Never let it be said the redbaron only wallows in egomaniacal banter, I do occasionally turn my mind to more important things and tonight I felt like tackling the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’. It is a subject much talked about politically and socially. Apparently because the teachings of christianity and islam are diametrically opposed this leads to an inevitable conflict. I say apparently because I do not wish to give the view that this is a uniformly accepted principle, it isn’t, and it isn’t accepted by me. There are differences in the teachings that is without doubt, however there are christians and muslims who may be closer together than they are to many on the other wing of their own religion. The clash is really that of a justification of hostilities where one is needed. it is not just in the Middle East although that is one of the most cited example, mainly because the West wishes to control the East far more to guarantee its own oil supply and where disagreements occur it is an easy option to put this down to a fundamental religious reason. That arguement is totally transparent much of these wranglings are economic and have nothing to do with religion except when it is used in propagandist fashion.

Noam Chomsky has talked about how the West is happy to deal with Saudi Arabia, one of the more repressive regimes in the islamic world, the US supported the Mujahaddhin when it was politically expedient for them to do so against the advance of the Red Army in Afghanistan, and yet it consistantly slips religion into the fray when dealing with Iraq when in fact Saddam Hussain was something of a pariah in islamic circles as he was far from an orthodox muslim and the state was a largely party-organised apparatus rather than one based on shariah law. We’ll come back to the Middle East in a future blog.

Why is it that humans who believe in a concept that itself is far from proveable, namely that of God/Allah whatever nomenklatur you wish to put on him/her/it, seem intent on argueing amongst themselves about the minutiae of their differences? It is, I guess either something that modern life teaches us to do, or it is inherent in human nature in general, after all those of us more politically-minded on the left often do much the same thing and the socialists argue with the communists and often expend more energy doing this than combatting the right, the common foe.

Anyway there are islamic fundamentalists with whom I have a profound disagreement and likewise there are christian fundamentalists with whom I have the same problem. The situation is very similar to that of the racial problem because of the lack of understanding propaganda is whipped up by the fundamentalists on both sides which plays on the ignorance and incites people to believe that difference is to be feared and those who are different for whatever reason have some hidden agenda and are on no account to be trusted. I think this is a particular severe problem in the UK due to the singular lack of person to person communication. The British are a reserved bunch, they think that if they divulge any information to anyone they haven’t known for at least 20 years they will somehow be handing over their souls. Try to talk to a stranger and they are immediately on the defensive, you are the nutter on the bus (ok I admit it I am the nutter on the bus!) or you want to mug/sleep with or kill them probably though not necessarily in that order! This attitude permeates so many facets of life and is is the main thing that prevents this country from being as multi-cultural as it should be. The whites claim that the immigrants stick to their own communities and don’t try to mix and that they should seek to integrate, learn the language and the culture etc. Well in the case of many they know the culture because it came from them anyway, the food, the drink and many words in the language. If I was an immigrant, well ok when I was an immigrant I was in countries where I did speak the language and in Germany I mixed well but there was distrust from many and in 1992 in Munich a horde of Irish descended and they were my own people and I naturally gravitated to them. There was a community and everyone by and large looked out for one another. There was a bond of being like-minded people in a foreign land, it was nice to discuss things that the Germans didn’t understand and here was part of the problem, I was not able to discuss many such things that the Germans will have in common as I didn’t have that shared experience. That didn’t make me less-inclined to speak to Germans it just meant there was a difference in the sort of things I spoke to them about. Now there was a big difference in how I looked to a German and how an Indian or a West Indian looks to people in England, I was the same colour as the native population so I was able to blend in by appearance. If you are a different colour or you have a religious requirement of dress or such like that makes you stand out you do not have the luxury of blending into the crowd and this makes the desire to be around people where you do blend in all the more strong.

Race is not a limited concept, historically it does not have boundaries that never change, it is like language it evolves. If this were not the case the ‘aryan’ race would not exist at all. Life did not start in Scandinavia, one wonders what would have happened if the Africans had decided to keep their race pure, the white man would never exist ho ho ho try telling that to the BNP, twats. The white varient of homo sapiens is in fact demographically something of an upstart in historical terms and therefore perhaps evolution is as yet undecided as to whether it has the qualities to survive.

Whatever one may feel about immigration, I personally think immigration is a part of the human race that brings some of the most benefit to the incumbant and the immigrant alike. It is a fact of life, some people will go to places by choice, to get away from the country they were in or to retire somewhere nice, others are forced by political or economic persecution, they seek a better life and this courage is a quality their new country should cherish. My feeling is that a country should be honoured when people chose to come there and should see it as something to be pleased about, it means someone else deems their country worthy of settling in it’s like someone fancying your girlfriend!

Sorry this turned into less of an orthodox religion rant than I had expected.