Islamaphobia is getting out of control

Just be mindful that the security services (worldwide) have to be successful every time in order to keep the public safe. Terrorists (of any description/demographic) have only to be successful once to cause death, destruction and fear…

Or that it's quite easy to discuss terrorism carried out by the IRA. We dont seem to have any hang ups about that.

You cannot compare IRA attacks in the UK with muslim worldwide terrorism, unless you have statistics for muslim terrorism going back - as the Statista ststistics do to 1970.

We read so much about international islamism now because it is reported more widely on all the new media that now floods aour homes. How many Islamic inspired terrorist attacks were there worldwide in 1970? We do not know because, with newspapers and radio being the main sources of news, such attacks happening in the middle east or the Indian sub-continent were not news and not collected.

We can only go on the figures for this country and these show quite clearly that the IRA were behind more terrorist incidents than are muslim terrorists. It makes not a jot of difference whether those incidents happened in Northern Ireland or on the mainland, they all carry an equal wait.

Unless, of course, there still lies in many people a prejudice against the irish as a whole that dismisses violent incidents and deaths and woundings in Northern ireland as being of less importance than bombings on the mainland, because essentially the irish are of less value as human beings.

I hope people are demonising Islamic extremism. That would be a good thing for many minorities.

Galaxy

I have read the thread.
To me it looks like distract distract distract. Look at this shiny thing instead.
Islamic terrorism is a threat to Muslims too, more so if I remember the figures correctly, dancing around the issue isnt going to help. You (not you specifically) just lose people's trust.

I think it’s just about keeping proportionality. If you read the stuff online about threats to the UK, and there are many, you could drive yourself mad worrying about one in particular whilst another gains momentum and hits you from behind. Singling out and demonising Islamic extremism is unhelpful when the other threats are brushed aside in the furore.

I have read the thread.
To me it looks like distract distract distract. Look at this shiny thing instead.
Islamic terrorism is a threat to Muslims too, more so if I remember the figures correctly, dancing around the issue isnt going to help. You (not you specifically) just lose people's trust.

Galaxy

What are we doing now? I have lost track. Pretending the IRA are the current threat?

No, if you read the thread you will see that people are pointing out that we have had worse periods of terrorism in our past than we are currently experiencing, and that threats come from many different quarters. Another important point somebody made is that we as a society always seem to need to demonise a group as the greatest threat to our society, and at the moment it is Islam, but has been other groups in the past, and will no doubt be other groups in the future. Some people jump on the latest bandwagon of fear, some don’t.

What are we doing now? I have lost track. Pretending the IRA are the current threat?

Casdon

I’ll be honest, I don’t know why terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland seem to have less significance in people’s minds than terror attacks in London.
I’m not trying to play down the risk of Islamic extremist attacks at all, just pointing out that others perpetrate them too, all terrorist attacks are equally abhorrent, and we are not currently experiencing as many as UK citizens have done in the past. It’s a matter of proportion.

We don’t hear about it but the security services are very vigilant monitoring extremist activity electronically, downloading extremist material online will get you noticed and from there phones and social media also get monitored.
Lone Wolf attacks are more difficult to counter.

Just listening to the radio - it is day - I’ve actually lost count- of the Anderson story and Tory MPs are still talking the most bizarre gibberish.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know why terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland seem to have less significance in people’s minds than terror attacks in London.
I’m not trying to play down the risk of Islamic extremist attacks at all, just pointing out that others perpetrate them too, all terrorist attacks are equally abhorrent, and we are not currently experiencing as many as UK citizens have done in the past. It’s a matter of proportion.

Casdon

You may want to look at this Katie59.
www.statista.com/statistics/539190/incidences-of-terrorism-united-kingdom/

I know there were a lot of IRA attacks in the UK but that does not compare with the global terror and war that Muslims are involved in, often between different sects of Islam.

I don’t think there were more terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland, I know there were more, and so do you.
Yes there were many attacks on the mainland and it was a frightening time, but there were hundreds of attacks in Northern Ireland.

So many in England, there was a few incidents in Wales in the
60’s , The Welsh Free Army against the Investiture and the flooding of Capel Celyn.

Timeline - Worst IRA bomb attacks on mainland Britain
Reuters
May 16, 20112:06 PM GMT+1Updated 13 years ago

(Reuters) - Police said on Monday they had been warned of a bomb in central London, a day before the Queen makes a historic visit to Ireland.
Here is a timeline of some of the worst bomb attacks on mainland Britain by Irish dissident groups in the last 35 years.
February 1974 - Coach carrying soldiers and families in northern England is bombed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twelve people killed, 14 hurt.
October-November 1974 - Wave of IRA bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200.
July 1982 - Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London's royal parks kill 11 people and wound 50.
December 1983 - IRA bomb at Harrods department store kills six.
October 1984 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb that kills five people at Brighton hotel during Conservative Party's annual conference.
September 1989 - Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.
February 1990 - Explosion at Army recruitment centre in Leicester. Two wounded.
May 1990 - Seven wounded by blast at Army Educational Service headquarters in London suburb of Eltham.
May 1990 - One soldier is killed and another wounded by car bomb in Wembley.
June 1990 - Soldier is shot dead at train station in Lichfield.

www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE74F31Q/#:~:text=April%201993%20%2D%20IRA%20truck%20bomb,explodes%20outside%20BBC's%20London%20headquarters.

Northern Ireland was and is part of the United Kingdom. And that’s where the huge number of attacks took place.

Really? You really think that the IRA confined their activities to NI, maddyone?

Brighton? Manchester? Hyde Park? Airey Neave?

In fact, now I've looked it up I am astounded at how many IRA incidents there were in mainland Britain.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain

Anniebach
No dogs, no children, no Irish,was of the 50’s
No, it wasn't Anniebach. I wasn't born until 1955 and I vividly remember the prejudice against Catholics and Irish.

Not in South Wales Valleys, my aunt, granddaughter of a Baptist minister married an Irish Roman Catholic, 1952 I was baptised into the Anglican Church, I was allowed to choose my
Godparents, I chose my Aunt a Baptist, my Uncle a Roman Catholic, the Anglican priest couldn’t put my uncle’s name in the records, his Church wouldn’t allow it, many Irish families moved to the Valleys to work in the mines, no problem in South Wales

The problem with that chart is that it speaks of the United Kingdom. Well of course there were many, many more terrorist attacks in 1970! Of course! That was the time of the troubles and last time I looked, Northern Ireland was and is part of the United Kingdom. And that’s where the huge number of attacks took place. That situation cannot be compared with today. What did surprise me was that there were, I think it said, ninety terrorist attacks in 2020. The IRA had stopped attacks by then, although I think the Real IRA, still do the occasional one in Northern Ireland, and so who was committing the ninety terrorist attacks? I don’t even remember that many attacks. I remember the big ones that were well publicised, but ninety attacks seems really quite frightening, whoever was committing them.

Anniebach

No dogs, no children, no Irish,was of the 50’s

No, it wasn't Anniebach. I wasn't born until 1955 and I vividly remember the prejudice against Catholics and Irish.

You may want to look at this Katie59.
www.statista.com/statistics/539190/incidences-of-terrorism-united-kingdom/

No dogs, no children, no Irish,was of the 50’s

Katie59 The Irish integrated easily, Where on earth did you get that ideaa? My mother, born and brought up in London remembered seeing signs on lodging houses saying No children, No Irish, No dogs.

Have a look at some old copies of Punch with all the 'stupid ignorant' Irish jokes. Irish experience in Britain for the forst 100 years after the Famine was not unlike the treatment meeted out on the Windrush generation. In fact, it was immigrants from the West Indies coming to Britain thaat took the heat off the Irish as then socieities contempt was turned on them.

As for conversion when my catholic paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother married Christians of other denominations , in both cases their spouses became catholics

I can remember being faced by all the casual stories about catholics being bound to obey the Pope before the Queen. Something I found very offensive coming from an army family where my family had fought and died for this country over several generations, including winning gallantry awards..

One boyfriend dropped me when he realised I was a catholic because his father had said that if he ever brought a catholic girl home he would cut him off without a penny - and he meant it.

Irish terrorists were not content with bombing in Northern ireland, they also brought their campaign to the UK and do not forget the immense support for them from the Irish diaspora in the USA, who effectively funded the whole bombing and killing campaign.

I agree with Monica. My own personal experience of my daughter marrying into a Muslim family has shown me that education makes a difference. My daughter's in-laws don't have large families. They are flexible about their faith. My son-in'law doesn't practise any religion. Their lives aren't any different from anybody else's.

Sorry Katie59, I was born and brought up on Merseyside, where many people have Irish ancestry. I don't remember easy integration at all. I remember prejudice and suspicion and real fear when travelling through stations and in shopping centres, where all the bins were removed, in case "Irish terrorists" placed bombs in them.

Katie59

An interesting comparison, I don’t remember the Irish Catholics sponsoring global terrorism, or declaring Jihad, although there was a lot of suspicion during the troubles, their culture was pretty much the same as ours and they integrated easily.
Islam is a much stronger religion expanding worldwide and in many inter religious marriages involves conversion to Islam rather than no religion as so many Christians have chosen.

I disagree, our closest neighbours are Muslim, they have three children. One daughter has married a Muslim and upholds the faith, one daughter married a European and doesn’t follow Islam or its traditions. Their son also married a European who comes from a strict catholic background neither of them follow their families religion.

They are still a close family, who respect each other’s choices. (They are also the best neighbours anyone could ask for)