Fear that Western countries are undergoing a process of 'Islamisation' was the main motivation of Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. But it can also be seen in Melanie Phillips' columns in the Daily Mail, in bestselling books, and on the placards of the EDL. It also happens to be nonsensical.
It really shouldn't be necessary to make the argument that Britain is not in the process of Islamic takeover, but sadly, it is. Seeing diminutive football hooligan (Luton Town, tragic) and self-appointed leader of the EDL "Tommy Robinson" spreading his poison on Newsnight without challenge led me to have a quick look for writing on the subject backed up by evidence, rather than the prejudices of a former BNP candidate .
I didn't have to look long. I've attached the pdf of Debunking the Islamisation Myth by Edmund Standing. There are things to disagree with in his political perspective, but that's by the by, as the essay is a very clear demolition of the Islamisation argument.
Attachments
IslamisationMyth.pdf
(334.75 KB)
Comments
This guy's a jerkoff.
This guy's a jerkoff.
Apparently he wants to debunk this racist myth not because it contributes to hatred of muslims but because "it turns all criticism of islam into islamophobia". He's just your typical atheist looking for an excuse to insult, demean, and belittle arabic muslims under the BS guise of "criticism". He then claims that muslim integration is an issue, and doesn't even consider that he might be wrong.
This whole thing seems like a gleeful retort to the imaginary islamic extremist strawpeople living inside his head. He talks about the miserable conditions in the islamic world, the racist and sensationalist media, and the horrendous conditions of british muslims - but instead of even IMPLYING we should do something about it, he metaphorically dances in glee that it is so. His priveleged arrogance is dripping off the pages as he talks about how utterly powerless muslims are.
Oh, and in typical liberal fashion, he equates any discontent with the status quo as meaningless whining. This guy says this as he sits atop an ivory tower, utterly deaf to the problems of the modern world because he's middle class. My eyes rolled out my head when he said "well, not all discontent is utterly baseless , globalization might have some losers".
Yep. Losers. The upper class white guy is calling the victims of imperialism "losers".
For christ's sake, his conclusion is not "racist, chauvinistic bigotry is wrong" its "OI OI ALL HAIL BRITANNIA FOK U MUSLAMICS". He calls muslims, throughout the paper, "religious fascists" while pretending to stand on the side of antiracism. This is someone debunking a racist belief with another racist belief. This guy's worst than EDL because he has deluded himself into thinking these are acceptable views and can propagate and normalize them more easily.
If the BNP didn't have such a PR problem, this guy would vote for them in a heartbeat.
Presumably you're referring
Presumably you're referring to the attached pdf?
NannerNannerNannerNannerNanne
That's a stretch. Here's the introduction:
Seems pretty obvious he wants to debunk it because it contributes to racism in society. I'm not sure what you mean by "arabic muslims" - he's writing about Britain and most Muslims here are of Bangladeshi or Pakistani descent.
Where "religious fanatics" are mentioned it looks pretty clear that he's talking about Islamists. He also doesn't call Muslims "religious fascists" throughout, he's referring to Islamism. This is clear enough from the context. I don't think Islamism is fascism but it's pretty clearly a reactionary ideology that needs to be rejected and I'm not going to lose sleep over Islamists being called names.
The main problem is that he's a liberal and a nationalist, but that's not surprising, and as the original blog post says the pamphlet is valuable for it's collation of factual information, not it's politics.
BTW, I doubt the guy would vote for the BNP given he's written a (liberal) anti-fascist study about them.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Thanks for bringing this up. When talking to EDL-influenced waverers (I live in Tower Hamlets), the ridiculous Tabloid stories might help. But there's not a hell of a lot of useful material here beyond that, unfortunately, because of his approach to the issue (right-"libertarian"), and unreliable sources.
To paraphrase: "Don't worry what your EDL mate says, white Britons will remain more powerful because they make better choices. Muslims'll all get rickets and congenital disorders." "Well, Islamic extremists may have captured our local council, but this area is such a dump that it doesn't matter what happens here." Both are based on a power-serving view on poverty that people on this site know to be wrong, and that the "target audience" will naturally reject. And the bit about the IFE's maneuvering in Tower Hamlets is not backed up by good evidence. Neither is it much of a surprise that Muslims are not doing well economically. The EDL's rants don't really rely on this. That leaves only the newspaper clips.
The thing is, who are we speaking to and why? The idea that an Islamic theocratic state could be imposed in the UK is so bonkers that I think most of us could cope, in any debate! For a wider discussion about immigration a few more facts are useful, along with the libertarian socialist outlook. Luckily, people worried about these issues usually find this outlook pretty attractive. They can see that it is less hypocritical and explains poverty and social breakdown better than the EDL or the mainstream, unless they are just being belligerent for the sake of it, I find.