This was at least encouraging:
‘A small group of Muslims staged a counter-demonstration nearby, holding up placards reading ‘Muslims Against Extremism’ and ‘If You Want Sharia, Move To Saudi’.
Abdul Sallam, 41, who was waving a sign that read ‘Keep The Silence’, travelled down to London from his home in Glasgow to show the strength of his feelings.
He said: ‘I’m a Muslim. What they’re doing is bringing shame on all Muslims.This is not part of the teachings of Islam.
‘Islam is all about peace, but what they want to do is hate other people.
‘Islam teaches you that when you see anything bad or evil, you should speak out against it. If the moderate Muslims all came out and spoke out, that would defeat them.’
‘I am proud to be British. I love my country. All these people are doing is breaking Britain apart.’
Too true.
I have done aid work in Kenya, the Sudan, Pakistan and the Congo. Places where you often need a ready tongue and your gun loose in it’s holster. And the vast majority of Muslims I met and talked to - and yes, I spoke direct in the native language most of the time, learning languages has always been easy for me - had one constant refrain.
We just want peace. We want to raise our children, and to try to get ahead a bit. To feed them without watching them starve. To simply be allowed to live.
I tend to stay off the Muslim threads here, something I am going to start to do again. Because the Muslims that are often discussed are as representative of the majority of Muslims as the Westboro Baptist Church is of Christianity.
Yes, I am probably gonna get flamed about this, especially from people who have never met a Muslim in their lives. I honestly don’t care.
But before you flame, think about who your enemy is. It isn’t the poor - they don’t care, because they are too damned busy working to feed themselves. Your enemy, and ours, is the wealthy. Like the sons of the aristocrats in 1920 who played with communism, or the spoilt brats in the 60’s who revered Mao and Che. You think some dirt poor Yememi farmers managed to raise the money to fly to the US and take flying lessons?
I love this site. I support it as and when I can. But DANG, some people here wear blinders.