Okay Dominic,
You've set me off now. I don't know anything about Gillian McKeith but I am
really bothered by the recent anti-muslim turn in the tabloid press. I work
with many muslims (and have done for the whole of my adult working life). I
talk to many muslim students and I am very concerned by what I am reading in
the press. For one thing, 'muslim' is an incredibly broad term. I share an
office with a muslim woman with a maly/singapore background. I would find
it impossible to lump her into a category that included some of my pakistani
students, for instance...
Your message is not my only trigger. I received a copy of 'The Sun' through
my letterbox this morning, by accident. The lead story is about a 'Muslim
hate mob' who wrecked a house containing some 'hero soldiers back from
Afghanistan'. The footer bears a picture of a woman wearing a Niqab with a
headline referring to the Burqa (never mind they all look the same don't
they?).
I am really disturbed by recent calls for feminists to argue against muslim
veils. Since the French government outlawed veils I have seen a marked
increase in the politicisation of Muslim women students and an obvious
increase in the number of them that have 'taken the veil'. Let Muslims and
Mulsim women, in particular, sort it out for themselves. Pressure from
outside merely increases pressure on the inside and helps no-one.
p.s. I'm sure that if journalists from The Sun had tried really hard they
would have found far more racial attacks upon muslims/non-whites than
vice-versa yesterday. Where there is a will there is a way, as they say.
Tina
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: Written In The Hope That Gillian McKeith Chokes On Someone
Else's Vomit
> On 10/7/06, Jennifer Compton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> just iot back to poetryetc after 6 months away
>> how has gillian mckeith offended?
>>
>
> By existing. Although her existence were in itself innocuous, or at
> worst mildly nocuous. By being a symptom, then, of a general
> condescension, buttressed by bogus credentials and with sinister
> overtones.
>
> Jimmy Carr, on the telly the other night: "We need a little chlorine
> in the gene pool". Jonathon Ross, that same evening: "Maybe we ought
> to put something in the water to stop some people from reproducing.
> *cough* Council estates! *cough*".
>
> This plus a ridiculous, cried-up secular-democratic fervour against
> Muslims. As if there were more than a handful of genuine secular
> democrats to be found anywhere between Land's End and John O'Groats.
> As if even the worst of the Muslims were any worse than the worst of
> the Anglicans.
>
> We seem to be on a mission to rival the Victorians for smug, canting
> hypocrisy. Pity we can't also rival them for industry, social vigour
> or scientific discovery.
>
> Dominic
>
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