Mob mentality

Flash Mobs: old hat, Lynch Mobs are back in style!
I just wanted to get on a soap box for a bit of a howl.

In the British Media I have lately been reading a lot of stories about Muslim people dividing the community with their deeds, or their differences, and now the Australian media too. Check out this guy's editorial in The Australian this week...

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mattprice/index.php/theaustralian/comments/the_unacceptable_face_of_islam/

The story itself wasn't so bad, you've probably all heard or read about the Aussie Muslim cleric who made outrageously outdated comments about women, stuff that you could have heard from most men about 25 years ago. This guy is originally from Egypt and is always getting into trouble for saying stupid stuff, and it's no surprise that the newspapers were all over this, just another case of a concerted effort from the media to sell newspapers by picking bad examples of Muslims, particularly from Arab countries, to wave under our noses to exploit our xenaphobia and the public's suspicion of multi-culturalism... and boy did it work! The hardest thing to stomach has been the public's response to it. If you want a laugh, or a cry, then have a read of the readers comments, there's 255 at the moment, some good, most awful, so here's just a sample of the worst of the first of 10 pages in blue, with my view afterwards in white.

Trish of Perth

26 October at 01:34 PM
Treat these comments with the outrage they deserve. Why do we always have to tread so softly? Hang him out to dry. Mel Gibson was full of tequila when he made his comments and the world was incensed. These are comments made sober… written, rehearsed words which are meant with absolute sincerity. Today other Muslims are trying to soften what was said as if there was any room for interpretation. A Catholic nun was killed in Somalia for the way the Pope’s words were interpreted. Why should these words of horror be ignored? What a cliche, but send him back to where he belongs! ...where does he belong? The bloke is an Australian citizen. Where does Fred Nile belong?

Richard of Perth

26 October at 02:32 PM
Enoch Powell had it squared away. Liberalism with a lowercase ‘l’ will be our undoing. ...that-s Enoch Powell, a former leader of the BNP. Britain's answer to Pauline Hanson in the 70's and 80's. What about fascism with a small 'f'?

L.C. of Melbourne

26 October at 02:38 PM
We are told that views such as those of the cleric are un-Islamic, that the majority do not hold these outrageous views… well, why are there other prominent Muslim leaders defending him? That must send a message to young Muslim males.
We are too tolerant, and it’s about time the Government was pro-active in sending these particulars back to their despot countries!! ...Egypt, a despot country? Ah, they're all the same, eh?

Will of Brisbane

26 October at 02:38 PM
I’m not sure what’s more outrageous- the Mufti’s comments or the lame response to them?
If the Mufti is not an Australian citizen he should be deported; if he is an Australian citizen the full force of the law should come down on him... ...whoa, hold on! Full force of the law? Since when is talking rubbish a crime?

Chris Papalia of Bayswater

26 October at 02:47 PM
Send him back to Arabia. He has no place in this country, he has no place in this century. ...Arabia? Where the hell is that? Have you looked at a map recently? There's no Persia, USSR, or Unknowne Southern Lande either!

I don't usually bother writing letters or emails to newspapers, but after reading the readers comments to the article in the above link, I felt the need to respond. Originally, I had used the above quotes and my responses as well as my general comment, but I was censored by the Australian. What you see below in red is what they published as my post, which is about 50% of what I wrote.

Frazer from Melbourne of Madrid
26 October at 10:13 PM
I just finished reading a lot of horrific responses to this article and I felt it necessary to just change the focus a little bit. I want to start by saying I do not agree with what Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali implied at all. Women have to have the same freedom as men to dress in the way they would like, without fear to their safety. The Sheik clearly does not ‘get’ modern Western culture.

But people, wake up! Just because he doesn´t understand our culture, should he be denied a right to speak his mind or to live in Australia? The thing that separates him from the thousands of people who talk offensive rubbish—hard-line Muslim clerics don´t have a monopoly on it as folk like F. Nile, P. Hanson, A. Bolt and other hatemongers show—is that he is in a position of influence of authority, so at worst he should be stripped of that. Let Muslims make up their own minds then, they don´t all listen to people like him!

You are being sucked into a lynch mob by a group of people exploiting man´s fear of the unknown for their own political means, or even just to sell papers. Its the same in the UK right now and people are falling for it there too. There is a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment around, mostly being spread by the media putting the fear into the public, which then ends up having these knee-jerk reactions. What scares me a lot more than the views of one Sheik are the views of all the people in the shadows, all too ready to condemn a man for speaking his mind.
We are being used! Don´t be fooled!

Unsurprisingly, what they wouldn't let me say is the most important part, the thing that too many people forget, that there are plenty of muslims out there who are happy to live in western societies and live harmoniously with their neighbours, but we don't read about them because they don't sell papers! Also, depending on how suspicious you are, they don't serve the purpose of the group of people who have taken it upon themselves to try and divide us.

Perhaps it's the divide and conquer theory, which America uses to remain relevant as a security force: breed fear into the minds of Japanese by promoting China and N. and S. Korea as potential threats, ditto Israel and arab states, Australia and Indonesia a few years ago, the list goes on... Our govenments want to divide our communities to weaken us and dilute any strong opposition to radical decisions such as the latest war in Iraq, or continued deforestation, or massive spending on defence, take your pick.

Perhaps it's just that the media barons like Murdoch (head of Fox News, which runs plenty of papers, including the source for this article, The Australian) and world leaders have an active interest in keeping Muslims as a powerless minority in their countries, or even sending 'em all back to "where they belong". Maybe they believe they are acting in our interest.

Personally, all this hysteria is pushing me in the opposite direction: when it gets to the stage where people are going round in mobs hunting muslims, I'll be hiding them in my attic. I fear for the future, but not for the same reasons as people like Matt Price.