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Tuesday 22 February 2011

"We don't want to blame any particular group for this" - Naivety of the most extreme kind?

The BBC report that:
'It is no bigger than a postcard but appears to spread a message of hatred and division in an area of east London that many residents pride for its diversity.

Reprinted and glued to dozens of lampposts and railings in the area, a flyer states: "Arise and warn. Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment."

It has been discovered near to Shoreditch's gay pubs and outside a school in Whitechapel, both in Tower Hamlets, east London.

But a group of East End residents say they have had enough.

And rather than retaliating with anger, they are responding with messages of love.'
That seems fine, a group fighting back against homophobic messages of hatred with love. However the BBC also report about the group fighting back with 'messages of love':
'"The area is a multicultural, multi-sexuality place, where you can be who you are and believe in what you want.

...

Despite the quote on the stickers appearing to reference the religious Islamic text of the Koran, the group is keen not to point the finger of blame at any particular religious group.

"We don't want to blame any particular group for this," said Mr Blake.

"And if we did, we wouldn't want to tar everyone in a group with the same brush."'
It's a tricky one, isn't it. What religious group, known for its intolerance of homosexuality might put up a poster that includes the words "Verily Allah is severe in punishment."? Very, very tricky...

Are some people so brainwashed by political correctness that they dare not even blame the posters on a minority of Muslims or an extreme Islamist group? Are some people so scared of being called Islamophobic that they will deny the evidence right in front of them?

Not all Muslims are homophobic but it surely should not be unacceptable to say that some are and that in this instance it is rather likely that some are putting up these repellent posters.



1 comment:

Quiet_Man said...

Jack Gilbert, the co-chair of LGBT forum Rainbow Hamlets, suggested that they could be the work of the groups such as the English Defence League.

“We have evidence that they were very likely to have been produced by far-right sources in order to forment community tension,” he said. Link

Seriously clutching at straws aren't they?