Thinking about this, I'm fairly sure this won't develop into an actual discussion. I thought it might but I was wrong. There's Al who is a dimwit and opposed on principle to everything I post after getting butthurt in a callout, there's Walkie who's already made up her mind, and there's Benji who does have the makings of an interesting perspective but who has trouble with his tinfoil hat getting in the way.
Al remains target practice, Walkie is being highly selective in her responses, Benji is being Benji, and me, I'm thinking there's got to be some paint I can watch dry. In other words, enjoy.
P.S. And Al just proved my point. Twice.
I think the main problem here (besides butthurt, ofc) is people reducing other people's perspectives to some ultra-simplistic statement that's easily dismissed, or countered. That said, I know some peopkle here are short on time , probably don't have time to carefully read other peoples' contributions. I have a similar problem, myself, in a way, but I do try to take things in properly, and if that means that I don;'t read all the threads I'd like to read, and don't make near so many replies as I'd like to, well so be it. The replies that I
do make on issues like this one are normally carefully considered, if relatively sparse.
I've mentioned twice, in this very thread , that I'm not finding it easy to keep up, largely on account of neurological issues, though the aforementioned attempt to do justice to other people's posts would also be a factor, wouldn't it? I mentioned that for a reason, which I also made explicit: that is, I didn't want people to feel that i was ignoring some of their posts, nor mentally dismnissing them . I don't. Rather, I try to get an holistic view of other people's outlook., because one single statement, in isolation is relatively meaningless , isn't it?
As I 've gone along, I've mentally shelved quite a few things for "must respond to that point, later"; and I've also been thinking about a few things, on an ongoing basis. Sometimes, I come back to the thread , found d a rash of new posts, and then responded to one or two of those instead, on the principle of "strike while the iron is hot" .
You might say I take these forum discussions way to seriously, and I'd probably blusgh and agree. Not saying everybody should. But to come back and find dismissive statements like "walkie's already made up her mind" and "Walkie being highly selective in her responses" (that's inevitable), well, that's going too far the other way, IMO. That shows that even my apologies were being completely overlooked.
Well, it's taken me maybe 90 mins hour to write this, and now 've missed the 6 O'clock news, because I didn't realise it was taking me this long. But that's about average for me. So it goes. Waste of time? I wouldn't assume as much, because I do value communication very highly . But yeah, right now I think is a waste of time , because certain people (notably Odeon) are just gonna skim read it , then instantly revert to whatever notion they had before I posted. That's not communication is it?
As for my attitude to Islam, if you really want a one-word summation (for what that's worth) I'd have to choose "ambivalent" from the range of one-word options available. I see reasons for concern , such as the widespread practice female genital mutilation, in modern Britain ;and the high incidence of homophobia in our Muslim communities; and -whilst entirely accepting that it's not that simple- I think it's just plain silly to just dismiss "Islam" as a causative factor, that just cripples discussion. Something like that should emerge as a concusion, not an initial premise; and you cannot and should not force that conclusion, not if you
really want people to change their minds.
Dismissing such concerns as "Islamophia" isn't helping the moderate Muslims in the least; because usually , they are the
victims. You might say, then, that it's none of my concern, but when these things happen in Britain (as they do) and run totally counter to British values , then they are rightly very much out concern. The moderate Muslims, the apostates, the homosexuals, the women, the children have the same right to protection that everybody else here does, and we are failing them.
I've tried to lead the discussion away from terrorism, and pretty much failed. Oh well, can blame myself there for not contributing as much as I'd like; or maybe for having an unusual view, in a world that appears to be obsesssed with terrorism. I dunno. But there it is.