More from the “danger to community cohesion” crowd at Plymouth University. They had their demonstration against Usama Hasan Wednesday evening, and the Facebook page for that demo is full of poisonous commentary. It does a good job of illustrating why people like Maajid Nawaz and Usama Hasan (and Tehmina Kazi and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Irshad Manji and Tarek Fatah and Taj Hargey etc etc) are so desperately needed.
Top item on the page at the moment:
Hayley KempThis is the kind of thing I would expect to see on an EDL twitter account – disgusting & offensive. Dr Usama Hasan (QF speaker on 29th) retweets trivialisation of domestic violence:
https://twitter.com/drusamahasan/status/421834533580075008
Tehmina is commenting on that thread, trying to persuade Hayley Kemp to grasp that the cartoon is not in the least trivializing domestic violence, it’s protesting it via a bitter joke. It’s a pretty basic distinction. Also on that thread is…Yusuf Chambers of IERA. Some of his wisdom:
Yusuf Chambers Hayley and I have discussed QF and their team and come to the conclusion that they counter peaceful coexistance and community cohesion. Our dear Bro usama has moved his position from a moderate Muslim to a person that works against the middle ground and everyone in the Muslim community knows this very well. He has clearly left off following Normative Islam and we pray he will return to the correct path soon and join us in condemning violence against women and hate against Muslims that hold a different view to his. Thank you for your contribution Tehmina.
“He has clearly left off following Normative Islam” – says it all, dunnit.
The most surprising thing in all this to me, is just how tone-deaf these people seem to be. They make platitudes about being for free speech, then completely miss the point of free speech. They claim to be for gender equality, then turn around and try to dictate how women should act.
It’s refreshing in a sense. The wannabe xian theocrats in the US have learned (mostly) to be a little more circumspect, but only in public. When they are in a group of their ‘own kind’, the nasty comes out.
Ignorant twat more interested in cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Steersman: stop. Stop using the comments here as a way to shove abuse in my face. Stop using a new address each time. Stop trying to comment here. Stop “testing”. Stop. Just go away. I don’t follow you around; you stop following me around. Stop.
Steersman seems to be in dire need of a pilot to guide him through these straights* of clear reason and sense, between lunatics and screaming stupidity.
He’s an oaf who’s lost his oar.
No wait, a beer lacking an ear. No, a boeuf without the boar. No no, a stick minus mixed meats. In short: An empty spit over fire. Ah! There.
So happy to not have made his acquaintance.
* Yes, word spelling used quite deliberately here.
It sure is.
I don’t understand how anyone can really fails to grasp that distinction because it appears exceptionally blatantly clear to me – and I certainly won’t claim to be any kind of genius or exceptionally smart.
@2. Steersman : Well that was off topic, abusive and totally wrong of you. I gather Ophelia has already banned you but you keep coming back – please don’t. Please find a better thing or fifty to do with your time and energy. Life is short, the cosmos is vast, there is so much else to do and learn and enjoy. Why spend your time being such a pain on a blog you don’t like?
Ophelia Benson : I suggest simply deleting and not responding to Steersman’s posts like that one in the future or has this already been tried? You have my sympathy and support for whatever little its worth.
@ 5 StevoR
And then she’ll get “What stalking? What abuse? I don’t see anything. Why are you making up this victim narrative?”.
Ophelia doesn’t need any advice on how to handle the situation from someone who’s never experienced it. You’re being condescending.