got home, had some time to spare, so I rang B.
After saying Hi, she immediatly launched into, "you are the only people I know who are on the Muslim side."
"What?" I asked. What on earth did she mean? I explained that just because I know that not all Muslims are extremists is not the same as chosing to take one side over another. I know Muslim people who are 'like you and me', I explained.
yes I know that's a kind of dodgy thing to say in the first place, but I was having an argument
She then claimed that she hears on the radio throughout the night that many Muslims from Britain have joined the Taliban to fight against Britain and the US. She said that they're all like that. "You don't know what side they're on."
I said that of every British Muslim person I know, there is only one person, who is not even a British citizen, who sides with the Taliban over Britain.
She then retorted that she knows these people. She has nursed them. I pointed out that nursing a person is nothing like having them for a friend. You don't get to know a person you're nursing except as an invalid - they are symptoms not people.
Besides, all nations have their extremists. All nations habour evil people who will use anything - religion, ideology, 'race', ethnicity - to do evil things to other people. I then pointed out that what she was saying was comparable to other nations, just say in Muslim countries, believing that all Catholics are paedophiles just because some of the religious leaders are. (She's Catholic) It's a crazy thing to do, to see all members of a religion as the same just because there are some evil people, or nutters, or extremists among them. The sins of the leaders should NOT be taken out on the people. For me, that's the point. People can be innocent even if their governments aren't.
She even had the audacity to imply that I would be sympathetic to the destruction of the Twin Towers just because I had Muslim friends. I nearly hung up on her. I mourn for the people and their families who were killed. My cousin may have been one of them... but I also mourn for the innocent people in Afganistan and for my friends here in London who are now getting serious grief just for being alive and Muslim. I believe in humanity. I don't want to be part of a world of hate.