OT- The US midterms

[GUNTERYY36]

@ Romanis

Many thanks for a great post

[GUNTERYY36]

RamAnag, if Islamophobia is anything at all how would you define it? Surely it must be a mental illness, i.e. an irrational fear of Islam. Well I don't know about you but I'm sure as hell afraid of a violent, supremacist ideology whose holy book demands I should join them or have my head cut off. There's nothing irrational about that.

[ramAnag]

RamAnag, if Islamophobia is anything at all how would you define it? Surely it must be a mental illness, i.e. an irrational fear of Islam. Well I don't know about you but I'm sure as hell afraid of a violent, supremacist ideology whose holy book demands I should join them or have my head cut off. There's nothing irrational about that.

Firstly, Islamophobia is defined as a fear and hatred of or prejudice towards the Islamic religion and Muslims.

As regards the irrational aspect. Like most phobias i.e. those relating to such things as heights, spiders, water, dogs, germs etc, the level of rationality or otherwise attached to them is contextual, i.e. there are times when fear of such things is entirely rational and others when it appears plain daft. I suppose that is the difference between fear and phobia.

To extend this to Islamophobia...contrary to your assertion, it does exist, otherwise it would and could not have been defined.
Perhaps however only those who ‘suffer’ from it are likely to believe Islam to be a ‘violent, supremacist ideology whose holy book demands I should join them or have my head cut off.’
The vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorism or subscribe to the views you describe, which further suggests that indeed Islamophobia does exist, is largely irrational and may well be something you have first hand experience of.

[Andy_Faber]

Firstly, Islamophobia is defined as a fear and hatred of or prejudice towards the Islamic religion and Muslims.

Funny (or not) that yet another 'putting the world to rights' thread has reduced itself down to the same subject (Islam) - also pretty common elsewhere in open discussion. I'm sure I've said before that IMO (and I saw something in the press the other day that went into some detail about this) 'unease' about this (not hatred, few people truly hate anything) is one of the unintended contributors to the 'tragedy' of Brexit. It does need serious consideration.

PS RA I was trying to send you a music recommendation by pm and your inbox is full. Is that ust to stop me sending such twaddle?

[garibaldi]

Firstly, Islamophobia is defined as a fear and hatred of or prejudice towards the Islamic religion and Muslims.

As regards the irrational aspect. Like most phobias i.e. those relating to such things as heights, spiders, water, dogs, germs etc, the level of rationality or otherwise attached to them is contextual, i.e. there are times when fear of such things is entirely rational and others when it appears plain daft. I suppose that is the difference between fear and phobia.

To extend this to Islamophobia...contrary to your assertion, it does exist, otherwise it would and could not have been defined.
Perhaps however only those who ‘suffer’ from it are likely to believe Islam to be a ‘violent, supremacist ideology whose holy book demands I should join them or have my head cut off.’
The vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorism or subscribe to the views you describe, which further suggests that indeed Islamophobia does exist, is largely irrational and may well be something you have first hand experience of.

You have no idea what the vast majority of Muslims support.

Anyway too many do support terrorism and have committed abhorrent atrocities in our country. Thankfully MI5 stop the majority of them.

[Manofpride]

You have no idea what the vast majority of Muslims support.

Anyway too many do support terrorism and have committed abhorrent atrocities in our country. Thankfully MI5 stop the majority of them.

I thought this woman answering the question on this panel has just about nailed it! Most Muslims are good people! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3NzkAOo3s

[ramAnag]

I thought this woman answering the question on this panel has just about nailed it! Most Muslims are good people! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3NzkAOo3s

I’d question her percentages and remember that Brigitte Gabriel is actually a renowned Anti Muslim activist so unlikely to be completely objective.
As ever with the current political Right...their tactic is to elaborate upon and try and make huge political capital out of the tiniest grain of truth.
Trump is a master of the tactic and while I am, I’m sure, as wholly opposed to terrorism as you, I’m not likely to start judging Muslims, Catholics or even U.S. ex servicemen via the behaviour of a few.
The sentiment may appear superficialy reasonable but she has a definite ‘agenda’...bit like Garibaldi apparently.

[Manofpride]

.
...their tactic is to elaborate upon and try and make huge political capital out of the tiniest grain of truth.

I can tell that line has come from a remainer!

[Geoff Parkstone]

Romanis said: "Florida has just passed a bill allowing people with records to be allowed to vote again, an influx of 1.5m new votes, most of them being Blacks and Latinos."

This is a staggering statistic, so there are 1.5 million people in Florida with criminal records? This is not just a speeding fine or ASBOs, this is a felony where they have been convicted and sentenced to jail. There are 7 primary felonies in the US system: murder, non negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary and grand larceny (including that of a vehicle).

Lets just think about that for a moment - Florida has 21 million residents, lets say 15% are under 18 years of age and so cannot vote anyway, and we all know Florida is the capital of the snowbird - overage predominantly white citizens who go south for the sun in retirement, and are not what you might typically think of as murderers, rapists etc. So there might be a voting population of 15 million, many of whom are elderly.

The inference is that maybe 10% of the community aged over 18 have committed one of these jail-able felonies. That seems extraordinary to me.

Then you suggest that most of these are "blacks or latinos" (setting aside the racist presumptions underlying your assertion). 42% of Florida's population is black or hispanic. Thus the statistics as portrayed by you would imply that maybe 1 in 4 black or hispanic floridians over 18 have spent time in jail.

I am not questioning your statistics here, but just shocked at the result

[ramAnag]

I can tell that line has come from a remainer!

Really? At the risk of cross threading, I’d go back and have a look at the half truths and downright lies the Brexiteers told in the run up to the Referendum.
As for Trump and the Republican Right...have a glance at how exaggerated their claims against the CNN reporter were yesterday...and everybody actually saw that!