Racism against Muslims

"A rant!? Surely you jest!" I hear you say. Well you smarmy git I have been extremely busy over the past few months failing my University exams so screw you. To everyone else, hello I hope you're having a nice day as I know I have and will over the next few days.

Down to business then and this is a problem that I only realised the extent of very recently. Some of you may have heard about the "Draw Muhammed Day" (apologies if that isn't the correct spelling) which I believe started out on Facebook and then extended itself to Youtube via a few users such as Thunderf00t and TheAmazingAtheist. The purpose of this day, which has now passed, was to make a stand against the attitudes of the Middle-East regarding the depiction of their prophet Muhammed in an episode of South Park and others. They weren't too happy with this and the networks were too scared of extremist retaliation to actually put the depiction on the air. This was seen by many as a breech of freedom of expression and now racists are seeing this as further "evidence" of the apparently ever-growing middle-eastern influences on the West. Many people participated in "Draw Muhammed Day" and as a result of this event, the Pakistani government has blocked Facebook for the remainder of May. It was particularly encouraged by popular youtube user Thunderf00t, who now has gained a reputation as being racist against muslims, to take part in this controversial event.

My personal reaction to the censorship of the cartoon prophet Muhammed and Draw Muhammed day is conflicted. I realise of course that we have to be respectful of other cultures, however, shows such as South Park and Family Guy, for example, have made fun of everyone regardless of condition, race, or faith. Family Guy for example has made fun of all the following: handicaps, Jews, Christians, black people, asians, the British, Americans, mentally challenged people, fat people, transvestites, homosexuals, celebrities and more. South Park's list is very similar. Given that all of these people have been made fun of, why should we make special arrangements for muslims? You can't argue that it is because they have a different culture because we have a different culture to Japan and China and both have featured on both of the aforementioned shows. You can't argue that it is because the prophet Muhammed is a holy figure in the muslim faith because Jesus and God have been depicted in, again, both of the aforementioned shows. You also can't argue that extremists would retaliate against it because let's face it, if they want to bomb us, they will bomb us. They do not need such a petty excuse, though they will no doubt use it, to make an attack on the West.

So I have mentioned muslims and extremists seperately throughout this rant and there is a very important distinction between the two. One, is a sort of everyman, someone who goes to work, gets food on the way home to his/her family and has a nice relaxing dinner. The other is in the minority and plans ways to cause chaos and death among his own people in their hypocritical beliefs. I say hypocritical because, though my knowledge of the Quran is extremely limited, the book of Islam preaches peace and that life is sacred. Extremists are the ones who perform heinous acts across the world and it is the muslims who are suffering racism as a result. As youtube user MannixThePirate has pointed out, the human brain likes to categorise things for information retrieval and once everyone saw the pictures of Osama Bin Laden and found out he was muslim, the less intelligent people put terrorist and muslim in the same category. Of course the more intelligent of us have learned not to judge a group of people based on the acts of a small minority who claim to be a part of that group.

I am ashamed to admit that there are those in Britain who would and have harmed muslims because of their faith and because of their apparent association with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. This small-mindedness is something I thought was only in the very small minority until the recent general election in the UK. The British National Party (BNP), whose leaders have had discussions with former KKK leaders and other racist organisations, obtained 563,743 votes (approx 1.9% of the votes counted) (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/default.stm). This number may seem small in comparison to other parties (Conservatives obtained over ten million votes and "won") but when you actually think of the number itself relating to the number of votes for racism, it is understandable to get a little worried.

To sum up: depicting the prophet Muhammed in a cartoon shouldn't be censored because of fear of extremist retaliation, because they will bomb us regardless of what we do at this point; there is a massive difference between extremist and Muslim; and there are far too many racists in Britain, 563,743 to be exact.

A Moment of Normality, Only a Moment Though

I just wanted to take a quick moment out of my regular sleep procrastination to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and, in case I don't get round to it, a Happy New Year.

Christmas has been celebrated as a holiday long before it actually became what we now know as Christmas and how it is supposed to be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. It was originally a pagan holiday which then gradually became Christmas. And this is why I hate it when people complain about the commercialism of Christmas with their main argument being how it is supposed to celebrate Jesus, not Santa. Christmas has become a holiday for all people in Britain at least and I would think America too. Mainly because they are both "Christian" countries but I think it is actually because so many people aren't bothered by the Christ part of the holiday. I, for example, am an atheist, yet I still partake in the celebrations supposedly for the birth of Christ. Of course I do not go to church and I do not actually associate the holiday with Christ any more than I associate it with Allah or Ra, but I still take a break from my studies, come home to see my family, and generally have a nice, relaxing time. So atheism doesn't stop people celebrating this holiday and I am sure that people not belonging to the Christian faith will be taking advantage of the holiday in some way, whether it be raking in profits of their independent business or taking on the Christmas holiday from work or whatever it might be. The point I am trying to make is that if God is real then he would want us to celebrate the birth of Christ but perhaps at some date closer to his actual birth, which is believed to be around May I think, rather than this pagan holiday which Christians have claimed as their own. So, let us have our holiday, whatever beliefs we may hold, and stop whining about how Christmas is too commercial because frankly it isn't your holiday and if I want to spend a holiday with my family I will do it in the name of my family and not in the name of a god that you happen to believe in.

Tune in next time for...something I don't plan that far ahead.

Madeleine McCann: an Appeal

It has been two and a half years since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann at the age of four (now six) years old. For anyone who doesn't know, Madeleine disappeared on holiday in Portugal in May of 2007 and has yet to be found.

Now, in most disappearance cases the police tend to assume that if a person has gone missing and has not been found within 24 hours, the chances of finding them alive are very slim. In some cases, the victims bodies have been found within a few days, weeks, months, however long it may be but in all honesty I can't bring myself to think Madeleine is dead. This may be a personal thing as I remember very well watching the news and GMTV before going to school every morning hearing how Madeleine was still missing. However logically she could be anywhere, she could have been anywhere before and moved on or she could, regrettably, be dead. There have been many speculations about what part, if any, the parents had to play in her disappearance but there has been no evidence to support such theories.

On 8th November this year (2009), a video was launched which can be found here, which appeals to anyone who may know anything about her disappearance. Also if you click here you will be redirected to the Find Madeliene website which I believe is updated by the family themselves.

I can't imagine what the family must be going through and have been going through for the past two and a half years so if anyone knows ANYTHING that might help the investigation in any way please come forward.

Relationships...or not

Ok I tried to write something general about relationships but I just can't do it without making it too personal or relating it to specific people, which I don't want to do. So I'm going to go away and think of something else I can rant about because I can't do a completely objective rant about relationships. Sorry, bye for now.

Long time no see...

Hi there everyone sorry I haven't really been ranting much lately I've just been too damn happy to rant for a change!

Right now I'm going to try and have a rant though because I am incredibly bored. So with that in mind, the BNP, they're always good at getting me annoyed.

They've received alot of publicity over the past week or so concerning the fact that Nick Griffin MEP (leader of the BNP) was going to be appearing on the BBC television program, Question Time. This made alot of people extremely angry and they protested in advance of his arrival at the BBC's televsion studio yesterday. The protests warmed my heart I must admit because I can't stand the BNP and the fact they were allowed into any position of influence or power is dispicable.

I am going to take a moment to reflect on the BNP themselves and not just cover the same story that the media have been banging on about for the past week. The British National Party, or known to some people as the British Nazi Party, are a political party in Britain based on the far right of the political spectrum who, in the recent European Elections, were given two seats in European parliament by the electorate of Britain. Their leader, Nick Griffin, has changed the face of the BNP to being a more friendly one, ie alot less racist than it has been in the past. For example, in the past, to be become a member of the BNP you had to be a white British citizen, so no blacks were allowed to join the party. Now however, because of European law, they have changed this to allow blacks into the party, but if any black person did try to join the party they would most certainly be someone who didn't know the first thing about the BNP. This party has, in the past, been promoting the deportation of blacks and "non-indiginous" Britons. The leader Nick Griffin is also something of a holocaust denier, something that is illegal in all European coutries, though he has not been convicted of it because of course he is a politician and as we know, politicians do not answer questions directly no matter how simple. Even our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown took 12 days to answer the question of "what is your favourite biscuit?".

Does the name, David Duke, mean anything to anyone? Well how about the KKK? Well David Duke was a leader of the KKK and Mr Griffin decided it would be a good idea to have him on board with the BNP. This was raised during the BBC's broadcast of Question Time, in which Nick Griffin was accompanied on the panel by a Lib Dem, a Conservative Muslim, Jack Straw representing Labour and a black American woman who is the Deputy-Chairman of the British Museum. As a side note I wonder whose idea it was to put the only black person on the panel in the very next seat to the most openly racist person in the country? When I first saw this I was in shock and wondered if this was some sort of sick joke made by the BBC. However the reasoning soon became clear when this woman was openly criticising Nick Griffin in such a hilarious way that even he had to laugh at it and applaud her on more than one occasion. I would have walked up to her and hugged her had I been there she was that brilliant. However, I digress. Nick Griffin met with white supremisists and David Duke and told them that the BNP's ideas and those of the white supremisists were the same and that "...one day, once by being more subtle, ...when we [the BNP] control the British broadcasting media, ...then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say 'yes, every last one ["non-indiginous Britons" aka black people] must go'...". I have had abuse from several people concerning my rant on youtube about the BNP, claiming that the BNP is not racist. It took me five minutes of browsing to find the video of Nick Griffin and David Duke and I wasn't looking particularly hard so no-one can tell me that the BNP isn't racist.

The BNP were probably celebrating the day they heard they would be shown on national television for something other than being egged in the face (ha ha Nick Griffin) however I agree with Jack Straw when he said on Question Time, "...it has been a catastrophic week for the BNP..." because, all the publicity that could have made people feel sympathetic towards the BNP, was completely undone by Nick Griffin actually appearing on that show. He made an ass of himself and the audience were amazing, constantly taunting him whenever the opportunity arose. The most memorable one I can think of was where they asked a member of the audience for their comments and they said, "I just want to ask Dick Gr- oh sorry I mean Nick-" he was then cut off by the audience's applause. Kudos to that guy and if you are reading this (ver unlikely) I want to shake your hand good sir.

I told you the BNP are always an easy way to get me ready to rant.