BNP to use those cartoons

Shameless opportunism by the Nazis for May's local elections in England. Pictured are their campaign materials.

How should the Muslim community react? Waiting for the political parties to stand up against Islamophobia reaps nothing as we saw recently at Trafalgar Square. Doing nothing and hoping they go away does not seem to be an option. No doubt many in the community will want to confront, which may well be playing directly into BNP hands. It's Catch 22 and an effective strategy will have to be defined quickly.

Comments

[DesertPeace]

This presents a prfect opportunity for the Jewish community to stand alongside their Muslim 'cousins'.... will be interesting to see if it happens.

[ainelivia]

I just wonder what "Christian" culture they are referring to. Where would Catholics, (who up to the recent past were excluded on the basis of their beliefs in this country) feel they sit in this?

These (BNP) are the type of groups who's definition of "Christian" is probably very narrow to begin with. I wonder if any of them actually regularly attend Church or pray.

Why do the newspapers give them the oxygen of publicity?

[George Carty]

I think "Christian" as used by the BNP is nothing more than a code word for "White". After all, the original German Nazis were hardly Christian, as evidenced by Himmler's infatuation with pagan Germanic myths...

[The Neurocentric]

Perhaps the best response to the poster on the right (We owe it to our children to defend our Christian culture), is to point out that Muslims are in fact the ones preserving traditional "Christian" values. Clearly marketing and media are the most potent corosives of cultural values. But I suppose, let's be frank, they're not concerned about Christian culture in the religious sense, but rather about a narrow nationalist utilisation of it. Speaking as the son of CofE Priests, I think I could reasonably argue that their best means of preserving their Christian culture is by actually entering the door of a church. Controversial, I know.

But yes, that's my view. Campaign against them by showing how our (Muslim) culture preserves their tradtional (Christian) culture -- family values, getting married, being good to neighbours, etc. etc.

[Sohaib]

Neurocentric, I think you have made an excellent point.

[lankan]

A spokesman for the BNP said that half a million leaflets had gone out to 14 local groups across the country.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2053659,00.html
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I wonder how much of this is self inflicted. if any one says they didn't forsee this comming, they were kidding themselves.

bnp:"He said that the use of the image, juxtaposed with a photograph of Muslim demonstrators carrying banners urging violence and death against publishers of the cartoon, was not intended to cause offence, but to illustrate that Islamic and Western values do not mix."

when people say western vales, they are talking about secularism and not necessarily christian values.

[George Carty]

when people say western vales, they are talking about secularism and not necessarily christian values.

True enough - one atheist Islamophobe I encountered on Usenet argued that Christianity was preferable to Islam because it had more internal inconsistencies...

[lankan]

bnp 's arguments are a juxtaposition of arguments they've read from both left and right.

someone needs to clarify what the values people speek of represent. "british values" is often used by new labour to represent tolerance and multicultural ism . "chritian values" often by the non practising but self-righteous Right and "western values" by seclarist/humanist/atheist .

[ainelivia]

I have developed a bit of an allergy to the word "tolerance", I'm sure that my neighbour, whoever they might be, and however they might differ from the so called mainstream society, would prefer that I accept them and their difference rather than tolerate them. Speaking as an Irish Catholic Woman married to an Asian man I say this from experience.

[Osama]

Quite right, "tolerate" is something you do with a bad smell, "respect" is something you give to human beings.