Off Topic This Thread May Be Short-Lived

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Interesting comment from the black Labour MP Diane Abbot on Andrew Neill's This Week programme. Abbot's heritage is Jamaican and she knows all about integration having read history at Cambridge (tutored by Simon Schama) after grammar school and made it to Parliament. She pointed out that while most immigrants gather together initially (e.g. Italian areas and Irish areas in New York in the early C19th), gradually they are assimilated into the society of the country they have joined. In the UK however, parts of the Muslim community are going in the opposite direction. The children of these Muslim immigrants are more likely to use their religion to define themselves, wear hijabs, full face veils etc and take an exclusive, insular approach. Worrying.

On the contrary, i think identifying with your faith is a cornerstone of many immigrants identity. Again you make sweeping generalisations. Irish Catholic immigrants still go to mass, immigrant Jews still observe the Sabbath. Why shouldn't a muslim woman CHOOSE to wear the hijab ?

Twenty five years ago i recall many Irish people in London being demonised because of IRA bombing campaigns. It was wrong then to tar them all with the same brush, just as it is to believe every muslim is a Daesh follower
 
The British have a reluctance to appear racist or judgemental and so we, as a people have a mindless, almost unthinking tolerance of almost every culture that chooses to migrate here.
This tolerance has lead to many ghettos in our towns and cities.
Having invited millions in and given them passports, benefits and freedoms that our ancestors fought and died for, we are rewarded all too often with hatred. We have given away vast swathes of our towns and cities, due to our kind-hearted tolerance to people without the slightest inclination to integrate with the rest of us. UK Muslims who are totally separate from the rest of us need to decide if they want to be part of this Country or not! The Muslim faith, or at least the extreme version of it which seems to be quite widespread, is by far the biggest threat to peace in this Century imo.

I'm afraid I don't share Stan's love of walking down the road in London and seeing so much from foreign lands. I don't like the pace with which my Country has changed.
I'm all for integrated immigration, the like of which has richly improved our society since the 60s. However, things have gone far too far for my liking and I'm sure that makes me a racist in some people's eyes.
 
Top post Col bravo! And you are not a racist.
British tolerance and charity had been abused far too much in recent years caused in majority by the apologists and liberal do-gooders who have been in government.
 
One prime example of British tolerance and bending over backwards is Translation services, there has to be no other nation on Earth that provides such an expensive gift. Councils spend thousands of pounds ensuring that any document they produce has umpteen versions of languages for everyone. This money can be spent on other better services surely?
 
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Those without sin should cast the first stone.....
We as individuals and we as a nation are not so perfect....but by making an effort to listen, learn and understand....we can get through this together.
Education and a little compassion for different people's needs
This is exactly what I meant earlier when I said its alright if it works both ways.
How about the "guests" showing a bit of understanding, listening , learning and compassion for their generous hosts?
Instead they stamp their feet and shout if they can't have everything their own way.
Its not how I'd behave if I was invited to somebodies house.
All the tolerance that everyone talks of is in my eyes at least very much one way traffic
 
My problem with people (women) covering their faces is that they are doing so because they have told to by men in the name of religion (domination).

Reasons women cover their faces has all kinds of reasons, often an intrical part of a religion's custom, but not always "domination". The dominant forces are often trying to force women not to cover their face, France today for example. There is really no need to feel threatened by women covering or not covering, it's just a part of our world.

If you want to understand more of the reasons why women cover or not, I recommend the book Kar (Snow) by Orhan Pamuk if you have not already read it. It's a very good read anyway.
 
No I don't accept COL's opinion. I don't know how any right thinking person could.

Do you accept it?

I'm not expressing any opinion on this thread in case we need to moderate it at a later stage......trust you understand that?

If you don't agree with Col's point of view why don't you express your opinion rather than a one word post which could quite easily be viewed as baiting another poster?
 
If you don't agree with Col's point of view why don't you express your opinion rather than a one word post which could quite easily be viewed as baiting another poster?

Oh don't be such an idiot . I've expressed my opinion in many posts on this thread which contradict what COL claims yet asking him to clarify his position is seen by you as baiting???

That's pathetic Tramore. I'm outta this thread
 
The British have a reluctance to appear racist or judgemental and so we, as a people have a mindless, almost unthinking tolerance of almost every culture that chooses to migrate here.
I have personally experienced extreme intolerance of many different "cultures"' in England. These "cultures" have always been non-white, of the Hebrew faith, or Gay. So when I read the utter and total rubbish of that first paragraph, the rest isn't worth reading. Many British people are of course tolerant, but many are extremely intolerant. British people aren't intrinsically more tolerant than other nationalities, far from it in my experience.
 
I have personally experienced extreme intolerance of many different "cultures"' in England. These "cultures" have always been non-white, of the Hebrew faith, or Gay. So when I read the utter and total rubbish of that first paragraph, the rest isn't worth reading. Many British people are of course tolerant, but many are extremely intolerant. British people aren't intrinsically more tolerant than other nationalities, far from it in my experience.

We seem to be very accommodating of people who aren't who aren't the 'indigenous', including my own.

I think it just narks people when the country is seen to be taken advantage of in some way, be it by foreigners, for want of a better phrase, or indigenous people.