Muslim Shopkeeper Protests

[trt]

they just go back to a Country where their religion is welcome.

Young children out shopping with their parents must have been frightened to death, seeing all those chanting women in Burkas!

I bet the shopkeepers were not to pleased, with only 10 days to go before Xmas, Muslim or not?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523658/Muslim-campaigners-protest-sale-alcohol-popular-East-London-area.html

[viv38]

Couldn't agree more sir.prize.

[Kromovaracun]

To be honest, I'm not particularly worried about potential terrorist links - I think the proportion of Muslims in this country who are actually a threat to national security is too tiny for an average citizen to really worry about.

What I do worry about is how this protest represents an assault on reason. While I'm sure most Muslims are peaceful, it does seem a reasonably strong proportion that hold regressive views on sexual morality, and hold to frankly idiotic suggestions for solving social problems (e.g. "ban alcohol") for no reason other than that it is consistent with their religion.

That's my problem - Islam is one example of how religion is depriving this country of human minds. It is an unashamed champion of stupidity.

[LazyGun]

When you read about Choudharys exploits, in my idle moments I cannot help but speculate that he is, in fact, a stooge for an anti-muslim group, and not just the calculating fanatical islamist that he appears :)

His every action and word seem calculatingly inflammatory, designed to infuriate the general public and turn them against muslims. I suppose you can recruit more fanatics and zealots from a demographic that feels demonised and under threat than from one that is more or less successfully assimilated into society...

[New Judge]

A few days ago there was a question about the segregation by gender requested by some Muslim speakers when addressing audiences of students at UK universities. Most people were astonished that this should even have been considered, let alone condoned by such a body as “universities UK”, a publicly funded umbrella group. In their 41 page guidance issued to universities to help them deal with the extremely tricky problems involved with inviting a guest to address students, they had suggested it may be acceptable “in some circumstances”. Some argued that such an acceptance (which is arguable contrary to UK law, certainly not park of the culture of most people in the UK and not to mention downright rude and insulting) was “the thin end of the wedge”. Others responding to that thread howled down such suggestions as “ridiculous”. I made it clear that I considered that the thin end of the wedge should always be a consideration when dealing with such issues.

And now we see this. So how long before Tower Hamlets Council suggests it may be acceptable “in some circumstances” to prohibit the sale of alcohol in certain areas. They may argue that since the majority of people living in an area are Muslim and that their religion prevents its consumption, it is perfectly reasonable to restrict or deny liquor licences in such areas. Or is this just another wedge, the “thin end of which we need not trouble ourselves with.

[Svejk]

Perhaps an undercover Daily Mail reporter, lg.

[FredPuli43]

The words used do matter because they might not amount to a threat or 'menaces'.;If he was saying "Do you realise that , if this were Saudi Arabia, you'd be facing forty lashes ?" that would be no threat and not intended as one. Somehow, I don't think he did express his displeasure in such terms.His aim is to stop the sale of alcohol by Muslims, and he was addressing himself to Muslims, who would know that alcohol is forbidden in Islam. It would be pointless to tell them so, without more. "You face forty lashes" is rather more persuasive !

[LazyGun]

Well to be fair, Choudhary and his supporters on this particular occasion were not marching against the consumption and sale of alcohol in general; it was more a campaign directed at muslim shopowners who sold alcohol and perhaps those muslims that consumed it.

And I really cannot see any local authority restricting the issue of alcohol licences based upon race/creed, can you?

[sir.prize]

A ban on Muslims selling alcohol wouldn't help the corner shops.

[sp1814]

NJ

"And now we see this. So how long before Tower Hamlets Council suggests it may be acceptable “in some circumstances” to prohibit the sale of alcohol in certain areas"

Not in my lifetime.

[FredPuli43]

Some hypotheses are more fanciful, more theoretical in their conclusions, than real. "How long before..." ? and "thin end of the wedge" propositions may fall into this category.

Let us assume that Tower Hamlets decides that the sale of alcohol in the Borough, or in some defined area of it, should be stopped because it is against Islam. How could this decision be enforced in law ? How would the Council close every pub, every bar, every supermarket and 'corner shop',every off-licence, every garage and restaurant that sells alcohol, or stop these places from so doing in the defined area? How, indeed would it prevent deliveries of alcohol, bought online, coming in to the defined area or the Borough, which, logically, it might have to do?

[New Judge]

"And I really cannot see any local authority restricting the issue of alcohol licences based upon race/creed, can you? "

Until recently I would not have imagined a publicly funded body in the UK suggest that it "may be acceptable" to segregate adult audiences on the lines of gender based on the creed of the speaker. But that's precisely what happened and whilst it is true that UUK withdrew that part of their guidance (albeit only after pressure from some MPs) I find it incredible that it should ever have been considered. But we live in times where the incredible has a nasty habit of suddenly becoming acceptable, especially when "religious sensitivities" are involved.

[LazyGun]

I really hate being put in the position of appearing to defend a fanatic, one whom I profoundly disagree with - but, to repeat - This demonstration by Choudhary was not aimed at banning the sale or consumption of alcohol by the general public - it was specifically aimed at muslim shopowners /restauranteurs and maybe muslim consumers of alcohol.

It is Choudhary being his usual inflammatory self no question, but to assume that, as a consequence of this poorly attended rally - aimed at Muslim business owners, not the general public- Tower Hamlets are suddenly going to forsake UK law and introduce Sharia Law and also penalise muslim business owners by refusing to issue them alcohol licenses, I think you would be gravely mistaken.

[sandyRoe]

Apart from alcohol, would these shopkeepers sell other goods considered haram, such as bacon or ham?

[anotheoldgit]

LazyGun

/// When you read about Choudharys exploits, in my idle moments I cannot help but speculate that he is, in fact, a stooge for an anti-muslim group, and not just the calculating fanatical islamist that he appears :) ///

/// His every action and word seem calculatingly inflammatory, designed to infuriate the general public and turn them against muslims. I suppose you can recruit more fanatics and zealots from a demographic that feels demonised and under threat than from one that is more or less successfully assimilated into society...///

This one has got to go down in my file of AnswerBank's ludicrous supportive Muslim excuses.

Yes it would seem that Choudhary is either an undercover Daily Mail reporter has already suggested or maybe a member of the EDL, the BNP, UKIP or perhaps yet another Far-Right association or perhaps just another racist, Nazi, fascist a bigot to boot, instead of the very dangerous fanatical and extremist Muslim we have come to expect?

But then it is not just Choudhary alone, there are plenty of other Muslims who constantly 'infuriate the general public'