I stare at the blank page of my computer, and wonder where to start, they have just been discussing on the radio 'the uncomfortable truth' which is that our Muslim brethren do not integrate themselves into the community. To be honest I know very little of how such things work, there are isolated facts bad Muslim schools teaching only their own faith and such things as the superiority of the male over the female. The entire cloaking of the body by Muslim women does worry me, but then I have only to look at one of the trashy papers to see the racism that exists in this country.
Matilda my granddaughter has a Muslim friend, her small gang of friends also include two boys with Jewish names, she goes to a school where integration is important. She is the first to yell 'xenophobia' should you step out of line, the argument that these things should be discussed from an older generation usually falling on deaf ears. This shows of course that each succeeding generation brings different thoughts to the table.
One should never argue at the dining table I can see Lotta, her great-grandmother admonishing her, her great-grandfather would throw a napkin over his head at the table, saying S.A.D., S.A.D. which translated into 'sometimes I despair' and everyone would shut up or laugh. He did his work in UNESCO and was the gentlest man, but was intolerant of racism, and would have been shocked at the world today, especially what is happening in England and America.
What we have now in England are small communities of different indigenous people, be they Muslim or European, They may come from Pakistan, India, Africa, Poland and Romania and one day we will in this country be multi-coloured. Do I worry about that? no is the answer, the world changes, not so much in Yorkshire villages of course but hey-ho things happen, as our children come back with different partners.
Was it Al Gore who used the words 'The Inconvenient Truth' about a different subject, then of course it is beholden on us all to look to the nurture of this planet we live on and perhaps learn to live together as well before our problems are eclipsed by extinction anyway.
You seem to have omitted the indigenous British pagans and atheists who have always existed in the UK, albeit secretly during the years of christian persecution. I also note that male superiority is very prevalent within the christian faith, although a certain amount of liberalism has taken place in recent years.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot that is prevalent in the christian faith but I won't go there, just look at the battle women vicars/priests have. One of my moans funnily enough is 'Thought for the Day' where paganism or atheists are not featured at all, the BBC pay lipservice to Christianity, without really allowing an alternative view.
ReplyDeleteI have never thought about the fact that today's might be persecuted by not being allowed a stage. My experience of paganism is through Iron Age Celtic Paganism, and of course Professor Ronald Hutton, who has written much on the subject, especially 'Blood and Mistletoe' which is a good history of paganism up to the present. I think the divergence of paganism in this country into neoDruidism during the 20th century rather made it into a playground on which the subjective use of paganism split it into many forces...but on reflection hasn't christianity done that as well.
Incidentally I tackled the term "neoDruidism" by referring to the Irish academics as neo academics and the attachment of neo was soon dropped here in Ireland.
ReplyDelete;) Yes I don't like the use of neo when describing things, but of course, the reuse or new interpretation of an old faith is difficult to come to terms with. Our history (English) of course is very different from the Celtic Irish or Welsh, the folklore for a start becomes complicated as well.
ReplyDeleteI was watching an item on the news this evening on this very subject Thelma. I really don't know the answer. Almost all of my
ReplyDeleteteaching life was spent as Head of a Unit for non-English speaking
'immigrants' from the Punjab. They were lovely kids between eleven and eighteen. It was no trouble to get them to integrate during school hours, but outside it was a different story. To begin with most of the families lived a ghetto existence - and I can understand this - isolation for families is scary when you don't speak the language. There was an area where recent immigrants lived and then a so called better-class area where they aspired to move to. The mothers rarely, if ever, spoke English. I tried having classes for them but after a term they just didn't come any more, although I had thought it was going well. Dads, of course, who mainly had jobs in local factories (in the Midlands) soon spoke good English. Integration (other than the men at work) was I am afraid almost nonexistent.
Interesting, and of course shows up the problem of integration. If we reverse the situation into our own going away to a foreign country, the effect would probably be the same. We would migrate towards our own country people, think of the expats in Spain, and demand 'home comforts' whilst finding it difficult to learn the language. All in all it takes time for a 'blended' solution to be arrived at....
ReplyDelete