Reaching out to Islam

Attacks in London against Muslims have increased ten fold over the last few days since the attack in Woolwich. A government hotline set up saw a spike in calls with something in the range of 140 calls logged in twenty four hours, a reflection in the shift in attitudes to Muslims in the UK, which was once something of a safe haven for them. The BNP and most notably the EDL have capitalised on the hysteria surrounding the attack and are using the attack as a stick to beat the Muslim community, using racially, xenophobic and islamaphoic language to drive a wedge between the communities in the UK. The Muslim community though is reaching out and has kept its nerve and has ended up in places like Yorkshire in inviting members of the EDL to tea and condemning the attacks as being not part of Islam at all. How do we reach out to Muslims to flow the stemming tide of Islamaphobia that is going to create massive rifts in British society? The Muslim community has reached out but I have not seen much from other communities to create anything that could be termed solidarity bar a few messages on twitter and facebook and other social media arenas.

The Rise of the Far Right in Europe - Wolves in Sheeps Clothing?

With the recent surge seen in the far right in Europe, are they promising people something they can deliver on or are they going to fall flat? In the recent French elections, Marie Le Pen promised to look at the rights of workers and played the left wing card hoping to appeal to those whom might have otherwise voted for the left. Golden Dawn came to power in Greece with the promise to deal with the immigration issues that they have made out to be a bigger deal than it is . Golden Dawn saw their figures jump from .29% support to 6.7% or thereabouts on the back of playing the anti immigration card, they vowed to rid "Athens of the stench" of what is immigrants. In Finland the True Finns are surfing in on a tide of anti European sentiment and anti immgration policies. Couple all of this with well known antics of such parties in Ireland and the BNP in the UK and other far right parties in Europe and we may be setting ourselves up for a dangerous rift in society. Already some of these parties are well known to have violent links and links to neo nazism. Are we allowing these wolves to continually dress in sheeps clothing?

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Finns

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/06/far-right-threat-extremism

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9250885/Greek-immigrants-urge-parties-to-isolate-far-Right-Golden-Dawn.html
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