Unsettling Conversation In A Pub

I've got to say this, even though it's unlikely anybody will read it, which truly saddens me because I've spent a lot of time on it because I think it hugely important. Somehow, also, if I don't say it then I'm complicit, accepting a status quo which is very wrong. So, here’s a thing. I went to a pub one night and before drink was taken, by me at least, got into a conversation about Islam. Those I spoke with were friends and had, apparently, met Muslims but, as is often the case, not lived for any length of time in a Muslim country, had no Muslim friends and I doubt these good folk had read the Qur’an, or had much idea of the thinking behind the hadeeths in the Sunnah, the difference between Sunni and Sh’ite Muslims, or much about ‘fringe’ groups, like Sufis, Salafis, Alawites etc. the latter group being pretty important, for instance, if one wishes to understand the Syrian civil war, without even factoring in Climate Change, crop failures and resultant moves of young, male farm workers into the cities like Aleppo to find work, where they found none and, ‘The devil makes work etc’.

It’s a bit likely, too, that they in addition don’t know that the Qur’an also contains most of the Jewish scripture which Christians refer to as the Old Testament, or that Muslims revere Jesus (pbuh) {Isa} as a great prophet and believe he performed miracles. They also believe he will return to Earth before the Day of Judgment to restore justice and to defeat al-Masih ad-Dajjal ("the false messiah"), also known as the Antichrist. (A crock, as far as I’m concerned, but it is an important feature in Islam, with Christian and Jews being seen as people of ‘The Book’, monotheists with many shared prophets and the same God/Allah/Yahweh.)

My friends also, as so many people do, appear to believe that the percentage of Muslims in European countries’ populations is higher by far than is really the case, and that Muslims, with their (totally exaggerated) numbers and perceived vastly different values will take over their countries in the foreseeable future. Apart from the fact that the vast majority of Muslims wouldn’t want to, and their faith obliges them to obey the laws of whatever country they live in, the Muslim population in Europe as a whole is only 4.9%. (See graph below for population percentages by European country – and please, spare me the fact that the numbers have increased in the last couple of years; I know, so maybe it 5% or 5.1%. Big deal.)

So, anyway … as is often the case, it was ‘Muslims bad’, nearly all 2 billion of them! For perspective – there wasn’t much – of those two billion only 17 were involved in 9/11. A Physicians for Social Responsibility study, conducted by a team that included Nobel Prize winners, determined that at least 1.3 million Muslim men, women and children have died as a result of ‘The War On Terror’, prosecuted by the Coalition since then, but the real figure might be as high as two million. Fewer than 40,000 people have died worldwide as a result of terrorism in the same period.

When you look at it like that, it’s surprising more Muslims aren’t pissed off with the West. Oh yes, and here’s another thing, the influx of refugees etc. was caused by us interfering in Iraq and Libya and encouraging Syrian opposition groups to overthrow Al-Assad, and a Christian country, Russia, supporting Al-Assad and assisting his butchering of his own folk. Galatians 6:7 ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ It just so happens that it says that in the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an.

I don’t enjoy being an apologist for Islam/ the truth, especially since I think if people want to have, and verbalise, strong opinions, for or against, they should feel some sense of responsibility to educate themselves or stay silent. So often they do not. Also, I’m not into it, Islam, that is, and you have no idea how weary I feel, listening to stuff that is very short on facts and having to say the same things over and over to try to counter the darkness, because if I don’t I’m complicit, just as very, very many Germans were when people started bad-mouthing the Jews in the same way. Still, I have to ask, why don’t all people see this?

Anyway, this was pretty much the usual experience I have when discussing Islam with folk who are making judgements based on little evidence, but on this occasion a new feature crept in. Some little jokes, not in the best possible taste but mea culpa also, followed concerning suicide vests, my waistcoat prompting the thoughts. I tuned out of the conversation a bit at that point because I was also talking with another couple of friends about cars – multitasking! I caught, however, an unsettling ‘joke’ where somehow I was lumped in with suicide bombers, but apparently then it was okay, perhaps because I’m a ‘Muslim apologist’, to take the piss out of me, though I’m a tad unsure. Anyway, please don't believe I'm some wilting flower, offended or hurt by my friends. I'm not, I'm confident in our friendship and I'm just 'curious' about how things change, things that somehow become acceptable but, in truth, aren't.

So, the joke ran along the lines of me needing to get help setting the timer on a bomb, one assumes because I’m an old fart and can’t see (I can) and then needing to set it for 10 minutes because, again I assume, I’m old and therefore, apparently very slow, and then followed a bit of mockery about me limping out, illustrated by one of my friends, which it is true I sometimes do when my back is less strong, though I think the vast majority of the time I don’t.

Now, dearhearts, maybe I’ve been insensitive, but I haven’t noticed people poking fun at me in such a manner before - and they were friends, it was gentle and most certainly not meant to hurt - and it seems to me – I accept I may be over-thinking – that somehow my being an Islamic apologist made it seem okay for these three lovely people to do so. It isn’t okay, not about me or anybody.

And, do you know, all this shit drains me because if something is important enough to feel strongly about then, call me old-fashioned, but in this age of information, ignorance is a choice, and just about everybody I’ve had these crap conversations with over the years is as bright or brighter than I am and the majority are good, kind, decent people … and ill-informed Islamophobic bigots, and because I care deeply about many of them, and the future for my kids and humanity generally, one way or another, these forays into predictable darkness make me want to weep, truly, and at times give up in despair. Islam isn’t much of a problem, dearhearts, ignorance and resultant prejudice based on fear of the unknown is, and it might be nice if we stopped bombing the crap out of innocent people. You never know; if we stop killing their mothers, wives and children maybe they won’t feel inclined to kill ours.