There is some very interesting news out of the United Kingdom from Cathy Newman, a news reader on Channel 4 News. The Muslim Council of Britain does this thing called #VisitMyMosque day. It is an effort for the general public to come and meet Muslims and see that they are just like everyone else. It reminds me of that reality television show a few years back, All-American Muslim. It was canceled, apparently because — What a surprise! — the Muslims were just as boring as everyone else. There was no bomb building going on or grampa shouting about Zionist dogs. I’ve never been inside a mosque, but I suspect that it is very much like the inside of a Catholic church — except with more floor space.
But not all British mosques wanted to invite the general public in, because they didn’t want people to see them building bombs. I’m kidding! My assumption would be that having your mosque descended upon by the public would create various problems and might get in the way of the worshippers — if you have a very busy mosque. Based upon The Muslim Council of Britain’s website, 23 mosques participated in the event. It’s all very sweet if you ask me; I like to see this with all groups. And let’s be frank: most Christian faiths are not that keen on this unless your interest is in joining the faith.
And that brings us to Cathy Newman. She wanted to go check out #VisitMyMosque day. I think her instincts were good. But prejudice runs deep in all of us, regardless of how we fight it. Apparently, she showed up to the South London Islamic Centre. She did her best to be respectful by covering her head and wearing no shoes. The problem was that the South London Islamic Centre was not taking part in #VisitMyMosque day. So a man at the Centre apparently directed her to a nearby mosque that was taking part. But Newman did not perceive the interact this way.
She took to twitter to complain. First, she tweeted, “Well I just visited Streatham mosque for #VisitMyMosque day and was surprised to find myself ushered out of the door…” The South London Islamic Centre is located in Streatham, so that must be what she was referring to. Then she tweeted, “I was respectfully dressed, head covering and no shoes but a man ushered me back onto the street. I said I was there for #VisitMyMosque mf.” And finally, “But it made no difference.”
Later, Huffington Post UK got its hands on security video at the mosque and found that her take on it was mistaken. She came in, a man talked to her, she left. No one ushered her out. In fact, it seems she even understood the situation because she later found her way to Hyderi Islamic Centre, which was taking part in #VisitMyMosque day. She even tweeted it out:
Had wonderful warm welcome – not to mention tea and cake at @HyderiCentre #VisitMyMosque
— Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) February 1, 2015
In the end, Newman apologized, was clearly embarrassed, and that’s that. But it just goes to show how our biases affect us even when we are doing everything we can to reach out and be understanding. I’m assuming the best about Cathy Newman, of course. Maybe she just wanted to make a little news. But I suspect it was all a misunderstanding. She is this pasty white woman with an upper class pasty white life. Being spoken to by a swarthy working class man who wasn’t a taxi driver was probably threatening to her. It’s important to remember that England has a class system that is almost as rigid as we have here in the United States. The take away from this is not that Muslims and non-Muslims need to spend more time together. It is that we need to destroy our class systems. But the pasty white people with their upper class pasty white lives are not likely to see that as an acceptable solution to the many problems that plague our societies.
The one time I visited a mosque, it was with a small group from a college religion course, and we were given instructions for women about how to tie scarves around their heads. When we got there, the women were told it wasn’t necessary. “If God wants you to do like we do,” one female worshipper told the women, “he’ll let you know.”
Of course there are more conservative mosques, too, just like in any churches of any faith. But even discrediting these is a silly thing to do. We can dislike what they believe, yet there is simply no evidence whatsoever that this or that style of religion “leads” anyone to antisocial acts. Rather, people who are trending towards emphasizing their own vengeful natures (which all humans possess) will seek out the group associations which fit them best. My father, for example, was raised in a very liberal Catholic tradition, and sought out more mean-spirited churches as his economic prospects failed and he wanted someone/something to blame.
Putting it another way . . . is Fox News offensive? Yes. Did Fox News create the modern American far-right? No. The American left created the rise of the American far-right, by abandoning economic justice policies. You could ban Fox News and talk radio tomorrow; it’d make people angrier and more fearful. You have to address the conditions that led to people seeking out these things.
I’m finishing a fascinating book, “The Muslims Are Coming!” by Arun Kundnani, and he makes the case that this is exactly what we’re missing in our domestic attempts to curb “Islamic radicalization.” America and European “moderates” are essentially trying to support “moderate” Muslim organizations (in clear violation of the US Constitution, as though that matters), and in doing so make frustrated individuals more frustrated. If you are a Muslim upset with US foreign policy, you can be targeted for surveillance by joining a mosque or college organization that talks too much about Palestinian suffering.
When you take political redress of wrongs off the table, you drive people to an angry and fearful place. Who does this help? Even the vast majority of alienated right-wingers who never shoot up an IRS office or alienated Muslims who never shoot up a newspaper office aren’t living happy lives.
Here’s a great quote (p. 199). “According to official theories of radicalization, an atmosphere in which political opposition to US imperialism cannot be freely expressed by Muslims helps prevent terrorism. But in reality, the more those angry at foreign policy see their community paralyzed by fear and reluctant to express itself openly, the more likely it becomes that some will end up supporting terrorism. A strong, active, and confident Muslim community enjoying its civil rights to the full and able to engage young people on issues they feel strongly about is the best way of preventing violence.”
Essentially, most people caught up in these culture wars are screaming, “I want a good job and opportunity for my kids!” While the people fanning them are screaming, “we’re not taking those away from you — THEY are.” And liberal “moderates” are attempting to douse the flames with lighter fluid.
That’s a great quote. As far as I can tell, the greatest threat of home grown terrorism is the FBI. Almost every terror plot that is “broken up” was one that never would have existed without an agent provocateur. And this is just the modern form of thought crime. Imagine if the FBI spent that many resources working up conservative groups.
As for Israel-Palestine, I’m really to the point of being very angry. It’s not the conflict. It is the way that in the United States, respectable people are just not allowed to criticize Israel because it is thought to be antisemitic. At the same time, there are gobs of Christian conservatives who appear to love Israel more than America. And that is just because they think the Jews must control the holy land for the end times to begin. And that’s when the “Christian lovers of the Jews” do their switch and start killing the infidels.
Kundnani mentions some of those FBI entrapments in his book; they’re horrible. In one case the “informant” told one “terrorist” he’d get a liver transplant for his dying brother if he carried out the “attack” (totally the FBI’s idea, the “terrorists” wanted no part of it) and another guy he’d have his head cut off if he didn’t do the deed!
I mean, clearly there are times when dirty underhanded sneaky spy stuff is justifiable to stop bad guys, so long as it’s legal and violates no-one’s civil rights. Also clearly, our intelligence services are doing illegal stuff all over the place, violating civil rights left and right, and they STILL couldn’t catch Boris Badanoff with a smoking bomb in his hand. I suppose it’s doubtful the KGB or Stasi were any better; they probably made up bad guys to pump their bust numbers, too.
Much of the information that has come out about Cold War spying has shown that it was indeed pathetic. All the FBI is doing is creating criminals because there really are no jihadists in the US. The ones so inclined go over seas where actual wars are being fought. This is such an evil thing. FBI bureaucrats destroy the lives of innocent people so that they can look good on paper. The same is true, but at a much lower level, of cops arresting people for minor “crimes.” A guy goes to jail for a decade for cannabis possession and the cop gets a few more points toward his next pay grade. It’s no wonder police think of the rest of us as animals. There’s no other way they could sleep at night.