Could The Last Seemingly Permissible Prejudice, Islamophobia, Lead To Miscarriages Of Justice?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27970870

[Buenchico]

Definitely.

Michael Mansfield is an incredibly intelligent and able barrister, who has repeatedly turned down the chance to join the Bench in favour of continuing to represent defendants in particularly tricky cases. (If we're going to have an Honours system, he should have been Knighted many years ago but his defence of many people who are opposed to 'the establishment' has probably prevented that). His views should not be dismissed easily.

[Buenchico]

Is Islamophobia actually 'the last seemingly permissible prejudice' though? There still seems to be plenty of class and racial prejudice in our courts, with working-class black defendants far more likely to be convicted (and to receive heavier sentences) than white middle-class defendants charged with similar offences.

[Svejk]

no such thing as islamophobia.

[sandyRoe]

You've only to look at some of the posts in R&S to see that people who would deny any other bias are happy to '***-off' an entire religion.

[Buenchico]

>>>no such thing as islamophobia

Somebody had better tell the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary then!
"Islamophobia, n. : Intense dislike or fear of Islam, esp. as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims." (First recorded in the Journal of Theological Studies, 1923)

[pixie373]

Yes. It definitely exists and is an unfair prejudice. A bad minority of any group, doesn't represent the rest.

[Svejk]

I understood a phobia was an irrational fear. Some people have tangible fears of muslims and some people, like me, just don't like them. ;)

[Svejk]

as for Mansfield, he's talking through his big, fat, champagne socialist arse, again, to curry favour with people of his ilk, I presume.

[sandyRoe]

Say what you think about him, Svejk. Don't be holding back.

[Svejk]

;o)

[naomi24]

I don't think we will see miscarriages of justice simply because Islamic terrorists who survive their actions are very willing to confess. They don't deny what they do. The whole point of the exercise is to do what they perceive to be Allah's will and to reap the perceived rewards.

Yes, Islamophobia does exist, and with good reason.

[pixie373]

Prejudgment is never "good reason".

[naomi24]

.... but caution could be.

[sandyRoe]

Would Dr Taufiq Al Sattar be a suitable target for Islamophobia? He seems to me to be a good man in every regard.

[sandyRoe]

Naomi, by its nature a miscarriage of justice means that its victims are innocent. They would be protesting their innocence, wouldn't they?

[naomi24]

Exactly, in the strange and, to the westerner, unrecognisable world of radical Islam the innocent would protest their innocence - the guilty would not.

Christianophobia, Buddhismophobia, Judaismophobia, or any other religious phobia is unheard of, and no need to ask why? The Middle East - and more - is in turmoil; the news is full of tales of radicalised Muslims going to fight Jihad and potentially coming back here with murder in mind; British schools are being influenced by fundamentalist Islam; buildings, buses, trains, etc., etc., around the world are bombed; thousands are slaughtered - and the man in the street hasn't the foggiest idea if the bloke getting into the lift with him is trustworthy or not. All of that might make unsavoury reading, but that's what's happening, so you really can't blame people for worrying.

[jim360]

Antisemitism, Naomi?

[naomi24]

No, Jim. That's something entirely different. Few worry that the Jew sitting next to them on the 7.30 flight to Paris might be carrying a bomb.

[jim360]

Different, perhaps, but entirely different? No. Regardless of the incidence of Radical Muslim terror attacks, it's an irrational prejudice to assume that because someone looks vaguely like he might be a Muslim, he's possibly carrying a bomb. It's equally irrational and prejudiced to make assumptions about Jewish people, or people who look Jewish, before you get to know them. Just because the assumption isn't that your life might be in imminent danger doesn't mean it's not an assumption to be avoided.

This is the true damage that terrorists have caused; that we now, some of us, think there is legitimate reason to fear anyone who looks like them.

[naomi24]

Yes, entirely different. Fear of being blown to smithereens isn't prejudice - it's fear. People don't know who they can trust and so they err on the side of caution - it's as simple as that.