Taking a Stand Against Hate

This weekend saw another terrorist in my country. Three assailants attacked a number of people in London on Saturday night, first driving a van into bystanders and then attacking them with knives. At the time of writing, seven people are known to have died, including two non-UK citizens, one French and one Canadian.

The same arguments are being trotted out in relation to Muslim ‘culpability’. Essentially there are two schools of thought. The first (to which I subscribe) is that these attacks are being conducted by a very small minority of radicalised fanatics – they are not representative of all Muslims or the whole of Islam. The second school of thought is that because the attackers were Muslims, all Muslims should be held accountable and Islam is an inherently violent religion.

Yesterday morning I received a text from someone I have known for eleven years. Although not a close friend, I get on well with him and there are strong links between our families going back decades. Recently we’d had a conversation about the Manchester attack, and he had brought up the fact that all of the terrorists are Muslim, implying that Islam was at fault. My wife and I had protested this, but of course things had been left unresolved. Anyway, his text was simply this: “The religion of peace strikes again!”

I don’t know what the point of the text was. Clearly I’m not going to change my view and he is not going to change his. Perhaps he is as upset that I do not see his point of view as I am that he does not see mine. Perhaps it was meant to be humorous.

But the text upset me greatly. I cannot shake the thought that all of the people (all men, perhaps not coincidentally) to have expressed these views in my presence have children. I’m distressed by the thought that this prejudice and hate will be passed on to the next generation, and then the next, and the next… When will it ever end?

And it’s not just anti-Muslim sentiment that gets passed on through the generations. It can happen with prejudice towards sexuality, gender, race… I’m not saying that children will definitely follow in their parents’ footsteps, but parental input is certainly a huge influence on these sort of issues.

I didn’t reply to the message. I wanted to, but I could only see an argument arising, and I was concerned about causing a rift that will affect others in my circle of family and friends. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? People like me don’t want to rock the boat. But this is not the time to sit back and allow hate to foster, like it did in Nazi Germany. Blaming an entire group for the crimes of a few can only lead to further hate and violence.

I know that I will be seeing my friend again very soon, and I have resolved to stand my ground if the subject comes up. I will be polite but firm. I am not going to keep quiet.

At this moment in time I don’t have a great deal of hope for the future of humanity. Judging by the outcomes of the Brexit referendum and US Presidential election, half of the population seems to be willing to give in to hate, mistrust and division. It will be very interesting to see the outcome of this week’s UK general election, but I’m not holding out much hope for a Labour victory.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, I am more determined than ever to stand up for my beliefs, and to try to make this world a kinder, better place. If that means losing friends and creating rifts then, as sad as that would make me, so be it.