Pat Condell

[ozzydingo]

I've been watching Pat Condell videos on You Tube and he seems to be very critical of Islam, (and rightly so). He often talks about how Islamic law (aka Sharia) is being enforced in the UK for Muslims.

I suggest you take a gander for yourself.

Has anyone Pat Condell's videos on YouTube?

Kindest Regards,

Jonathon

[cleo]

Watched it Jonathon..... Got to say that I thought he was interesting and easy to listen to, but I thought he was very biased and fearmongering in his content....

As a woman who lives in the UK and who has lived alongside muslims and had muslim friends, both male and female,- (hey I lived for a number of years in hospital digs- and there are loads of muslim doctors and nurses there!) I thought it was inflammatory, biased and mainly untrue- certainly of the UK.

I agree that fundamentalist Islam has been used to whip followers up into a frenzy so that attrocities are perpetuated- but that is true of most fundamentalist groups...

I think the way forward is the way Obama is going- to find commonalities and middle ground, to relate to each other as fellow humans first, and then discuss differences and work to resolution. To begin by demonising any group of people or belief system, is in my opinion, counterproductive, as in my life experience there are good and bad people in all walks of life. When we demonise whole swathes of people, they get defensive, especially when the minority, and either submit and are resentful, or fight back and stereotype back.

When I look at history over the longer term, I see more tyranical activity from the west over the east than the other way round, why are we surprised there is a backlash now? Doesn't make the backlash right, but IMHO we need to work for commonalities and middle ground rather than join the entrenched taking of sides and demonisation.

[naz]

Maybe a thread about common myths and misconceptions about Islam is in order.

[ydoaPs]

That is the only video of his I've seen.

Nov 28, 2009 15:10:07 GMT naz said:

Maybe a thread about common myths and misconceptions about Islam is in order.

Great idea. Any rational Muslims at CRAM that you think would like to do it?

[naz]

Nov 28, 2009 19:07:39 GMT ydoaPs said:

That is the only video of his I've seen.

Full of more holes than a block of swiss cheese. typical antitheist drivel.

Nov 28, 2009 15:10:07 GMT naz said:

Maybe a thread about common myths and misconceptions about Islam is in order.

Great idea. Any rational Muslims at CRAM that you think would like to do it?

Don't think there are any on there. But I might take it on if I get the notion.

[ozzydingo]

I think also Condell is a satirist. So I'd expect holes in his argument!

[Roarian]

Quite a bit of what he says is satire, methinks, though he does get serious from time to time.

[dahduh]

Nov 28, 2009 8:47:11 GMT cleo said:

As a woman who lives in the UK and who has lived alongside muslims and had muslim friends, both male and female,- (hey I lived for a number of years in hospital digs- and there are loads of muslim doctors and nurses there!) I thought it was inflammatory, biased and mainly untrue- certainly of the UK.

Andrew Sullivan posted a link to a fascinating article on radical Islamists who had been born and raised in the UK. What makes interesting reading is how they got that way. The common pattern is that they felt rejected by the society around them, by both the right and the left. On the right it was skinheads beating up and even murdering friends who associated with them. On the left - well here's the full context:

Yet they felt equally shut out of British or democratic identity. From the right, there was the brutal nativist cry of "Go back where you came from!" But from the left, there was its mirror-image: a gooey multicultural sense that immigrants didn't want liberal democratic values and should be exempted from them. Again and again, they described how at school they were treated as "the funny foreign child", and told to "explain their customs" to the class. It patronised them into alienation.

And due to this alienation, they got drawn into the warped little world of radical Islam.

So while Condell pulls no punches, he is at least demanding adherence to liberal values - freedom of speech, equality for women, and so on - and consequently that Muslims not be given any special exemptions on account of their 'traditions'. And I agree with him. Just because someone claims to believe something that doesn't mean they have license to practice their bigotry in a free society. You're not doing anyone any favors, not even the people you are supposedly 'respecting'.