I've followed this woman's page for some time. She's a very inquisitive and insightful woman and I admire her a lot for the stuff she puts up as a lot of it is rather gutsy. Then I saw this. This was a picture she put up from the internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. I know very little about this event. All I know about it is what I've seen from following the wonderful George Takei on Facebook (who himself was interred) and an episode of Hawaii Five-0 which delved into the inner workings of internment camps on Hawaii.
Anyway, I'm not here to slam the Japanese for Pear Harbour, nor am I slamming the Americans for how they treated Japanese-Americans in its aftermath. If you look at Julie's original post below, you'll see that the last sentence says:
"All it takes is fear".
So why am I commenting on this and why am I bringing it to your attention? Well, as well as this, I saw someone (who shall remain unnamed) share a Britain First post which showed a picture of a "Muslim" pointing a gun at the camera with a caption saying:
"It's not immigration, it's not Asylum Seeking, it's an INVASION!"
Now, this is what I take um-bridge with.
When I saw the Britain First post and then saw this, the two made sense. Especially the "All it takes is fear". This is exactly what's happening with the whole IS and terrorism situation across the world. 9/11 happened, it's revealed an extremist Islamic group committed the atrocities, Bush goes to war. 7/7 happens, "Muslim Extremists" bomb the Tube, people start to worry. Lee Rigby is murdered, "Muslims" commit the murder, people like Britain First and the EDL have a field day. The SO CALLED Islamic State and affiliated groups behead Westerners, suddenly all Muslims are the enemy. [Personally, I was very intrigued that Anders Breivik was a white Christian male who committed a terror attack because, just for a moment, the West stopped for a moment and looked at itself. Especially, if you believe reports that Muslims were being attacked on the streets of Oslo 5 minutes after the bombs went off in the Government buildings].
Can't anyone see where this could lead?
When the Japanese bombed Pear Harbour in December 1941, this caused so much anti-Japanese feeling that Roosevelt allowed these camps to be erected and detain anyone of Japanese heritage. Completely "legally".
Now, if right wing groups such as the EDL, BNP or Britain First get into power, they'll do everything they can to make sure something like this happens with British Muslims.
Or, let's look at this another way. What if the media, social media and other news agencies are subtly and secretly feeding this anti-Islamic feeling so that this country starts to become intolerant to Muslims in this country, until the people of this country pressure the Government to the point where something like this happens again? What if IS succeeded in their supposed plan to launch a terror attack on British soil, killing hundreds of Brits across the country and the people decide that anyone of Arabic or Islamic origin should be separated from society?
Just like the Japanese-Americans?
I know this all sounds ridiculous, but I imagine Americans in 1936 would've said much the same back then about the Japanese? People like Britain First are feeding Islamophobia at an exponential rate and people are buying into it. There have been friends on my list that have and I know of a few people who have been removing friends because of them sharing Britain First and related groups posts. All it takes is one event to trigger a chain-reaction.
People want scape-goats. The Americans had the Japanese, the Germans had the Jews, 50s/60s Britain had the Windrush Generation, the Americans now have Al-Qaeda and who do the Brits have now? The Eastern Europeans and the Muslims. When I see people share posts from right-wing groups, which deliberately stir-up hatred and intolerance, it makes me be ashamed to be British.
We are not an intolerant people, Islam is not a violent religion, Muslims are not the enemy.
We need to realise this before it's too late...
"All it takes is fear"...
