslim population could be a concern. And as usual those who shout loudest, even if they're a minority, seem to gain more traction and their views seem to become more represented politically than the vast majority of people who don't necessarily share the viewpoint.

Shout louder, even if your views are not those of the majority, and you win.

And generally speaking Brits are slow to rile, tolerant, loathe to 'make a fuss'. We have always accepted incomers, welcomed them, been generous to them.

It seems to me that this time it's a bit different. It seems to me that this time some people are using our tolerance against us. Taking advantage of us.

If one lives in the UK one accepts the laws of the land, benefits from our fair laws, our schools, our welfare system the opportunities we afford all of our citizens. Freedoms, almost, although I would argue about that perhaps.

It's not perfect by any means; there is one CCTV camera for every 11 people in our country. Our politicians take the piss in terms of allowances. There is a massive disconnect between 'us' and the people who supposedly work for us.

But.

I think it's time that we asked 5% of our society about their views on life and the future. There is a lot of talk about 'extremist' Muslims in the Middle East. About this Islamist Caliphate. The Qu'ran states that Islam 'must' be expanded through conflict and war. That non believers are less than human and therefore deserve to die.

There is also much being said about 'moderate Muslims' who supposedly disagree with that philosophy. But, frankly, not much evidence of that being true.

I think it's time that we asked our so-called 'Moderate Muslims' what they believe in. And why they are not standing up against the atrocities being perpetrated in their name. I think it's time we engaged with their 'cultural' views that seem to have lead to young white girls being considered 'trash', to be exploited. That is not a British 'thing' and yet these people claim to be British. Is that because they buy-in to our culture or just our benefits system and healthcare? Someone has to ask that question - it might as well be me.

Unless they are prepared to stand up against issues like Sharia law in the UK, they are part of the problem, not the solution. Unless they are prepared to accept the views, values and (secular) beliefs of their host nation, we should send them home.

Wherever that is.

Thanks for reading.

 

At last some "Red Lines' on EU renegotiations

At last! (Link)

OK it's Boris, but nonetheless at last someone whose political career might just conceivably be ahead of him is talking about the UK's membership of the EU and what we would need to renegotiate if we were to remain committed to being 'in'.

Actually it's not what we'd need to renegotiate, but what we'd need to get back from Brussels in terms of powers, for us to remain in favour of the European project. That is a game-changer, potentially.

And I cannot believe that Dave didn't know about what Boris was going to say. It's been trailed for weeks and comes just a couple of days after Boris has thrown his hat back into the ring as a Tory candidate. I may want this to be true and am therefore reading more into it than I should, but it seems to me, on the face of it, that the Tories might just be coming round to thinking about life outside of the EU.

I have blogged endlessly (you might think - if so, sorry) about our need to get out of this anti-democratic, controlling, (national) socialist, unaccountable organisation of total idiots whose actions are killing opportunity and democracy in Europe for 'ordinary' people. I am of the firm belief that this is the biggest issue we face today:  Forget about UK party politics, they will be irrelevant in a few short years if we stay in because most of the laws by which we live will be decided in Brussels.

So Boris' statement is manna from heaven for me.

You see the thing is that Dave has 'chuntered' about the EU, talking about 'issues' and 'problems' but he is pro-EU to his core - or at least he has been until now. But if we really wanted to change the EU we could. We are the EU's biggest customer. Bigger than the US. We are the second or third (depending on when you measure it) biggest net contributor to the EU. Without us the EU almost certainly fails and quite quickly. So we are in a very strong position despite the sneering muppets that we regularly see in the European Parliament denouncing UK scepticism.

We could, if we wanted to, light a major fire under these idiots and bring them to heel, but we don't, often because Dave has signed up to Common Purpose (google it) and all that. But this changes everything imo.

Boris is essentially setting out the terms under which we will remain in the EU. The 'Red Lines' of my title. If they don't accept this position then we're out.

And if that is the case, then we're out. Why? One singular reason. The French will never accept reform of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) which enables it to continue its feudal subsistence farming system. It simply cannot afford to do so. It's an economic basket case as it is.

If this sticks, if what Boris is saying (with Dave's tacit approval) this is a real game-changer.

God I hope so, it's been a very long time coming.

Thanks for reading.

Moving on

Sorry to harp on about Israel and Gaza and all that, but it's important to all of us.

One way or another.

It seems to me that what's happening here is that the idiots are simply refusing to be left behind. We all remember the idiot kids in school who were forever fighting, bullying, playing the fool. Doing anything they could to disrupt proceedings in order to disguise the fact that they were, essentially, idiots.

And then we left school, moved away from these cretins and entered into life, got jobs, got married, had kids of our own, essentially we moved into another phase of our lives and forgot about the idiots since they were no longer relevent to us. We were now more mature and didn't mix with them and they were irrelevent anyway.

And by now they were asking us if we wanted fries with that, on the bins or in prison. And we were doing OK. Struggling, by design, working two day's a week for the government and, if we weren't careful, two further day's a week for the banks who had lured us into debt and interest payments via cheap credit but at least we had one day's income to feed and clothe ourselves.

Living the dream, standing on our own two feet, aspirational.

Relatively free, in our minds at least, the reality bears some further consideration. (another time perhaps).

Certainly free from religious doctrine and imperatives as was the case in our relatively recent history. We could (can) choose what we spend our meagre money on, wear what we want to, go where we want to, listen to what we want to, believe what we want to (or are told by our Main Stream Media (MSM) perhaps.

It's quite fragile but it works in many ways and, generally speaking, we're happy with the situation we find ourselves in.

And then, every few years, the idiots we thought we'd discarded, those we thought we'd moved on from, come back to haunt us. People who are jealous of our 'normal lives', people who want to disrupt our way of living and who want to impose their control over what we think and do.  Even though we don't want them to.

They're called Islamic extremists and they 'live' (although that's something of a lose way of describing it) in the Middle East and in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And they have not moved on into real life. They are stuck in the bullying disruption phase. They want to impose their will over us and they make convenient use of the sky fairy (religion) in order to justify their actions. They are, quite simply, the idiots we have moved on from.

And Israel is our front line agianst them. If Israel fails then we're next. Think about that the next time you take Hamas' side in this ludicrous conflict.

Thanks for reading

Talks?

If one is entering into 'talks' with someone who wants you to be destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth, killed, slaughtered. Your kids eliminated, your women raped and killed, what exactly are you talking about? Where is the common ground? Where is the compromise?

I hate seeing Palestinian kids, women, old people being killed, I feel for them. I really do.

But Hamas is the cause of all of this. There is no basis for 'talks'. There is no basis for reason. These people are beyond the pail. They cannot be trusted. They need to be taken out, permanently. Israel is a civilised, democratic country that has been reduced to its current thuggery by its opponents. There's no 'Queensberry Rules' when one is dealing with Islamic extremists.

Israel is not fighting a state but a belief system being used to exploit its own people: a pseudo religious idology that is man-made (as all religions are of course) and which is being used to justify a complete subversion of any kind of human decency, kindness or good will.

For political and financial reasons. This is our front line in a global battle for our 'Western' freedoms (such as they are) against a return to the dark ages in terms of laws, religion and control.

It is a 'clear and present' danger to all of us. And it is also tragic for real people on both sides. But don't lose sight of the reality of this situation. Our enemies are not as squeemish or as decent as we are.

Thanks for reading.

You won't like this, but it's true nonetheless

People are, quite rightly, outraged about Israeli forces killing women and children in Gaza. Israel is using disproportionate force in this conflict and killing innocent civilians along the way. 'The way' being to protect its very existence against forces which would, if they had the competence and ability, be doing exactly the same thing to Israeli women and children.

So there's really no difference in terms of the morality of the two sides, just a difference in competence. That's quite an important thing to note when you are considering which side is in the right here. Neither is really.

On the face of it, neither side is anywhere near being 'in the right'. 'Disproportionate force is a big issue for many people. Hamas is firing rockets into Israel, but Israel's Iron Dome is rendering them largely ineffective, whereas Israel's forces and arms are killing people. The motivation, on both sides is the same - exactly the same (kill the enemy, although Israel's is a defensive stance not the agressor) - but the capability is different. And many people are basing their opinion on this conflict not on motivation or degree of evil, but on capability.

Would Hamas hesitate to kill Iraeli children if it could? I don't think so.

So soak up the emotive images, and it is a truly tragic situation I agree, but don't base your judgement on the emotive stuff. This is a war. Disproportionate? So was Dresden, so was Hiroshima, it was done for the greater good and the longer term stability of the world.

My own view - and this will be highly unpopular - is that you cannot negotiate with Islam. It's very tennet of purpose is not compromise but victory. It seeks to impose its values and views on the world. It would take us back to the Middle Ages in terms of values, women's rights (non-existent) and laws.

It is not just Israel that is at war with Islam, it is all of us, in a modern, western, free society, who are at war with Islam.  It is not the religion of peace. It is the religion of hatred and oppression. There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. There may be passive Muslims, but their belief system is Sharia law, a take-over of our liberal views. Our freedom of speech and life.

It's time we stopped pussy-footing around with these people on the basis of trying not to offend them, and asked them what they want. What they believe, how they see the future of our society. If the answer is not in line with our own, we should act to defend our values.  And not carry on in the way we are, in order to be 'nice'.

Israel is doing us a favour and it is one that we will have to have the balls to do ourselves before much longer in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.