Hate crime statistics deflate "Islamophobia" myth

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anongamer
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14 Jan 2013, 2:36 pm

I'm starting to read its not just me around here (Sydney). NTs feel the same way here too.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/terrorism-fea ... 2cpoy.html

Quote:
'We know there are some people who tend to think about it a lot, and that's people with a higher background level of anxiety, and people in certain demographic groups,'' said Mr Stevens, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Western Sydney.


Quote:
Nearly 14 per cent of people sometimes avoid public places and events because of fear of terrorist attacks, a study has found.
About one in 20 has changed their use of public transport in recent times and one in five has deferred or changed plans for overseas travel.


If NTs can't deal with it, what chance is there for an aspie with fewer mechanisms for coping with anxiety?

The article states it is a health issue, as I thought all along. It's not healthy worrying about it every day and thinking every south asian/middle eastern person you see on the street is a potential terrorist. Hence my wish to move somewhere else (which has none or very few of them).

I mean all the time, and a lot of people here do it. Sit within observable distance of the south asian/middle eastern person on a bus/train and make sure they don't fiddle with their bag or any objects. And get the hell out of there if they do or report them to the driver/police.

Quote:
The study found 45 per cent of people had either moderately or extremely increased vigilance for suspicious behaviours, while nearly 40 per cent had learnt their building's evacuation plan and 20 per cent had an emergency family contact plan.


I'd really rather look out the window/read or do something else that is anxiety free. But while they are there I can't. I am that gripped by fear.

Oh the government ads don't help. They portray just that, a middle eastern/south Asian person on public transport fiddling with something with the caption "Report all Suspicious Activity" only fuelling my fear. And everyone ever charged with homegrown terrorism offences is of middle eastern/south Asian decent.



puddingmouse
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14 Jan 2013, 5:21 pm

I used to catch buses and trains full of people of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent every day. I have not be blown up yet.



thomas81
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14 Jan 2013, 5:28 pm

Tequila wrote:
How about neither of those two things he mentioned? I would never want to kick Muslims (full UK citizens) out of the country but equally I want mass immigration to be halted.


Theres 2 different forms of immigration. Voluntary, and involuntary. Most, possibly 99.9 percent of immigrants, muslim or otherwise, do not come here with some sort of malignant desire to dilute and affront indigenous culture. Nobody wants to uproot their families to go to a strange land, sometimes many thousands of miles away for such a petty reason. They come here by in large to an abject absence of options in their own nations. Immigration has push as well as pull factors. If the UK wants to stem involuntary immigration it needs to play a proactive part in combatting the push factors. Stopping their involvement in various conflict zones would be a good start. Another would be cleaning up their post colonial mess.


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Tequila
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14 Jan 2013, 5:46 pm

thomas81 wrote:
Stopping their involvement in various conflict zones would be a good start.


No argument from me there. I believe that the UK should have a strong military, but that in general we should keep out of foreign wars. We should stick to defending the UK and its territories.

They want to come to the UK because their own countries are tinpot fundamentalist dangerous crapholes like Pakistan. One of the major mistakes that was made in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond was inflicting mass immigration on the public without asking them whether it was OK. Close the doors to new immigrants and tell them that, from now on, selective immigration only. We have no need for more poor Muslim immigrants from tribal hellholes (or Romanian/Bulgarian immigrants either, to be honest).

thomas81 wrote:
Another would be cleaning up their post colonial mess.


These countries are independent states. They can't keep blaming Britain when they've had independence for over 60 years, most of them.

I believe that trade, not aid, is the way forward for these countries. Let them sell their stuff on the open market here in the UK and in other countries.



Last edited by Tequila on 14 Jan 2013, 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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14 Jan 2013, 5:47 pm

puddingmouse wrote:
I used to catch buses and trains full of people of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent every day. I have not be blown up yet.


Yup. Terrorism itself is an issue, but isn't the most serious one.

I see South Asian people regularly. I know one or two of them personally. The main woman I know who is of Pakistani Muslim descent is a fruitcake, but not because of Islam - and she's had a pretty nasty upbringing which has left her with twisted views of men, to be fair to her. (She gave me cause to have a massive grin on my face all this afternoon, actually.)



Telekon
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14 Jan 2013, 6:14 pm

Tequila wrote:
I don't mind Muslims. I don't mind Hindus or Sikhs either. I don't mind anyone, as long as they're not absolute arsecakes (and Nick Griffin is in the 'arsecake' category). And there are a lot of those amongst the white population too.


You probably don't mind them on an individual level but you would mind them if you lived in one of their neighborhoods. As you said, living as a racial minority in your own country is alienating. The alienation will only grow worse in the coming years, even if all of the UK's Moslems abandon fundamentalism.



thomas81
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14 Jan 2013, 6:42 pm

Tequila wrote:
These countries are independent states. They can't keep blaming Britain when they've had independence for over 60 years, most of them.

I believe that trade, not aid, is the way forward for these countries. Let them sell their stuff on the open market here in the UK and in other countries.


my point is, in that 60 years we (I say 'we', I really mean the British establishment) left without really 'tidying up' after ourselves. It was more a case of, "oh you want independence now, seeya!". Considering the way that the British empire plundered the region, there still an unpaid tab to be settled. These places, particularly commonwealth members are still the UK's reponsibility for that reason.


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Tequila
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14 Jan 2013, 7:00 pm

thomas81 wrote:
my point is, in that 60 years we (I say 'we', I really mean the British establishment) left without really 'tidying up' after ourselves. It was more a case of, "oh you want independence now, seeya!".


We could have been like the Portuguese and brutally put down independentist rebellions. Whenever you visit Portugal, there are prominent statues in many towns and cities dedicated to those soldiers who died fighting to keep Portuguese colonies from becoming independent.

Compared to some of those countries, we have nothing to be ashamed of.



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14 Jan 2013, 7:02 pm

Telekon wrote:
You probably don't mind them on an individual level but you would mind them if you lived in one of their neighborhoods.


I am absolutely sure I would. As I keep saying, mass Muslim immigration into this country was a horrendous mistake. Immigration from Eastern European countries is a mistake but will not cause us lasting damage as we're not that culturally and religiously different and they will integrate in time. I'm currently spending my time watching the Anthology of Polish Children's Animation, a three-disc set that I picked up dirt-cheap from Poland. Some of the shorts in it are extremely entertaining in their own right and I'm sure my three-year-old niece would like them as much as I do.

"Multiculturalism" has been a massive failure. The basic idea of multiculturalism is great on paper (and I've been to places where it's nearer what is meant on paper and it's good craic), but in practice it usually means that people have to focus on Islam and in reality it means segregation, division, excusing bigoted customs (1,000 women and girls are genitally mutilated every year in this country and how many prosecutions have there been?) and constant demands for special treatment and frequent mock-offence at many incidents in British life - all three of which have been encouraged by various governments.

Can we get my own personal Muslim hero Anjem Choudary on TV? People will learn more about the fundamentalists from him than by listening to any "interfaith" group or BBC documentary on Islam.



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14 Jan 2013, 7:14 pm

Tequila wrote:
thomas81 wrote:
my point is, in that 60 years we (I say 'we', I really mean the British establishment) left without really 'tidying up' after ourselves. It was more a case of, "oh you want independence now, seeya!".


We could have been like the Portuguese and brutally put down independentist rebellions. Whenever you visit Portugal, there are prominent statues in many towns and cities dedicated to those soldiers who died fighting to keep Portuguese colonies from becoming independent.

Compared to some of those countries, we have nothing to be ashamed of.


bit of a weak get out clause, "at least we werent as bad as the Portuguese therefore we should do no more".

If the UK did more, maybe the right wing little england brigade wouldnt be so petty when they whine about economic immigration.


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Tequila
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14 Jan 2013, 7:17 pm

thomas81 wrote:
bit of a weak get out clause, "at least we werent as bad as the Portuguese therefore we should do no more".

If the UK did more, maybe the right wing little england brigade wouldnt be so petty when they whine about economic immigration.


Perhaps we should be like the garlic-munchers? Continually intervening and still having an input in 'former' colonies?



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14 Jan 2013, 7:20 pm

Tequila wrote:
thomas81 wrote:
bit of a weak get out clause, "at least we werent as bad as the Portuguese therefore we should do no more".

If the UK did more, maybe the right wing little england brigade wouldnt be so petty when they whine about economic immigration.


Perhaps we should be like the garlic-munchers? Continually intervening and still having an input in 'former' colonies?


You slander them, but at least the French had the sense to keep their tongues out of George Bush's arse crack by not following him into the second gulf war.


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Tequila
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14 Jan 2013, 7:23 pm

thomas81 wrote:
You slander them, but at least the French had the sense to keep their tongues out of George Bush's arse crack by not following him into the second gulf war.


Hey, piss off, I like garlic. Clock right twice per day and all that. ;)

I'm sure le froggies will slag off us roast beefs for something in the future. Probably for being Anglophile and not "European" enough.