Tolerance Limits
13June 17, 2013 by Aleksandra Łuczak
This post has been prepared by Rafał Kamiński (Kozminski Univeristy)
Few weeks ago a British solider Lee Rigby was brutally murdered by two Muslim extremists in Woolwich in the UK in broad day light.
The wave of criticism spread through the whole country, resulting in various acts of violence against the Muslim people.
One of the more controversial cases was one of young man who publicly criticized the Muslim’s people and fate and posted few racist comments on his Facebook.
The UK authorities’ immediately started legal proceeding against him.
Nowadays any forms of criticisms against certain groups of people are taken as being racist, despite obvious flaws of that group. The important question is…
When does tolerance turn into apathy?
Have your say!
Category racism, UK, violence | Tags:
The murders we hear every day. Often the reason. When, however, the fact that there is an unacceptable with the participation of a different religion, color or sexual orientation raises controversial. Ing, regardless of lighting religion or other circumstances should be equally punished.
Criticism of any of the events, however, should be objective. The murderer is a murderer, and nothing can justify. The fact that those murderers were Muslim should not affect the overall opinions of Muslim and jdynie the unit, which it did. This is how someone behaves, making proves itself and not the characteristics of the environment.
We should not exaggerate such cases; we have to remember that unfortunately it happens every day, made not only by Muslims, but also by Christians and followers of every other religion on the planet. Our carnation isn’t any determinant too. We can hear about murders made by white people, Afro-Americans (to be politically correct), and Asians. We have to understand that there is no rule. Unfortunately I can also understand a little those who are afraid of Muslims. It is true that you can find extremists here more likely than in any other religion. It is also true that they have completely different hierarchy of values, that maybe we cannot understand. But it is cruel to generalize. It is true that we can hear mostly about their dangerous actions, but this is the media, they tell us about things that we want to hear. So we should start from having a common sense and looking at yourself, which will make some things clear.
Because of anti-racism organisations it is almost impossible to say something that will not offend someone else. If you want to be politically correct you have to choices- say nothing or say something without your own opinion. Muslilms are people very different from Europeans. Even though many people from Europe meet people from different cultures the way they behave, treat other people and talk- it’s still strange for us. Also media creates racism. If they wouldn’t write about those people in ethnic categories it wouldn’t be so big. Every day, in every country people kill each other. Is it really that important from where they come from?
In my opinion even tolerance should have its limit. Why? Because how can you be tolerant with violence and terrorists? I’m not a racist, I have a lot friends with different skin colour, sexual orientation and belief, but when it comes to muslims – with couple exceptions – I’m not a fan of them. It looks like in muslim countries they are not happy and very, very intollerant, but when it comes to catholic countries, like France or UK, they fight for their rights. Right now when you see a picture of a class in Sweden or France, there are only few European-look-a-like students, and majority of muslims. I believe in “no tollerance for violence”. It’s just not right to treat people, who are bad for others like civilized citizens. For example in Paris, once a year it’s a day called Music Festival. Couple years ago a lot of people – kids, adults, elderlies came to steets and enjoyed themselves, now it’s scary, because a lot of muslim people are looking for fights and start them with strangers. Unfortunetly it’s going to get worse, because we hear all the time about the number of muslims in Europe growing.
Many Muslims think, their mission is to fight with violence for their religion. It is a well known fact, that they are very intollerant. I think we should treat every murderer in the same way, does not matter if they are Muslim or Christian. There should be the limit of the tolerance. When someone hurts other people, they have to be punished.
Now the Brits are in a trap of their own political correctness. Not only them but French, Belgians, Dutch, Denmark, Sweden… Sometimes when I read news from that countries I feel like I’m one of the characters from Catch 22 or of the Monty Python’s sketch. In UK some Muslims want to make a small independent caliphate in the part of London. In one of Dannish cities Muslims “cancelled” Christmas. Do we have to get use to such news? For now:
“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian observed.
“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.
Unfortunately in Poland ethnic conflicts are often enhanced by nationalism and feeling of our national superiority. As a consequent of that we can observe situations in which people are being hurt. I find it absolutely natural that incitement to ethnic or racial hatred is a criminal offense and in my humble opinion, polish law should punish any single act of racism very keenly.
In my opinion western countries plague is the over-tolerance, Islam is a religion of brutality and discrimination toward woman and other religions, or any difference in any particular meaning. We should all take Japan as an example- there a Muslim can’t get an citizenship- it’s just against their law.
According to me this wasn’t an attack on religious basis. Murderers could be as well Cathlolic or Jewish. On the other hand, I think that we are too lenient towards Muslims. In my opinion everybody has the freedom to state their thoughts and it is really not a crime to make jokes about other religions (of course within some boundaries). I think that everyone remembers the case of Muhammad cartoons posted in Danish newspaper. It caused a great uproar in Muslim countries and they strongly demanded to severly punish the editors. However, it is OK when they make jokes about other religions and they don’t find it unappropriate . It irritates me that we cannot force Muslim people to respect other religions and to make them understand that they are not the centre of the world.
Personally, I agree with the predecessor. In my opinion bad things happen to everyone on a daily basis. The statistics speak for themselves. However, not all murders are cruel aired on television and radio stations. More attention is paid to the crimes carried out on religious or ethnic grounds. Do Muslims should be treated differently? Of course, they shouldn’t. Our heart and mind, morals and ethics should not allow us to divide people and their actions because of their origin. However, one person or two (as in this case) should not scratch the whole Muslim nation. Not everyone is the same. We shoud remember about this before we look askance at someone.
The islands are a place where there is a total mix of races, cultures and customs. The British State is one of the most tolerant places in Europe. Murder has always happened. However, at the present time a message, that the soldier was killed by a Muslim has a completely different dimension. Each such behavior is associated with an act of terror. Murder is a terrible thing, regardless of who has committed such an act. Tolerance becomes a general reluctance at a time, when every now and then someone fails us, after all, that we give him a chance. How many times can we draw the other hand, if the other side was having none of it does. That’s when it comes to apathy.
It’s sad that nowadays if you have different opinion than one encourage by media you are regarded as someone intolerant. If you realy want to be politically correct you have to either be silent or be without opinion. Everybody should have right to ones opinion without threat to be sued but we also can’t overdo it in another direction
I do not consider extremism as a subject related exclusively with any religion or nationality. Evil can be manifestated in every type of person. Nevertheless while giving a judgmental opinion we have to take under consideration that every group in sociaty has it’s own rules and beliefs. I would not like to defend Muslims in this case, my position rather stands for not estimating everyone by the same measure. Situation becomes much more complicated when someone is hurt. When is comes to crime I definitely think that the accused one has to take responsability for his actions. Tolerance binds with cultural diffrences and has nothing in common with avoiding justice. Thus, everyone has also the right to express their doubts and fears in the situation concerning the whole society.