THE Manchester Arena suicide
bomber struck four years to the
day after the brutal murder of
soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby.
bomber struck four years to the
day after the brutal murder of
soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby.
I write this with the heaviest of hearts and am sickened by the horrors of the wholesale slaughter of innocent people at the Manchester Arena by a Manchester-born suicide attacker - the death count currently runs at 22 - with 64 wounded (some very badly).
I was born four years after the end of WW2 and I have no doubt that after six long years of war, devastation and losses it was hoped that mankind would learn. When I was young we dealt with IRA atrocities and back then I was concerned about the repercussions that might be experienced by my delightful Irish step-father who had no ties to terrorism of any kind, fearing that he might be 'tarred with the same brush'. The Manchester attack is the most recent, but undoubtedly not the last, in a series of horrendous acts of pointless violence perpetrated by mindless radicals and thugs who want to rule our world by force in much the same way that they rule their own people using intimidation and cruelty the goal being total control of our world for their leaders.
Now my concerns are for all of the innocent Muslims including some of my friends and neighbours who may have to face retribution from the British population and I beg their religious leaders to come out in force to decry extremism and publicly distance themselves from this monstrous conduct by a few because the many need rational direction from their Imams. The majority of Muslim people are not bent on killing us but radicalised youngsters, both girls and boys, must be surrendered and apprehended to prevent future horrors.
Religion has always been problematic for me because it seems to divide societies and cultures when adopted by zealots. In my opinion God is a human construct and as such has been managed by a few to gain power and wealth. When used wisely such notions can be used for good but so often they are exploited by power crazed elites so I prefer to add an 'o' to god and focus on good. Extremists coerce gullible and ill-educated people into acts that are disgusting to most of us by suggesting that they will inherit the earth ....in the next life, although there no proof of progression to such state and that is the essential flaw for me, they sell fantasies that cannot be assured while we should do our best in this life. Such marketing has proved highly convincing in lands that have little education, natural resources and food, but if the promises are so alluring why do so many Muslims migrate, some aim to infiltrate but I am always surprised at how many of them come here and settle and then choose not to integrate or learn the language of their chosen hosts?
Being civilised is hampering our responses to campaigns of violence, we seem to simply 'clean up and carry on' while we observe and try to outwit these 'soldiers' of a cause that we cannot begin to fathom. Like many of you I am nervous of people who clothe their bodies in full niquab or burkas because we fear that identifying them could be highly problematic, while people who choose to wear the hijab present significantly less of a threat because we can, at least, identify the gender of the wearer. I see many Asian women of all faiths not covered but nowadays I see far more who are completely covered than I used to and the latter group certainly don't assimilate with ease which begs the question of what is desired in those patriarchal cultures though the holy book of Muslims, the Qur'an, does not state that all women should be dressed in that manner, it is merely a matter of interpretation and it isn't rocket science to work out who gains from said interpretation.
The Manchester bombing has devastated the whole of the British population and we are disgusted by the slaughter and targeting of seemingly innocent kids. I have to confess I had no idea who the star of the show was, why would I, I'm old, but the villain of this particular piece was the British born son of Libyan extraction whose parents fled the Gaddafi regime. I feel for them, not only do they mourn their son, they must be ashamed and appalled by his shameless conduct attacking members of a population who took them in....I prefer to think that than consider that they might secretly be proud of him in any way.
We have tried to be peaceable and we have tried to protect people from the tyranny of their leaders yet still these episodes recur with alarming regularity. I fear that the inequalities between cultures is a thorny issue, after all a lot of these people are availing themselves of a British education then turning on us and I fear that it is because qualifications do not provide a passport to paradise, they merely give the means by which one can work and earn the luxuries that make us the infidels and the object of their loathing for zealots.
Wholesale equality is notionally flawed, differences of intellect kick that into touch and modern life seems to be creating more problems than it solves. As a youngster we had some chickens for eggs and the occasional meal until a fox got at them and killed the lot. I fear that extremist foxes are now in our metaphorical henhouses doing what they do so well - wreaking havoc while achieving very little so their victories are merely pyrrhic because eventually they will push us too far, if they haven't already. The majority of us will never support terrorism, but we do need to stand up and say so with enough conviction and volume, we cannot keep muttering about how awful it all is and do nothing because it has been awful for such a long time now.
I do not claim to have the answer to what is happening, that is for us all to work out via United Nations negotiations and, perhaps, a united show of strength and commitment. Tony Blurs The Facts sent people to their deaths on a fool's errand and he paid the price, although it wasn't high enough for many of us. We need to stand up and say to people seeking to live amongst us that they must learn about, swear an oath of commitment to us and learn to speak our languages. Failure to integrate is inherently divisive and we need immigrants to assimilate, pay taxes and respect our lifestyle, thus contributing to the economy of their hosts.
I am happy for people to live amongst us if they become part of our society, but I am not happy if they hold on to outmoded values and beliefs that disenfranchise them from our communities. Our economy is not there to be exploited by medical tourists and spongers of every hue who remain intentionally unemployable by failing to speak our tongue.
Today my faith in humanity falters, because what happened in Manchester was inhumane, I had hoped to end my days in a more peaceful world where balance prevailed and each of us could express our beliefs without leading to the homicide of opponents. I am glad that I was born in easier times and I feel so very sad for all who have lost loved ones and are fearful for the future of their children. It could be such a wonderful world if human kind would let it be, surely it is time to simply think of others and live and let live because 'my god is better than yours' and political in-fighting simply don't work...they never have.



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