Comments on: Review of “Muslim First, British Second”

By: Walter

Walter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:16:33 +0000

Of course religion always comes first and nationality second. A truly religious person who has understood what religion is all about and who doesn’t allow anyone to indoctrinate his mind will be supportive of his country if he doesn’t have to face discrimination because of his color and/or beliefs.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:07:28 +0000

“There are plenty of Catholic unionists and a smaller number of Protestant republicans in Northern Ireland.” Certainly, though exact numbers and percentages are unknown; all the same, if someone’s a prod the odds are they’re unionist/loyalist; if they’re papist nationalist/republican. Personal religio-national identification didn’t stop members of both lots happily and loyally working for the British state in N.I. and Great Britain and elsewhere in civilian or military jobs

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:07:47 +0000

The territory is disputed because of different religions and national loyalties associated with those religions.

There are plenty of Catholic unionists and a smaller number of Protestant republicans in Northern Ireland. I have no idea if people of other religions strongly favour the unionist or republican cause, although I have a suspicion that most are unionist as they are more likely to have ties to the mainland than the Irish Republic.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:27:17 +0000

The territory is disputed because of different religions and national loyalties associated with those religions.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:33:19 +0000

The Northern Ireland problem is actually disputed territory rather than religion, although religion is used as a convenient smokescreen by both sides to conceal the real issue.

It is very difficult to live in Northern Ireland if you follow a religion other than Protestant or Catholic Christianity. I have met former residents of Northern Ireland who follow Pagan or Odinic religions who have moved to the mainland because of this.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:09:02 +0000

“Do Muslims in Northern Ireland overwhelmingly consider themselves British or Irish?”

As in “Are you a protestant muslim or a catholic muslim?”?

There aren’t many muslims in Northern Ireland. They were [still are, perhaps] having difficulty even getting a permanent mosque. The local council where they wanted to build a mosque was run by the D.U.P. and refused planning permission. In the course of a probably justified complaint about anti-muslim prejudice one of the mosque’s supporters bitterly said that all christians always stuck together, which suggested remarkable ignorance of local history.

By: Ali Abdullah

Ali Abdullah — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:33:15 +0000

I don’t know about Northern Ireland, but young Muslims in Scotland that I have met consider themselves to be Scottish rather than British.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:40:47 +0000

Do Muslims in Northern Ireland overwhelmingly consider themselves British or Irish? What is the general Muslim opinion on Northern Ireland?

By: LeedsLad

LeedsLad — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:11:44 +0000

“Risbrook” was looking at the issue from an interesting angle. To be honest, I had the same feeling when I kept seeing these obese, bearded, ungentlemanly men goading and threatening anybody whom they did not like.

We need to claim Islam from these urban savages lacking empathy and humanity.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:07:51 +0000

There may be parallels between Islam in Britain today and Catholicism in Britain in the past.

There may also be parallels between the BNP and the defunct Liverpool Protestant Party which held grievances towards Catholics in the city, which actually started as grievances towards the Irish.