So using your logic if I oppose the EDL then I condone terrorism? I'm an ordinary working class guy who is fed up, not with Muslims though because they are not the bogey man. Sure there are fundamentalist nutters within the Muslim community but there are murderers, rapists and gangsters within the white, black and Chinese communities so why are the EDL not out calling for their heads? Because they speak for all of us fed up shmoes? Do they ****, they are racist skinheads with hardly a brain among them. To blame all Muslims for the actions of one tiny minority is staggeringly stupid.
Ordinary working guys? Origins of the English Defence League The English Defence League takes its roots from a demo called by the “United Peoples of Luton”, an anti-Muslim group made up largely of football casuals. This demonstration was ostensibly in response to a protest made by members of the fundamentalist Islamic group Al Muhjahiroun who attacked British soldiers returning from Basra as murderers. Despite the small size of Al-Muhjahirouns protest they managed to inflame the tabloid press and the far-right used it to attack all Muslims in the UK as fundamentalist and disloyal. The demonstration called by the “United Peoples of Luton” marched practically unopposed through the town and led to many Asians and Muslims with no connection to Al Muhjahiroun being attacked and abused. This ad hoc demo against Muslims served as a rallying point for a much wider audience of football casuals, united by a desire to protest against “Sharia law” and the “Islamisation” of the UK. These networks of football hooligans united around a loose organisation which we now know as the English Defence League. The EDL does not exist as a political party like the National Front or the BNP, it does not have a political programme or policies bar opposition to the presence of Muslims in the UK. Nor does it do public activity even at the most basic level - such as leafletting or postering for their demonstrations. The EDL are a 21st century manifestation of the far-right, able to mobilise their supporters solely using social networking sites on the internet. Since their original demonstration in Luton, they have marched (or attempted to) across many other cities across the UK - Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, and last year, Glasgow. Despite their public line being that they are only opposed to fundamentalist Muslims they have demonstrated outside Mosques with no history of support for any extremist or terrorist organisations. Their members have also been photographed making Nazi salutes, waving placards saying “No more Mosques”, and chanting “we hate Muslims”.
To argue that the EDL is wrong is to condone terrorism? I would argue that the 600,000 people killed in Iraq during and after the invasion is worse than terrorism. But that doesn't count because it was done by people who had good intentions... or maybe dropping a bomb from the sky is morally more correct than planting it on the tube? What surprises me is how often a lot of people like to demonise terrorists without ever trying to truly understand what actually drives someone to terrorism. The state of Israel, with it's US and British backers has a hell of a lot to answer for - if we (as in the British) hadn't of got involved in ethnic engineering in the middle east 60 years ago I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be such a target for terrorism. If the Americans didn't unconditionally back Israel I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be such a big target. If the Americans didn't have their army in Suadi Arabia, upholding the rule of a dictator I'm pretty sure they would be less of a target. I'm not defending terrorism here, I'm just saying the black and white, good and evil interpretation of terrorism is far too simplistic - and actually if terrorism was solely judged on who has killed the most people for the worst reasons in the last century then the United Kingdom is undeniably one of the biggest terrorist organisations in existence - and no we can't just say "that was the British Empire, it wasn't me" as the Iraq war proved.
Are the EDL worse than terrorists? Not hard is it? The EDL are idiots but there just that, idiots. Terrorists are murderers, massive difference. Have the EDL blown up some buildings, a train, a bus or killed 1000s of their own in the last decade? I can tell you who have. This is like comparing a shop lifter to a mass murderer.
UIR You make the EDL sound like some sort of bumbling protest group, a kind of working class Women's Institute so to speak. They are not anything of the sort. So they don't have suicide bombers or fly aeroplanes into buildings but that doesn't justify their behaviour. A lot of them are thugs with police records for violence and threatening behaviour. It's not a matter of who's worse: them or the terrorists. They are both in the wrong. Their views ARE extremist and are fantastical. The EDL, like its political cousin the BNP, believe in a Britain (or England) that has never existed. They subscribe to a way of life that is never going to exist in an ever changing world. It is not anger that drives them. It is fear. It's a fear that they are being left behind by the rest of the world and cannot understand the new world which is emerging.
they are idiots. Nothing more nothing less in reality. They are not mass murdering scum who kill not only their own but people of all sorts. The EDL are not a threat to world safety.....guess who is. Anyone else?
UIR So what's your point? That the Muslim terrorsists funded by millionaire Arab businessmen are worse than the EDL? Yeah, you're probably right but it's all relative isn't it?
Classic post. Very well said. Surely racism is a bad thing because it is a generalization. This is also a generalization. I'm sure some of them are indeed braindeads and racists but then again I'm sure some Pakistanis are dirty and some blacks have huge penises. Let's try to use reason if we're going to dicuss these issues properly. The ****ers protesting in favour of Bin Laden are scum, utter scum. Almost as bad as the ****s who idolize that terrorist mass murdering lowlife Che Guevara. BTW the Premier League can be contested by English and Welsh clubs. It's more accurate just to refer to it as the Barclays Premier League if you think a qualifier is needed to distinguish it from the SPL etc.
You can't blame Britain for Israel, before the state of Israel was created, Israeli terrorists were murdering us. The Holy Lands have been disputed and fought over for 2000 years. The original Crusaders were serving the Catholic Church.
My point is anyone using the EDL as a way of making the actions of murdering scum is talking our of their arse. Plus as pointed out, not all EDL members are racist so stop generalising.
After 6 million jews were killed a few years prior to the state of israel being put back where it belongs I think anyone who didnt support it was treading a very thin line. Israel in some form was there many many years before islam existed.
