aw. RE: The Nobel Prize for War 2009 goes to ...

[Joseph Tracy]

Interesting info on what is happening in Britain. We don't hear about  
the BNP here. I'm assuming from your post they use strong anti  
immigrant appeals mixed with racism? with a current focus on Islam?  
Course you guys have a different circumstance with the former  
colonies of the empire having citizen rights? Do you know of  a good  
site  or article with  a summary of those immigrant /citizen issues  
unique to UK? I would like to understand it better.
On Dec 6, 2009, at 9:57 AM, John Carvill wrote:

>> Kai Frederik Lorentzen:
>>
>> Same in this country.
>>
>> A-and it will be 'very harmful'.
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Kai
>>
>> PS to US-folks: Believe it or not: Obama's Cairo speech DID reach  
>> lots
>> of Muslim peole all over the world. But now, of course, old hatred  
>> is back
>> i
>
> These are very frightening times. Probably the recent appearance, on
> [popular prime-time BBC TV panel discusssion programme] Question Time,
> of Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP (British Nationalist Party,
> successor to the National Front), did not make such a splash in the US
> as it did here in the UK. One of the most worrying aspects of the
> affair was the extent to which large sections of the populace
> subscribed to the 'freedom of speech' point of view, claiming that
> Griffin had every right to appear on Question Time, irrespective of
> how odious his views may be. This was, in my view, a huge mistake on
> the part of the programme makers (although we must allow the
> possibility that it was no mistake at all, and that they were
> deliberately fuelling sensationalism). An even more worrying aspect
> was the popular view that, oh well, Griffin and the BNP are a bit mad,
> and, well *I* don't agree with them, as such, but you can kind of see
> where they are coming from..... This dovetails nicely with the even
> more popular view that "mainstream politicians have abandoned the
> working class, who therefore feel disenfranchised and fearful, leading
> them to support extremists. We should engage with these people, and
> listen to their views, even though  these views may be fairly
> reactionary..." I cannot overstate how prevalent this view is here.
>
> The BNP have, as they will readily admit, been gifted by our 'New
> Labour' government, with the twin, related issues of immigration and
> 'the war on terror', the latter often translating as 'the war on
> Islam', terror and Islam having been conflated in the minds of huge
> swathes of the population, in a way that, say, Catholicism and the IRA
> never were.
>
> Islamophobia is rampant in this country, to an extent which is
> sufficient to suggest a very grim future. The current UK government
> have been happy to play the race card, and have been instrumental in
> helping the BNP achieve an unprecedented amount of power.  The
> imminent (and, at least for a generation or so, irreversible) return
> to power of the Conservative party - the party which propped up
> Apartheid and told us that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist - will alter
> this dynamic, but it would be a brave man who would be willing to
> predict exactly how this will pan out. Meanwhile, the 'wars' in Iraq
> and Afghanistan are deeply unpopular, but only because British troops
> keep coming home in body bags. Almost certainly, though, Britian's
> presence in, and attitudes to, the Middle East, will not undergo
> significant changes once the Blue Meanies return to power.