Dirty war

Pete

I suggest you withdraw your remark

Spock

As does the comment on the wives & girlfiends thread.

Spock

So the real IRA have all converted to Islam!
Better pop a note Tony and George.

As for the program I thought it struck a good balance between the potential threat from extremists but also showed a muslim police oficer and had a older muslim woman calling the terorist line after seeing suspicious activity.

quote:

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Originally posted by pete8883:
my thoughts are, all terrorists are muslims, but not all muslims are terrorists.

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Pete,

This statement was the crux of a much reported article written by Abdulrahman Al Rashed, the general manager of the Al Arabia satellite network, in the aftermath of the Russian school massacre.

It is helpful that a respected Arab journalist made an exaggerated claim like this, out of his own deep frustration and in order to express his strongly held conviction, as a Muslim, that acts of terrorism cannot be justified by true followers of Islam. It will have been read, noted, discussed and debated by influential Muslim clerics throughout the world.

However, it is generally very unhelpful when such remarks are made by the rest of us and it would be particularly unhelpful if we were to make disgraceful, racist remarks such as "never trust a paki", despite the fact that we also believed that "not all muslims are terrorists".

I myself am a Jew, my family having emigrated to the UK from Eastern Europe around 1900. I have in my life occasionally encountered anti-semitism but the overwhelming impression that I have formed is that we English are, with few exceptions, tolerant and fair - most of the time. I am proud of my country and I am, for what it's worth, a fanatical supporter of our sportsmen, in particular, Beckham, Owen, and co.

So I wonder how I, a third generation Englishman from an immigrant family, would feel if I encountered racist comments of the sort made by you, Pete. I wonder what effect it would have had on my relationship with my country of birth if I had encountered racist comments with anything like the frequency that they are experienced by UK Pakistanis. Would I still feel as English as I do?

Nothing justifies the terrorist attrocities that we have all read about and seen in the last several months and years, both Muslim and non-Muslim. There can be no excuse for these vile acts. Moreover, I am not the kind of person who could perform or orchestrate such acts, under any circumstances and I feel certain that other forum members are the same way.

But what if I was a person who had no love or respect for his fellow men; someone who was incapable of empathising with people of different ethnic groups but was only too capable of acts of extreme violence and deep hatred? In short, someone who could turn to terrorism, as indefensible as it is.

As you know, such people do unfortunately exist.

Do you think that racism helps?

Steve Margolis

quote:

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Originally posted by Spock:
As does the comment on the wives & girlfiends thread.
Spock

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Right on Spock but it'll necer happen. Offensive as I find Pete's remark I think it's wrong to positively discriminate for racism. We're either PC here or we're not. We're not. Mores the pity IMO but that's how it is. I can always go elsewhere. I chose to grit my teeth and stay.

Cheers

Harry

I think HTK is right. I will form my opinions about Pete8883, as will other forum members I am sure, after reading a few of his postings.

My opinion of a person who makes such a comment under the veil of anonymity provided by a forum such as this is that he is somebody I would never trust. There you have it.

We should censure such comments by our feedback, as we are doing here, but it is up to the Moderators of the forum to censor.

Deane

We're either PC here or we're not. We're not.

I am not particularly PC either but I despise racists. Please report any other such remarks to me and apologies to all who were offended and an indication of intent to those who weren't.

quote:

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Originally posted by Adam Meredith:
We're either PC here or we're not. We're not.

I am not particularly PC either but I despise racists. Please report any other such remarks to me and apologies to all who were offended and an indication of intent to those who weren't.

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Well said Sir, Personally nothing offends me, except my reflection on occassion ! but one must think as Mr Parry quite rightly points out that Children do often read these pages too.

G.G.v. Cockneybastard³