There have been two programmes recently on Channel 4, one called Proud and Prejudice focussing on the EDL and the history of its inception in Luton to its present day role - unlike the BNP and NF they have non-white members - the problem they have is with the islamiscization of Britain!
In the same week there is a 'groundbreaking' lol documentary on Making Bradford British! Its concept is to bung a load of ppl with diff views/ race/ religions in one house and see what happens! Nothing much really, an old man named Jens is an ex policeman - although he claims not to be a racist, used to say to his Asian colleague 'lets go paki bashing!', no extremist muslims here on this programme, just one genuine Muslim by the name of Rashid with a thick Bradford accent trying to juggle his daily prayers with 'integrating' with his Bradford cohorts! He struggled but finally compromised by praying outside in front of his new group of friends in a park - this had a profound effect on one of the Christian women who witnessed his prayer- she eventually thanked him for coming and for compromising.
If the criteria for being British was the Citizenship test then I think 95% of British people would be on a plane/boat out of here cos we would probably fail it! What is it then that makes you British? Is it the colour of your skin, your place of birth, your accent, your pathetic allegiance to the national football team? Part two of the programme is coming on this week, but the trailer does show the Muslm woman breaking down in tears as she is not accepted by the punters in the pub!! Research has shown that a lot of communities remain separate and do not want to integrate with other communities around them - but this is the same for the Chinese community!
We tend to stick to our own people due to language barriers and cultural reasons, there are plenty of chinese people in Bradford why didnt they take part in this programme?
I look Malaysian (due to my hijab people assume I am a Malaysian), I have a Mancunian accent, I drink tea at least twice a day, how much more British do they want me to be?
I remember blogging about this subject a few years ago, clearly the situation hasnt changed much - the problem i see it is trying to pigeonhole people into categories, why cant you be British and Muslim and Chinese all at the same time? Why are people being accused of not integrating because they dont want to indulge in certain activities that people have characterised as being essential and a part of being 'Brtish!'
I am British (see reasons above), plus I was born here, i have never been back to Hong Kong where my parents are from. They had a British passport as HK at the time belonged to the British - I have a British passport and would never fit into the lifestyle and culture of the people of HK precisely because I was born and raised in the UK therefore making me British!
Secondly, I am Chinese, that is my ethnic origin, so when i look at the now many odd tick boxes monitoring puroposes/equal opportunies I alwats tick Chinse, incidentally Asian people have been categorised as being ' British born Pakistani or othere which I assume would mean those that are here and dont have a British passport - should there be a box to say the are 'Not yet British still waitng for the paperwork to come through??'
Thirdly, I am Muslim - well I class myself as a Muslim - the requirements of being a Muslim is that you believe that there is only Once God, the Creator, Allah (aka God) and that Allah has created humans to worship him. Muslims must also believe that the Prophet Muhammad was the last and final Prophet sent to mankind to guide the people and to teach them about Islam.
Despite all the negative portrayals of Muslims in Britiain keeping themselves to themselves and not integrating - we had one English woman come to our local mosque to let us know that she wanted to convert (Muslims used the word revert as opposed to convert) - this was on Sunday!! Her main source of information on Islam was lectures by Dr Zakir Naik (who is banned from this country for alleged terrorist grounds- his preaching of Islam is apparently dangerous!! So dangerous that a British woman wanted to become Muslim as a result!!
It is therefore possible to have three different identities.
To watch the programmes mentioned above please visit www.channel4.com/programmes/4od
Any comments/views on the programme? Please share!
