To find the marches in London depressing

[JohnStuartMills]

I should probably put this in chat, but most traffic seems to come through here. There just seems to be so many hate filled people on both sides really. Angry I can understand, but these people are not just angry, they are filled with hate.

I know there is great injustice in the world, and many people in the west feel the Palestinians and many other countries have been greatly wronged. Robert Fisk's writing on this is very informative .

However, the Muslims on the March are like Herrenvolk fascists. They don't seem to be marching at injustice. Just placards like 'Islam will dominate the world'. They just seem to be angry that they don't dominate the world and aren't the one's socking it to the rest of us.

The EDL are also like thug fascists. However, they make no pretence of what they are about. They are not pretending to stand against injustice. Also they are a percentage on any population that would be thugs anyway. Not so the Muslim marchers.

I thought it was the TUC marching in Londond today?

Or 'London' even

I want to apologize for post putting a blanket statement about Muslims. I know that marches are infiltrated a lot of the time by ne'er do well whose objective is to cause trouble and it was a deeply unfair and maybe not representative of lots of people on the march. Probably knee-jerk unreflective response. Sorry, if I've offended anyone unfairly.

Are they marching today?

No, there are people outside the US embassy re recent us involvement in Pakistan.

I'm wrong, it's a demonstration, not a march.

They marched in February (I think). Any particular reason to bring it up now?

I don't know why I don't find the EDL so depressing. Their raison d'etre is hateful but they are so insignificant you don't feel their existence impacts on society in any way. People don't give any credence to their 'doctrine'.

meditrina, I just saw it in the paper today. I suppose I find it worrying.

I do slightly agree with you I think. I love that we have the freedom in this country to protest however I dont think marches or demonstrations do anything other than piss people off with town centres being blocked off, mass disruptions and a lot of negative press.

Everyone knows the way to change the country is to get mumsnetters behind it anyway

Do you mean this from The Independent about the "funeral" held outside the US Embassy? I don't think it's typical of Muslim opinion.

I liked the quotation, concerning both the demonstrators and the EDL, from a bystander given in the last paragraph: "I think both sides are pathetic, quite frankly. It's disappointing and horrible to listen to the threats. They are all an embarrassment to this country."

Not for one minute am I saying people shouldn't have the right to assemble/protest. The civil rights marches etc. were vehicles against injustice. But with freedom comes great responsibility, as they say. Maybe the press zone in on what they want to use to depict their viewpoint in order to bolster the network/paper's prejudice.

I find any form of extremism depressing, but it is horrific that these particular extremists are allowed to, effectively, incite religious hatred by publicly advocating murder and repression.

Why aren't moderate Muslims challenging these fanatics?

Don't mind marches as long as they don't stop ordinary non-marching people from going about their lawful occasions - which may not be popular with the marchers which is JTB.