Malik's malice
Politics, eh?
I pride myself on my well-rounded balanced views. I'm a young liberal, but not what you'd call a left-wing hippy type. I'm ardently anti-racist but not fond of political correctness for its own sake -- in fact I find it all rather silly. I believe that Islamic extremism is a serious scourge of the modern world and I don't think the terrorist threat is one bit overstated, but I believe that the current situation is only worsened by US and UK foreign policy and the West's desire to spread it's capitalist-democractic ideology.
Anyway, enough about my political views. in general.. I'm posting to talk about the comments made today by Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Mr. Malik has risen to new heights of popularity since the 2001 race riots, but particularly since the 7/7 bombings. The now-omnipresent British-born Muslim MP, who is wheeled out on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News, Newsnight, This Week and just about every other current affairs program whenver the debate turns to Islam and Islamic fundamentalism (which is about every 4.2 seconds these days), was asked to comment on the indignation expressed by some members of the Muslim community to certain aspects of UK culture. His controversial comments have left me with something of a sour taste in my mouth because, despite his Muslim heritage, Mr. Malik came out with a statement that was all too reminiscent of Enoch Powell. I fail to find a reliable quote, so allow me to paraphrase... the general gist of his message was "If you're going to moan about the rules here in Britain, perhaps it's best if you f**ked off back where you came from".
Now, that's pretty controversial stuff, eh? My gut feeling is that Mr. Malik's intention was not to come across all BNP-esque, but come across all BNP-esque he has, IMHO. I mean... for God's sake, even if for just one second you go down the Alf Garnet route, surely anyone can see that that kind of message could only ever possibly be levelled at the immigrant population. But the people making noises about UK law being racist and anti-Muslim aren't all immigrants at all... a large number are British-born Muslims. So how, exactly, does the "go back where you came from" approach work there, for people born in London or Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds or wherever else? I was pretty disgusted by the whole statement not least, perhaps, because I can imagine it now... a meeting of BNP members in a smoky working men's club, with the local BNP candidate handing out flyers with Malik's face and controversial quote emblazoned across the front. Just another excuse for the BNP to wax lyrical about "Britain for the British" and all that bollocks.
Not good, Mr. Malik. Very not good.
I pride myself on my well-rounded balanced views. I'm a young liberal, but not what you'd call a left-wing hippy type. I'm ardently anti-racist but not fond of political correctness for its own sake -- in fact I find it all rather silly. I believe that Islamic extremism is a serious scourge of the modern world and I don't think the terrorist threat is one bit overstated, but I believe that the current situation is only worsened by US and UK foreign policy and the West's desire to spread it's capitalist-democractic ideology.
Anyway, enough about my political views. in general.. I'm posting to talk about the comments made today by Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Mr. Malik has risen to new heights of popularity since the 2001 race riots, but particularly since the 7/7 bombings. The now-omnipresent British-born Muslim MP, who is wheeled out on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News, Newsnight, This Week and just about every other current affairs program whenver the debate turns to Islam and Islamic fundamentalism (which is about every 4.2 seconds these days), was asked to comment on the indignation expressed by some members of the Muslim community to certain aspects of UK culture. His controversial comments have left me with something of a sour taste in my mouth because, despite his Muslim heritage, Mr. Malik came out with a statement that was all too reminiscent of Enoch Powell. I fail to find a reliable quote, so allow me to paraphrase... the general gist of his message was "If you're going to moan about the rules here in Britain, perhaps it's best if you f**ked off back where you came from".
Now, that's pretty controversial stuff, eh? My gut feeling is that Mr. Malik's intention was not to come across all BNP-esque, but come across all BNP-esque he has, IMHO. I mean... for God's sake, even if for just one second you go down the Alf Garnet route, surely anyone can see that that kind of message could only ever possibly be levelled at the immigrant population. But the people making noises about UK law being racist and anti-Muslim aren't all immigrants at all... a large number are British-born Muslims. So how, exactly, does the "go back where you came from" approach work there, for people born in London or Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds or wherever else? I was pretty disgusted by the whole statement not least, perhaps, because I can imagine it now... a meeting of BNP members in a smoky working men's club, with the local BNP candidate handing out flyers with Malik's face and controversial quote emblazoned across the front. Just another excuse for the BNP to wax lyrical about "Britain for the British" and all that bollocks.
Not good, Mr. Malik. Very not good.
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