I Have No More Sympathy For Muslims.

Some say that if you were a Muslim then you must always back the Muslims, no matter what they did. Ridiculous . If that was not asabiyah, I don't know what it is.

I just feel something radical need to be addressed when I read today's Utusan Luar Negara.

: Pelampau Kristian Britain ditahan

Surely, some Muslims would spill out "racism" and " discrimination" as reasons to all this demonstrations and protests by English Defense League (EDL). Yeah I found it 'racist' as well. But the funny thing is this UK, the previous champion of democracy and freedom of expression ( before US)  is now trapped by their own ideology.

Muslims get anxious whenever their "rights" are at stake. Muslims population at present in UK has gone up to  2.1 million people, mostly immigrants. That should be fine actually, considering capitalists in UK need cheap labour from the ever-willing Bangladeshis and Indian Muslims. We Muslims are that cheap? With these migrants come their cultures as well, and Europeans are torn apart of truly accepting such cultures on their grounds or not.

Funny is the fact that why and why Muslims always show reluctance to integrate into Western values. Funny is the fact that a 2005 report by BBC revealed that 60% of Muslims in UK are Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Funny is the fact that this report believed that 63% of these 60% of Muslims are poor, and 43% of them unemployed. So it's not a  wonder that 1600 and more mosques in UK weren't actually built by the locals' money. It's either from the Barelvis, Saudi salafis or Iran Shias. Well, a majority of them , not all. The Malaysian Muslims are a good example, at general, on how such integration can be done without actually tarnishing the image of religion.

Integrate. Is that too hard? Obeying a secular country is different from being secular . Even secularism can actually be divided into two types, without mentioning the technical term, let's just say the types are US-type and France-type. The secular US is still engraved in their dollar currency "In God we trust", oath swearing by the Bible and a very active Christian evangelists' headquarters. Multi-culturalism in US flourished due to the freedom of expression enshrined by the US Constitution. The French version of secularism is followed by the secular Turkey, where secularism meant absolute non-affiliation of religion in state affairs. There's  when you find the total banning of hijab in France in government instituitions. I mean, such fuss, enough already, the Christians aren't that complaining when they are not allowed to wear Christian rosaries whatever, they thrive under pressure ( somehow), so Muslims also can't afford to get berserk under pressure.We are as holy as people with religions, if not more.

Moreover, it's funny to see that in Western societies, Muslims are champion of democracy and freedom of expression whatever- which hardly unparalleled to the realities of Muslim countries. The dissatisfaction of non-Muslims in these countries are evidently available on the powerful internet, for example. Only the Muslims are that ignorant. Muslims are nothing but selfish then? I hope that is not the case.

The Western people as I said earlier are trapped by their own ideologies. They are the people who guarantee the freedom of expression and padan muka, such guarantee jeopardize their own other modern values. Globalisation (so called, deemed by Prof Syed Naquib al-Attas as westoxification?) go both ways. Funny yet again when the people in Muslim countries are so afraid about their kids adoring Western culture while in UK the people gotten insecure with the rising population of Muslims there- which is associated with honor killing, discrimination of women, enforcement of unneeded sharia ( even Archbishop of Canterburry Dr Rowan Williams supports this marriage court) .

Antimigration policy seem to be gaining support these days in Europe. Muammar Gaddafi loathed upon Switzerland's ban on building minarets at Muslim mosques. He labelled the Swiss government " mafia". I don't support Gaddafi on this matter. Switzerland has a participatory democracy system, meaning that every single bit of policy is done with people's vote, not just some 4 year once general election. When the Swiss people vote on NOT allowing the building of minarets at mosque recently , so please just respect the people. I mean, the funny thing yet again is that  it's just MINARETS, for heaven's sake.

 Gaddafi commented that this event would give Muslim countries reasons to not allow construction of churches, synanogues, shrines whatever. Duh. Like all these past years, such restrictions aren't already existed due to some paranoid people. Get a life. Get your facts rights. Muslims are always on this defensive mode all this while, anyway.

Europe should take a stand in this matter. If they believe that such Muslims are a threat to the societies, do impose on antimigration laws. Then you need not anymore complaining on honor killings happen in Europe grounds, rise of criminal cases whatever, at the expense of  Muslims' cheap labour ( oh that sounds pathetic and tragic) . If you want to be liberal progressive societies, then invest on integration programs for the migrants alongside respect for the people's tradition as well.

Islam ( okay, this is the first time the word is mentioned in this long post ) is not an issue here.

Without excluding the proud fact that there are indeed significant proportion of good professional Muslims who either work or study in Europe or America, who pays taxes religiously ( pun intended), who loathes extremism and whatnot, the worldwide governments therefore need to address this petty Muslim migrant issue once and for all. Chinese immigrants are a case well solved, to quote the history. We have more serious issues like ever-falling global economy system or global threat caused by natural impact or instability of geopolitics.

Give the turban wearing,  hijab adorning Muslims jobs, comfort and acceptance in this 'shared' world- or send them back to where they once belong.

- The writer was a TESOL student from MARA College Seremban.