Now I'm getting Scared
After the attack on Pearl Harbour Japanese immigrants, their children and families were seen as a threat to national security in Canada and America. Thousands upon thousands of Canadian and American citizens, naturalized as well as born , were uprooted from their homes and livelihoods , everything they owned confiscated and sold, and forcibly removed to internment camps for the duration of the war. These were people who had no wish or will to support Japan but they were given no choice and it was done under the guise of national security. After the war many felt they had no option but repatriation to Japan, though most had been born on the North American continent and had never been to Japan.
Now we are told there is a new threat, Islamic terrorism.
It can't be denied that within the Islamic world there are those that preach hate and are willing to kill for what they believe but what is ignored are the vast majority of Islamic people who do not support this wilful corruption of the teachings of the Koran.
What scares me now is the mood I've seen developing, a mood that breeds suspicion and makes people behave in the most outrageous manner.
Aouled Amor Maher is a 22 year old student at Kairouan University in Tunisia. He is studying to teach English. His father is a Police Inspector. This year he took part in an exchange programme run by Tamworth College for the last 10 years. He was one of 50 students who stay with host families in the area and use their time in England to brush up on their English.
Aouled got on the local bus from Tamworth to Lichfield, which passes through Whittington Village. His private conversation with another passenger was eavesdropped on by another woman passenger. This woman took it upon herself to decide that because Aouled looked suspicious ( dark skin, wrong accent) was carrying a rucksack and asking question about Whittington he must be a terrorist. She made the driver stop the bus in Whittington, phoned the police to report this suspected terrorist, made everyone else get off the bus and then proceeded to make Aouled remove his shoes and search his bag. The police duly arrived and after taking Aouled back to his host family established he was no threat to anyone. I've noticed this woman has not come forward to explain what she was thinking or where she thought she had the right to search his personal belongings.
Why does this scare me? This is not some urban myth, this happened in the place where I live. Whoever did this is my neighbour. Now I hear people talking about how the best thing that the government could do is lock all the Muslims up or send them back to where ever they came from. Which brings me back to the Japanese citizens of North America.
Some would say that such a thing could never happen again but one only has to look at the immigration centres and asylum seeker camps run by the British government to see it wouldn't be that difficult to make the next step.
With a government that is willing to ban fox hunting, despite all the evidence collected by its own reviews and inquiries against such a ban, simply to appease a vociferous minority I wonder just how loud a movement to intern British Muslims would have to be.
Now we are told there is a new threat, Islamic terrorism.
It can't be denied that within the Islamic world there are those that preach hate and are willing to kill for what they believe but what is ignored are the vast majority of Islamic people who do not support this wilful corruption of the teachings of the Koran.
What scares me now is the mood I've seen developing, a mood that breeds suspicion and makes people behave in the most outrageous manner.
Aouled Amor Maher is a 22 year old student at Kairouan University in Tunisia. He is studying to teach English. His father is a Police Inspector. This year he took part in an exchange programme run by Tamworth College for the last 10 years. He was one of 50 students who stay with host families in the area and use their time in England to brush up on their English.
Aouled got on the local bus from Tamworth to Lichfield, which passes through Whittington Village. His private conversation with another passenger was eavesdropped on by another woman passenger. This woman took it upon herself to decide that because Aouled looked suspicious ( dark skin, wrong accent) was carrying a rucksack and asking question about Whittington he must be a terrorist. She made the driver stop the bus in Whittington, phoned the police to report this suspected terrorist, made everyone else get off the bus and then proceeded to make Aouled remove his shoes and search his bag. The police duly arrived and after taking Aouled back to his host family established he was no threat to anyone. I've noticed this woman has not come forward to explain what she was thinking or where she thought she had the right to search his personal belongings.
Why does this scare me? This is not some urban myth, this happened in the place where I live. Whoever did this is my neighbour. Now I hear people talking about how the best thing that the government could do is lock all the Muslims up or send them back to where ever they came from. Which brings me back to the Japanese citizens of North America.
Some would say that such a thing could never happen again but one only has to look at the immigration centres and asylum seeker camps run by the British government to see it wouldn't be that difficult to make the next step.
With a government that is willing to ban fox hunting, despite all the evidence collected by its own reviews and inquiries against such a ban, simply to appease a vociferous minority I wonder just how loud a movement to intern British Muslims would have to be.
posted by Jodie @ 10:03 pm
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