Fascists on my TV

I never thought in my life time the fascists would get a mainstream platform; I never thought I'd see the day when someone like Nick Griffin is on TV defending his views; it makes me sad to see such times and angry because we let this happen.

There has been a whole load of fuss these past few weeks since everyone found out NIck Griffin was going to be on TV, on Question Time, on "OUR" BBC. For quite some time I couldn't make up my mind whether or not he should be allowed to be on there. Afterall he is a well known racist, a fascist, Islamaphobe and holocaust denier - why give him a platform to publicise his views? Why allow him to appear as if his views are mainstream? BUT then again - he did win an election, a million people did vote him in and in our democratic state that means he gets to air his views - one rule for all right??

The more I thought about the more troubled I became - after all, even a fascist party is allowed to air their views in this country under our freedom of speech and expression laws but what I couldn't work out was how he wasn't already under arrest for "inciting hatred" under our new laws under which many innocent students and members of our "browner" communities had already been arrested. How is it that people cannot see his bullshit for what it is?

So basically I did not want to see him on TV, I did not feel it was right but I thought maybe it would bring our community together and the Muslims especially would see the danger posed by the BNP and get their collective heads out of the sand and actually wake up and smell the reality.

SO people protested outside the BBC today as the programme was filmed - the majority were NOT Muslim. A huge disappointment. I couldnt make the protest due to the fact that I was heavily asleep under the unfluence of some strong medication for my chest infection - however I got regular updates through friends.
Where were the Muslims?
Seeing as at the moment we are the most vulnerable to attack - the scapegoat best beloved of these fascists and bigots - why did our community not come out in its masses? And I mean totally peaceful protest - to show that we ARE British, we ARE here and we are not leaving.

When will our community wake up?When will our leaders realise that while being a good Muslim and going to the masjid regularly and perfecting our wudu is important so is this stuff?! Showing our wider community that we can engage and we have a united voice and we will not disappear shamefully just because we happen to be Muslim?

Isn't it about time we Muslims stood up for ourselves and did not have to defended by other individuals in the community?

So with all these thoughts I turned on the TV to watch Question Time - the show can be seen on BBC, just follow the link.

I have never seen such a serious looking or tense panel or such an eager looking audience on QT and I have seen this programme A LOT! It was easy to tell that not everyone on the panel was comfortable sharing a platform with Griffin but they felt that they had to in a democracy.

From the beginning it was obvious the Griffin knew he had won a victory just by getting on the show just as it was equally obvious that 99% of the people in that room held him in total contempt. It cheered me to see the sense of the British people.

Within the first 5 mins, Griffin had me shouting at the TV screen as he told the world that the Quran and Islam opresses women and stones rape victims and other claptrap - and what really, REALLY annoyed me is that no one, NO ONE, not even Saida Warsi categorically denied this. Oh, people looked away and shook their heads, Saida Warsi said that he was inventing views that Islam didn't hold but there was no real strength behind the statement. It just shows the level of ignorance about Islam and peoples reticence defending it.

This in itself empowers fascists and Islamaphobes like Griffin - no one will strongly deny him his views on Islam and Muslims. Instead they faff around and call him a racist but no one sits down and tells him where and when he is going wrong; and so, many people now think that while the Quran may say these views - we "modern" Muslims may chose not to follow. As if I would be part of such an idiotic, changeable faith.

When someone, anyone, says something like this - there should be a peaceful yet powerful outcry from the Muslim community and yet here were are, sheep in sheeps clothing. Followers not doers.

As for Jack Straw his first answer was his only clever and concise one, after that I termed him a "fluffer" - cos nothing else he said mattered. He got caught in the claptrap.

Saida Warsi was at least strong in her views, such as they were. There was a lot of sitting on the fence and selling out of immigrant communities. She was safe but at least she appeared to know what she was talking about and came across as strong. One of the highlights of the show was her calling up Griffin on his use of the word "genocide" - no one else did and I applaud her for doing so.
The fact that he can use such a brutal word and get away with it time and time again is disgusting - as if what he imagines happening to the "English" is in anyway a genocide. Compare it to Bosnia, Chechynia, Kosovo, Congo or Rwanda and his use of the world is an insult.

As for Bonnie Greer - the woman is my hero! When I grow up I wanna be just like her! Her use of wit and sarcasm and language put Griffin in his place and she showed her contempt for his veiws with style and politeness in a way not many can. I congratulate her! I particularly loved her reference to the ice age! :-)

What I particularly noticed was how fueled up, angry and emotional everyone got at Griffin and the BNPs anti-semitic and holocaust-denying views - and well the should. Those views are appalling and disgusting. However, the same views when applied to Muslims and Islam did not get the same reaction and that is quite scary. It shows how much in-built Islamaphobia is into our society and we must address this as Muslims. And yet we cannot do so until we unite and until we are secure within ourselves - but do something we must. This state of affairs cannot long continue and sticking our heads in our collective sandbox will only make the issue worse for us in the long run. How long can the Muslims ignore their own situation? How long will they wait for someone else to deal with their problems? NO hero is going to come and rescue us - we must rescue ourselves.

One thing is clear - its because of our inaction and our disunity someone like Griffin is a position of power - an MEP representing us. If we had taken action when the BNP had been garnering votes - the BBC would never had even had the chance to think of inviting him onto QT as there wud have been no need.
Now we have to listen to the BNP bull under our own rules and laws - we have brought this on ourselves.
And still, in a few days, people will forget the horror of seeing a fascist on TV and will get on with their lives.And as we do that, Nick Griffin will legally use OUR tax money as OUR MEP to create more propaganda for his party - the future is scary.