Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Would a British politician stand on stage with a weapon in hand? - Response to an anon

In response to my previous post "MUST READ: Would a British politician stand on stage with a weapon in hand? - Article by Dr Farish A Noor, from the Nut Graph", an anonymous commenter replied as follows:
No need to imagine, violent anti-islam demonstration did happen in Britain
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205263/Police-arrest-31-demonstration-Islamic-fundamentalism.html

This is my response to him:
@ anon 3:02 pm,

Good of you to bring that to our attention, because it demonstrates the very obvious differences with our cow head incident, and our Malaysian political culture in general. Let's revisit what Dr. Farish wrote:
"Can anyone of us imagine a British politician standing on stage with a weapon in hand? Can anyone imagine a demonstration in Europe against a mosque or a Hindu temple where a pig's or cow's head is dragged out into the streets?

Can we imagine those involved not being arrested on the spot? Can anyone imagine a press conference in any European city where a politician is publicly threatened with rape — and the police do nothing?"
The protesters who claimed to be anti "Islamic extremism" were the so-called "English Defence League". They are the UK version of Pekida and Pewaris: thugs who threaten their fellow (minority) citizens with violence if they do not "toe the line". Just like Pekida, Pewaris and their UMNO inspired friends, the EDL were protesting against a place of worship.

Questions to consider:
1) Even with their disgusting fascist agenda, did the EDL protestors carry the head of any dead animal to insult any religion? No.

2) Did the police stand idly by while the violence went on? No. "A "significant number" of people have been arrested during clashes between right-wing protesters and anti-fascist campaigners in Birmingham." The UK police chief would have been sacked for incompetence if he had stood by and done nothing.

3) Did any UK government minister meet/sympathize with the EDL protesters and/or provide support and justification for their actions, like Hishammudin and Mukhriz did? No, the exact opposite happened. John Denham, the UK Communities Minister unequivocally condemned the EDL. This is what he said (extracted from here):

Right-wing groups who claim to oppose Islamic extremism are trying to provoke violence on Britain's streets, the communities minister has said.

Mr Denham said such right-wing protesters were trying to provoke an "overreaction" from the Asian community.

"Then people blame the people who overreact and the situation gets out of control," he said.

"We know from the recent past that provocation can lead to community division and overreaction unless we nip it in the bud very quickly."

The minister singled out the EDL in particular: "If you look at the types of demonstrations they have organised, the language used and the targets chosen, it looks pretty clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke, to get a response and create violence

John Denham has so accurately described what Umno/BN are trying to do in Malaysia, with their cow-head protest, Utusan headlines and blogger stories. Any UK minister who did what our Hishamuddin and Mukhriz have done would have been sacked.

4) The group which opposed the EDL were the UAF (Unite Against Fascism). As you can see in the video here, and the report here, UAF consists of Britons from various communities and religions, even white people. Their chant is "We are black, we are white, together we are dynamite". The UAF Chairman is Ken Livingstone, a white man. These people there fight for what is right regardless of their race, religion etc. In Malaysia, if a person speaks for justice regardless of race, he is called a "pengkhianat bangsa" by our racist politicians and their newspapers.

We in Malaysia too need to fight for what is right and just regardless of our own race, religion, gender, age, social status, class, selfish interests, etc. For 52 years we have not been able to learn how. I believe that with the "Saya Anak bangsa Malaysia initiative", we can.

Well done. Please provide more such examples, thanks.
mh

1 comment:

  1. Very good analysis. I am not taking side, just my observation. The UK demonstration was violent with bloodshed even without the cow or pig head. Malaysian is still with 'super tolerance' with such insensitive act.

    ReplyDelete

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