Re: Bigitory is quite Live and pracriced so Well in USA even by Black aspiring Presid
England has a lot more Muslims relative to the population, and they are more organized politically. Not so in the US.
Also, the far right in the US is known to scapegoat the weakest segment of society to further their own agenda. Nothing new there.
Its also harder for Muslims to defend themselves considering the news of late. Its hard to espouse the belief that Muslims are peaceful when terrorists groups are murdering people... Normal everyday Muslims find themselves having to defend themselves against the far right in the US, and also fight the image of Islam as portrayed by ISIS among others (including Saudi). Its not easy. You can scream "Islam means peace" till the your throat runs dry, but it only takes one atrocity to undermine your entire effort.
Lastly, people are mentally lazy. There is a ready audience for people who hate Muslims. Those people who havent the interest in learning about actual Muslims or Islam, but lap up any negative news about them. It fuels them and it fuels the politics that run on such xenophobia. Its a self perpetuating circle of hate. People want to hear it, politicians know it so they give it to them, the people hear it from politicians and it goes on.
We get exactly the same news from Middle East over here. Britain has more of an issue with Islamic fundamentalism considering the number of British Muslim teenagers went to Syria. Yet 11 Pakistani Muslims got elected in Parliament, with British Pakistani Muslim standing as Mayor of London candidate (effectively a Prime Minister in waiting type position). The Islamophobic hatred has it's clear limits in Britain.
But truth of the matter is, despite the socio-economic drawbacks, British Muslims, unlike their American counterparts have not allowed themselves to become a punching bag in politics. They became politically more organised - very recent phenomena by the way - because they simply did not allow themselves to carry the burden of the entire Muslim world's guilt. They don't indulge in mindless wrist slitting, they don't feel needlessly and excessively ashamed and apologetic about every single Muslim's deed.
Re: Bigitory is quite Live and pracriced so Well in USA even by Black aspiring Presid
We get exactly the same news from Middle East over here. Britain has more of an issue with Islamic fundamentalism considering the number of British Muslim teenagers went to Syria. Yet 11 Pakistani Muslims got elected in Parliament, with British Pakistani Muslim standing as Mayor of London candidate (effectively a Prime Minister in waiting type position). The Islamophobic hatred has it's clear limits in Britain.
But truth of the matter is, despite the socio-economic drawbacks, British Muslims, unlike their American counterparts have not allowed themselves to become a punching bag in politics. They became politically more organised - very recent phenomena by the way - because they simply did not allow themselves to carry the burden of the entire Muslim world's guilt. They don't indulge in mindless wrist slitting, they don't feel needlessly and excessively ashamed and apologetic about every single Muslim's deed.
The nature of politics and the dynamics of the Muslim population in the US is very different from that of the UK. So making a comparison between the two is not as straight forward as it seems. Muslims are a very diverse group in the US and arent yet politically organized to the extent that they are in the UK. They speak different languages, have different motivations and world views. They are by no means monolithic. A Bosnian or Turkish Muslim has a very different perspective on Islam and the world then say a Pakistani...
And this treatment of muslims in the US is is not a new thing with immigrant groups. Essentially the same thing happened to Irish, Jews, Blacks , Catholics, Asian (Chinese). They face a great deal of opposition before they become economically and politically empowered. There is a growing political awareness, but its still in its infancy I think. A lot of the immigrants are first generation, or working class people whos only interest is in making money and sending it back to their country of origin.
So this phase in the Muslim American experience is as i see it, the vetting period. It will be a rough road, but eventually Anti-Muslim rhetoric will die down. It would help the process if we could control extremists among the Muslims as well.