True British patience?

[MikeH]

Free Speech, even for idiots.

You can tell I support that because I agreed to moderate this place.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

action speaks louder than words

[Perfection]

Free bananas?

Bananas is innocent!

[Provost Harrison]

I don't get them. There are enough parts of the world that have Sharia Law...they should move to them Or they should shut the f**k up. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they should be stopped from saying what they want, but their ingratitude for the standard of living they receive in my country compared to some backwards Islamic sh*thole really annoys me.

[MikeH]

PH echoing the sentiments that inspired http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/

(to laugh at people who say stuff like that...)

[Egbert]

That link was hilarious Mike.

Keep up the good work.

[Provost Harrison]

Oh come on, do you think it is remotely acceptable to want Sharia Law? As I said, I am not advocating silencing or imprisonment, but I do disapprove of their sentiment in the strongest sense.

[MikeH]

I think it's reasonable for anyone to lobby for law changes if that's what they want, even if I hate the changes they are lobbying for. That's democracy.

But "if they like it so much why don't they go live there" is a total cliché.

[KrazyHorse]

Just because it is cliched doesn't make it an invalid argument. All that's required is the postulate that the desirability of the current country is due at least in part to the difference being debated...

[MikeH]

I didn't say it was invalid.

[MikeH]

I don't think it's that logical though. If someone says "I don't like this thing about our country" for you to suggest that person moves somewhere else, where just that thing is different, because there are a huge amount of other differences too. Which may cumulatively be more important.

It's not completely ridiculous (although it is a bit naive) to suggest that you want to live in a prosperous first world UK, with certain laws changed to fit more with your religions.

And we tend to say "if you don't like it why don't you go home" more to people with different coloured skin. We don't often tell Catholics lobbying against stem cell research "if you don't like it, why don't you go live in the Vatican". It's become a bit of an "I'm not a racist but..." type statement.

I'm not suggesting that PH is racist, o/c not.

[KrazyHorse]

People in the US often suggest that those well to the left of them go to Cuba, so it's not necessarily racially motivated.

It's hard to claim that something like sharia law has NOTHING to do with why Iran sucks more than the UK...

[Provost Harrison]

The problem is that what they are attempting to do is directly emulate the laws of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, and these people tend to have links to such countries, and from my perspective, this gives the appearance of them wanting to turn the UK into a country like the one of their ancestry...and this definitely seems to be a particular trait of muslims...you don't see other nationalities coming here and doing that. Something like stem cell research is within the scope of our current position as a society as something open to discussion. Laws which are misogynistic and brutal are not and don't fit within the scope of the progress our society has made (and I'm sorry if that sounds racist, but these laws are something straight out of the history books, we've had various forms of emancipations and enlightenment since).

So I think within the context of the changes to our society they want to enact and their motivations, then yes, I think it is reasonable to say to go to a country where these laws are in place already...

[MikeH]

A particular trait of a small minority of extremely vocal Muslim extremists, who are often cited by British racists as a reason to "send them all back where they came from".

In Britain it's hard to separate it from that context.