Pro-Palestine activist Laura Stuart argues that Britain can no longer consider itself a Christian country because its “values” have been hijacked by Zionists.
“British values” are what Theresa May our Home Secretary believes that many Muslims do not share.
In a recent speech May singled out “Islamic extremists” as being particularly problematic, stating that non-violent but extreme views are unacceptable.
I fail to see what Theresa May really intends to do if people believe in their scriptures, be they Orthodox Muslim, Jew or Christian, as many of the lessons on morality and values within the scriptures are the same. For example all religious texts agree on sodomy being forbidden.
May mentions “Islamic extremism” as being intolerant of homosexuality whilst failing to produce any data or evidence that Muslims have been attacking or harassing homosexuals anymore than Orthodox Jews or Christians who hold the same beliefs.
Where is the evidence that Muslims take the law of the land into their own hands?
Pandering to the UKIP vote
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
Theresa May’s cracking down on Muslims and Islamic extremism seems to be a very conveniently-timed and cynical attempt to appeal to those voters who could be lured by UKIP and their anti-immigration message in the upcoming elections.
It is no secret that immigration is a very hot topic in political debates, as it always is during times of austerity. When people feel under financial constraints they tend to look to blame immigrants rather than big business and bankers who are the real problem.
However, one thing for the man in the street to grumble about immigrants and quite another to be so callous as to let refugees from war zones drown in the sea which apparently has been our Government policy recently.
So has our Government lost its British values?
Changing Britain
British society no longer feels the same as the Britain that I grew up in. Least of all when I read and listen to current news and events in the mainstream media.
The fact that the character of our society is changing and losing its more traditional “British values” is not a process stemming from the fact that Britain has accepted a large immigrant population over the last few decades. Rather, the change stems from leadership level and these new values trickle down through Government policy and are promoted by the mainstream media.
The Britain I grew up in was one where if someone stood on your foot YOU apologized to THEM for having your foot in their way.
We grew up being told not to stare or remark on someone who “looked a little different” from ourselves which covered everything from skin colour, ginger hair and freckles to disability. Politeness in dealing with everyone was paramount, not behaving in a “proper” way led to a swift smack from a parent, something which today’s children are in dire need of.
We were a people unable to complain when we received bad service (“don’t make a fuss”). We had to be taught how to complain by Ester Rantzen and her 1970’s TV. show “That’s Life,” and oh boy do we take complaining seriously nowadays as we exhibit rude, intolerant and obnoxious behaviour in shops, restaurants and on the roads.
We British were considered a nation of animal lovers who outsiders imagined loved their dogs more than their children.
But this week on LBC radio there was a phone-in discussion on the alarming rise of people torturing and killing animals in ever-increasingly imaginative ways.
What is happening to our society where such cruelty is taking place more often?
I guess only in Britain can you get a phone-in discussion on animal cruelty whilst hundreds of refugees are being drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. But to be fair to LBC that topic was discussed too.
I hardly need to remind Muslim readers of how our Prophet (saw) gave Muslims the example of how to treat animals through the Hadith narrated by Abu Hurrairah in Sahih Muslim about the prostitute who was admitted into Jannah (Paradise) for giving water to a thirsty dog.
How more explicit could the importance of treating ALL of Allah’s creation with kindness be than the promise of Jannah for one who was otherwise committing a major sin?
It is certainly not the migration of Muslims to the UK that is changing “British values;” in fact Britain NEEDS Muslims to promote Islamic values and to bring back religious values and the humanity which we should have but appear to have lost as British society become less religious and more selfish.
“Do unto others what you would have done unto you”
When I was a child I listened to the stories my parents, aunties, uncles and grandparents told about the refugee children that they had taken in from Holland during the Second World War.
I also heard the stories of how my Grandfather had visited the German prisoners of war in a nearby camp where officers were held; in fact he was allowed to bring home officers to eat with my family.
These officers were educated and cultured people. They enjoyed their visits where they played musical instruments with my grandfather who played the mandolin. My family treated the German officers with kindness and we still have wooden chairs and bowls that they carved by hand during their incarceration and gifted to my family.
One of the boys from Holland who was housed with my family as a refugee surprised my family a few years ago by seeking them out and finding them when he came to visit the UK with his wife and children. A warm and tearful reunion ensued.
These are what I call “British values” and were the values that I grew up with in my family.
A human being in need of shelter should be taken care of and I believe that international law provides rules on how to deal with refugees.
Society changes its values over time but not as rapidly as it changes its laws.
One of the obvious indicators that mankind is incapable of legislating for its own good is that laws are continuously changing.
Did it really take us two millennia or more to become “civilized” accepting people?
I think we need an explanation as to why our lawmakers (MPs) kept getting everything wrong for the last few centuries. In fact when our local candidates come and ask us to vote for them by telling us what they have to offer perhaps we should be asking them why their predecessors kept getting it wrong?
Why do they keep legislating then changing it again a few years later? Were two millennia of Christian values and laws that prohibited sodomy and legislated that marriage was between male and female wrong?
Were Brits supposedly living in one of the most “advanced” and “civilized” societies in the world actually uncivilised and unenlightened for two millennia?
No room at the Inn, the loss of Christian values
Information on the immigrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea indicate that a large percentage (24%) are refugees fleeing war in Syria.
Amongst these refugees are a large number of Palestinians who are refugees twice over, once from their homeland and again as victims of attacks on their refugee camps both by Assad’s armies and more recently by Daesh.
The media has been full of reports by human rights organisations as to the suffering of Palestinians in the refugee camp of Yarmouk but although the reality that some of the refugees have been dying of starvation for the last couple of years is reported in the media, the discussion is not taking place as to the reason why these refugees are still living in a refugee camp, decades after they were ethnically cleansed from their land in Palestine.
International law states that the Palestinians legally have the right of return to their homeland. The right of return is not debated anymore yet it is surely the central issue for Palestinians in the diaspora?
David Cameron’s solution to the problem of displaced people fleeing war and occupation was to stop funding search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea a few months ago.
However, after the recent large number of drowning’s which included children, the public were so shocked at our apparent callousness that something had to be “seen to be done”.
Cameron decided to send a ship from the Royal Navy to help rescue migrants but said Britain will accept zero immigrants and those rescued will be turned back from whence they came.
The UKIP party leader Nigel Farage says Britain should only accept Christian refugees but turn the Muslim ones back whilst the UKIP candidate for Hendon is suggesting that we should accept non-Muslim refugees but send Muslim ones to Saudi Arabia.
It has puzzled me why all the news reports focus on showing black refugees from Africa and ignoring the fact that so many are from Syria.
Could it be that they want to squash any discussion of our failure to provide a solution to the problems in Syria? Initially Britain promised to take Syrian refugees but the only evidence I can find on the Internet is that we have taken 50 Christian Syrian refugees.
This recent report by the Jesuits shows us that their community has worked to welcome a specific group (Christians) as refugees in the UK Does this mean that the government is quietly welcoming Christian refugees from Syria but not Muslim ones?
If a community can work for the good of their own religious grouping like the Jesuits are doing why are we not doing that as Muslims? The pro-Israel blogs and media never stop lamenting the fact that Christians are suffering in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and the Middle East as they engage in much finger-pointing and whataboutery whilst keeping quiet about the plight of Christian Arabs in Palestine who suffer just as much as Arab Muslims from ethnic cleansing and occupation.
The hardening of hearts and loss of “British values” in the UK is something we should all be concerned about.
We are all suffering from the “Israelification” of our society, especially where Islam is viewed as a threat to society and Muslims as “the other”. Our leaders and institutions are changing those very “British values” that they claim we Muslims reject.
In part 2, Laura presents her case that British Values have been completely lost.
