Hecklers disrupt British Home Secretary's speech on combatting extremism

FinsburyParkCarrots

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5362052.stm

Try the audio and video link, "Hecklers interrupt John Reid's speech".

It's a sad flashpoint scene, and some of the comments from ordinary British muslims, at the end of the video clip, don't provide much hope for Reid's vision of dialogue.

rebornFixer

This is why dialogue seems like such a remote option these days ... People would prefer to heckle (although why one would want to heckle someone who wants to combat extremism is seriously a mystery to me).

FinsburyParkCarrots

I'm watching the link to the entire speech now, to try and figure out what the trigger was.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Okay, it was while Reid was saying that extremists weren't just attacking the west, but their own people in Asia. Then this bloke just exploded, about Reid and the police being enemies of Islam.

rebornFixer

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Okay, it was while Reid was saying that extremists weren't just attacking the west, but their own people in Asia. Then this bloke just exploded, about Reid and the police being enemies of Islam.

What do you make of this? Reid wasn't speaking falsehoods. Again, its people flying off the handle and taking comments about extremists personally (which makes you wonder where peoples' sympathies actually lie, does it not?) ...

FinsburyParkCarrots

I don't care for Reid usually, but this was a reasonable, inclusive and open speech. It was his claim that most of al-qaeda's victims have been muslims, that prompted this bloke to want to shout him down. I don't think Reid is playing the old divide-and-rule routine. I think he is asking the muslim community to try to police itself, for its own interests. "By helping the community, you're helping yuorself as well."

NMyTree

He feels Muslims are being targeted or profiled by the Police and British Intelligence.

Well, guess what, Abu? You are! You know why?



If Portuguese Catholics started waging a holy war (or jihad) on America or Bon the Brits, who should the agents start investigating and profiling? Africans? Asians? Scotts? Irish? Middle Easterners? Hawaiians?

Maybe in this scenario they should start profiling Australians?

:rolleyes:

NMyTree

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I don't care for Reid usually, but this was a reasonable, inclusive and open speech. It was his claim that most of al-qaeda's victims have been muslims, that prompted this bloke to want to shout him down. I don't think Reid is playing the old divide-and-rule routine. I think he is asking the muslim community to try to police itself, for its own interests. "By helping the community, you're helping yuorself as well."

Agreed.............

FinsburyParkCarrots

NMyTree wrote:

He feels Muslims are being targeted or profiled by the Police and British Intelligence.

Well, guess what, Abu? You are! You know why?



If Portuguese Catholics started waging a holy war (or jihad) on America or Bon the Brits, who should the agents start investigating and profiling? Africans? Asians? Scotts? Irish? Middle Easterners? Hawaiians?

Maybe in this scenario they should start profiling Australians?

:rolleyes:

Irish people were profiled in the 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland, and the IRA's UK bombing campaigns. Innocent people were imprisoned on false or suspect evidence. So the British police do have a reputation to outgrow.

However, I think Reid was really inferring that he wanted to move beyond this risk of blanket profiling, by encouraging dialogue and co-operation, between communities. If you can home in on who the extremists are likely to be, there's going to be better intelligence and far decreased likelihood of ordinary muslims being wrongfully detained. It's not simply a case of encouraging parents to "shop" their own sons to the police, but a way of trying to address issues of the relationship between family and the broader community, as a means of integration. I don't think this was police-state spin, to weaken muslim families from within (as I'm sure some might see it), but a practical proposal to eliminating the risk of political violence at home.

There were issues that Reid didn't really address, such as understanding muslim people's dissent over the west's involvement in Iraq, or the funding of Israel's military campaigns. These are aspects of state violence that are most contentious. But I think Reid did try to talk about radicalism and its danger to all communities.

NMyTree

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

However, I think Reid was really inferring that he wanted to move beyond this risk of blanket profiling, by encouraging dialogue and co-operation, between communities. If you can home in on who the extremists are likely to be, there's going to be better intelligence and far decreased likelihood of ordinary muslims being wrongfully detained. .

Of course.

But are they willing to co-operate and show unity with the non-muslims of the country and authorities?

That's the question.

The answer will go a long way to defining where they stand and what their true feelings and motives are.

FinsburyParkCarrots

I think one other factor is, whether this meeting was just another bit of Labour spin, a press meeting without substance, or whether Reid's ushering in a cohesive policy, or programme here. To work together, communities need a setting or basis for dialogue to occur (not just the odd government or police leaflet through the door).

FinsburyParkCarrots

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5364018.stm

Some varied reactions, there.