I am surprised at the level of Islamophobia on Mumsnet

[Cyclebabble]

I have seen a number of threads on Mumsnet over the last couple of days that question relationships with Muslim men, Muslim Marriages and suggest that Islam is an extreme religion looking to take over the world. I am a Hindu (nominally at least), but come from a country where inter faith marriages are common and where I am friends with and related to a number of Muslims.

Guess what. They are all normal people just looking to get on with their lives, doing the best for their family and friends. They are good citizens and they harm no-one.

There is a building view on Mumsnet that Islam is dangerous, repressive and looking to take over the world. It is now different to any other religion, as are the people.

Your mum sounds lovely, DanielGault, and I can quite see she'd have struggled at the time, but then that's what you get when a load of manmade nonsense gets piled onto a few basic tenets and community pressure is added to that

She's a star tbh. She was raised catholic and was a very good one, but when it came to the marriage and abortion refs she put some serious thought in and decided to go against the indoctrination. She suffered abuse for 30 odd years by my father (encouraged by the local priest, who she knew, as she was in the choir), and eventually said fuck this, I'm out. She tricked him into him going on holiday on his own, and when he got back she was moved out. She has since remarried and is really happy. She's really quite inspirational tbh.

A star indeed, DanielGault, and how wonderful that she finally found happiness away from this kind of indoctrination

Please don't speak for all Indians. I am the dd of Indian immigrants who mixed with all cultures, but I cannot say the same for my generation in my family which is huge, they have mostly stuck to the indians/ east africans to socialise with and have not mixed culturally with anyone else. I however have married a muslim man and I can definitely say his family is very culturally diverse, have plenty of ethnicities in the family. All his family including the next generation were allowed to marry who they wanted and have never shied away from having friends from all ethnicities and cultures, more so than my own hindu/ indian family. There are plenty of families like this that I know of. There are plenty of Indians who have been in this country for generations who still cannot speak the english language as they never mix with any other nationalities.

Thank you 😀

Now he's not exactly my favourite person in the world but I don't think Rishi Sunak has ever thrown anyone off the roof of a tall building.

He was probably tempted a few times when Boris was standing in front of an open window. But as far as we know, he resisted the urge.

This!! this is exactly what I hear from my own Indian family. They have no understanding at all. They only read the Daily Fail and the racist WhatsApp messages. My dad understands my viewpoint but occasionally my mum makes the odd comment, without any back up to what she is saying. She just the old trope that is bandied about.
Although I am Indian/ Hindu by decent I will never step foot in India, will only do this when Modi is removed from office.
My DH Muslim family are the most loving family and so accepting of everyone regardless of colour, religion. They just want to get on with their daily lives and not impose on anyone.
If everyone stopped reading the racist tripe pushed out by the likes of the Daily Mail, GB News, Fox News, EDL the world would be a much better place.

Imagine if I had written this, regarding the pro Israeli marches!
Your islamophobia is showing.

I m happy to know the situation is better in India, I have seen myself in West Africa Catholics and Muslims cohabit, inter-marry, etc. without trouble either. I wish we could all have this.

But most people of Muslim faith in UK/Europe conform to (or do not dare to publicly question/criticise) a conservative, sexist and intolerant practice of their religion, under the geopolitical influence of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iran.

Saudi Arabia by ex. has been spreading its awfully sexist, belligerent and intolerant version of the Qu'ran, by financing the building of many mosques all over the world, staffing them with their extremist imams, sometimes even paying their salaries, thanks to petro-dollars since the 80s.

In countries like India or West Africa, where Islam was already established, there was no need for this help, so they have stayed relatively shielded.

But for Muslims settling in Europe and who needed to build mosques, open faith schools, from scratch and for the naive Western governments who tried to fill this valid need, too often, they accepted the Saudis' help and Trojan Horsed themselves into religious extremism.

I'll take this thread seriously when the Bately Grammar School teacher is able to come out of hiding.

Indeed. It is appalling that he lives in fear. Most people in the UK live in harmony particularly where people try not to disturb others and curtail their own practices to fit in with the 95%+ of us who are Christian or Atheist in the UK. In 2 or 3 generations people tend to mix in and adopt the host culture so there is much to be hopeful for.

I’m not Muslim or any religion to be honest but I agree with you OP. I read through a thread earlier on a protest in Germany reported on by Fox News. I didn’t post but found myself shaking my head a lot and gave thanks to those who valiantly challenged some of the rhetoric on display.

I work with Muslims and they are normal everyday people. I don’t know why they are judged based on the extremists, no other group of people are judged based on the extremist element in their group. And every group has an extremist element.

It’s sad to see but it’s transparent and at the same time I’m glad many are challenging.

You couldn't write it about the counter protests.
You think it's comparable because your antisemitism is showing.

Where?

Ummm I’m not Hindu ? Stereotyping much ?

Just read the OP, I am sure you can find it.

see I can distinguish the person from their religion - I don’t blame my friends for the poor experiences I’ve had with larger Muslim groups. I’m not going to list every negative experience I’ve ever had because I’ve got better things to do with my life but 99% of the racist abuse I’ve received (and there have been over 5 in the last yrs) has been from Muslims. Not to mention my family are from Punjab (that’s in northern India for most of you) and we border Pakistan. The violent clashes between Muslims and non Muslims since partition is frequent and bloody with Muslims being the aggressor

i hope those defending Islam have done their research like I have and understand that mandate Islam has. If you are happy to live under Sharia law then good luck to you but kiss goodbye your western freedoms like women rights and LGBTQ. I find it shocking how naive people are. You can’t support both.

Of course, I am as well as being everything else. Did I touch a nerve?

When you literally scream “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and end with the burning of a Jewish effigy what do think you are protesting. It’s anti-semitism. Frankly it’s disgusting and you need to get OVER YOURSELF

Are you saying that we have a choice of being anti Islam or accepting Sharia law here in The UK?

That sounds utterly bizarre. I’ve lived in multiple places with high proportions of Muslim residents and spent a lot of time in other “Muslim” areas and I’ve never experienced or seen this.

Did I say anywhere “I speak for all Indians” …………….

nope. I understand why generationally there was a tendency for immigrants (all immigrants not just Indians) to move into similar areas. That was the safe choice back in the 60s. Get it, respect it. It’s the reality that Muslims are statistically 89% less likely to speak English and 76% less likely to marry out of their religion. It demonstrates a mentality to “keep to their own” which is ridiculous in this country.

Pardon? I scream "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and end with the burning of a Jewish effigy? I am at a loss to even try to understand what this is about.
You are showing yourself in very poor light by insulting me ( against the rules) and by shouting at me.
In the future, do not let your emotions control you.