Post by quantum on Oct 8, 2015 8:44:16 GMT -5
Yeah - what have things come to when *I* have something nice to say about a Brit. Besides Trump, who in the US would say this?
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Excerpted from British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech Wednesday to the 2015 Tory Party Conference.
Every day, in every way, Great Britain lives up to its name. And I know this: We can make it greater still.
But to do so we need to tackle some deep social problems we only just made a start on — including the shadow of extremism that is hanging over every single one of us.
When I read what some young people born and brought up in this country are doing, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. Girls not much older than my eldest daughter, swapping loving family homes and straight-A futures for a life of servitude under the Islamic State, in a land of violence and oppression. Boys who could do anything they wanted in Britain — who have benefited from all this country stands for — instead ending up in the desert wielding a knife.
This ideology, this diseased view of the world, has become an epidemic — infecting minds from the mosques of Mogadishu to the bedrooms of Birmingham.
And here’s what we need to do.
One: Tear up the narrative that says Muslims are persecuted and the West deserves what it gets. Never mind that Britain and America are behind the biggest effort to help the victims of Syria. Who is ISIS murdering more than anyone else? Muslims.
No one should get away with this politics of grievance anymore.
Two: Take on extremism in all its forms, the violent and non-violent.
People don’t become terrorists from a standing start. It begins with preachers telling them that Christians and Muslims can’t live together.
It moves to people in their community saying the security services were responsible for the 7/7 London tube bombings.
It progresses to a Web site telling them how to wage jihad, fight in Syria and defeat the West. And before you know it, a young British boy, barely 17, is strapping bombs to his body and blowing himself up in Iraq.
We have to stop it at the start — stop this seed of hatred even being planted in people’s minds, let alone allowing it to grow.
Three: We need to tackle segregation.
There are parts of Britain where you can get by without ever speaking English or meeting anyone from another culture. Zoom in and you’ll see some institutions that actually help incubate these divisions.
In some madrassas we’ve got children being taught that they shouldn’t mix with people of other religions; being beaten; swallowing conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
These children should be having their minds opened, their horizons broadened — not having their heads filled with poison and their hearts filled with hate.
So let there be no doubt: If you are teaching intolerance, we will shut you down.
This goes to a wider truth. For too long, we’ve been so frightened of causing offense that we haven’t looked hard enough at what’s going on in our communities.
This is passive tolerance. And I’ll tell you where it leads: To children, British children, going to Pakistan in the summer holidays, before they’ve even started their GCSEs [secondary-education exams], forced to marry a man they’ve never met. Children, British children, having their genitals mutilated, not just in a clinic in Lagos but the backstreets in Britain.
This passive tolerance has turned us into a less integrated country; it’s put our children in danger. It’s unforgivable. So let me say it right here: no more.
People who organize forced marriages — I want them prosecuted. Parents who take their children for female genital mutilation — I want them arrested.
And as we do that, we shouldn’t just be saying what’s wrong with these practices; we should be saying what’s right with Britain.
Freedom. Democracy. Equality. These are precious. People fought for them — many died for them — in the trenches, a century ago; on the beaches, 30 years later, in the Suffragettes; in gay pride.
Half the world is crying out for these freedoms. They see what we’ve achieved with them. Free speech: the best literature in the world. Freedom of religion: many faiths living side by side, peacefully. Free thinking: endless advances in medicine and technology. A free economy: a standard of living our grandparents could only have dreamed of.
I want them to grow up proud of our country. As they should be.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech Wednesday to the 2015 Tory Party Conference.
Every day, in every way, Great Britain lives up to its name. And I know this: We can make it greater still.
But to do so we need to tackle some deep social problems we only just made a start on — including the shadow of extremism that is hanging over every single one of us.
When I read what some young people born and brought up in this country are doing, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. Girls not much older than my eldest daughter, swapping loving family homes and straight-A futures for a life of servitude under the Islamic State, in a land of violence and oppression. Boys who could do anything they wanted in Britain — who have benefited from all this country stands for — instead ending up in the desert wielding a knife.
This ideology, this diseased view of the world, has become an epidemic — infecting minds from the mosques of Mogadishu to the bedrooms of Birmingham.
And here’s what we need to do.
One: Tear up the narrative that says Muslims are persecuted and the West deserves what it gets. Never mind that Britain and America are behind the biggest effort to help the victims of Syria. Who is ISIS murdering more than anyone else? Muslims.
No one should get away with this politics of grievance anymore.
Two: Take on extremism in all its forms, the violent and non-violent.
People don’t become terrorists from a standing start. It begins with preachers telling them that Christians and Muslims can’t live together.
It moves to people in their community saying the security services were responsible for the 7/7 London tube bombings.
It progresses to a Web site telling them how to wage jihad, fight in Syria and defeat the West. And before you know it, a young British boy, barely 17, is strapping bombs to his body and blowing himself up in Iraq.
We have to stop it at the start — stop this seed of hatred even being planted in people’s minds, let alone allowing it to grow.
Three: We need to tackle segregation.
There are parts of Britain where you can get by without ever speaking English or meeting anyone from another culture. Zoom in and you’ll see some institutions that actually help incubate these divisions.
In some madrassas we’ve got children being taught that they shouldn’t mix with people of other religions; being beaten; swallowing conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
These children should be having their minds opened, their horizons broadened — not having their heads filled with poison and their hearts filled with hate.
So let there be no doubt: If you are teaching intolerance, we will shut you down.
This goes to a wider truth. For too long, we’ve been so frightened of causing offense that we haven’t looked hard enough at what’s going on in our communities.
This is passive tolerance. And I’ll tell you where it leads: To children, British children, going to Pakistan in the summer holidays, before they’ve even started their GCSEs [secondary-education exams], forced to marry a man they’ve never met. Children, British children, having their genitals mutilated, not just in a clinic in Lagos but the backstreets in Britain.
This passive tolerance has turned us into a less integrated country; it’s put our children in danger. It’s unforgivable. So let me say it right here: no more.
People who organize forced marriages — I want them prosecuted. Parents who take their children for female genital mutilation — I want them arrested.
And as we do that, we shouldn’t just be saying what’s wrong with these practices; we should be saying what’s right with Britain.
Freedom. Democracy. Equality. These are precious. People fought for them — many died for them — in the trenches, a century ago; on the beaches, 30 years later, in the Suffragettes; in gay pride.
Half the world is crying out for these freedoms. They see what we’ve achieved with them. Free speech: the best literature in the world. Freedom of religion: many faiths living side by side, peacefully. Free thinking: endless advances in medicine and technology. A free economy: a standard of living our grandparents could only have dreamed of.
I want them to grow up proud of our country. As they should be.
