a little musing

The Independent had a headline on Friday declaring that Moslems in Britain feel alienated. They feel that they are ignored and unwanted. Whilst I did not read the article I can appreciate their problem. It is because of the First Law of the English - everybody is under suspicion until they have been living in the village for at least ten generations, and then one might deign to say hello. Is there anywhere else in the world where there is a word for the outsider who has come to live in a county from outside. There is in Devon and Cornwall. It is I believe the word Grockel. The Moslem leader who made the accusation has clearly not lived in the country very long and the insular attitude of the average Briton is a very deep-rooted one. It is not so long ago that no-one moved from a village unless circumstances enforced it. It is the reason why we are so poor at speaking foreign languages - our tongue is the best and it is the only one that is valid. And by that I don't mean our English language, but our local version of it. The Geordie, the Scouser, the Brummie, the Devonian, the Cockney, the Essex lot - each will say to all the others, "You talk funny". If this be the case among people of our own particular race, it is not surprising if those of a foreign extraction feel the sense of opposition. It is not that anybody else is abhorrent (except to the BNP), but rather that as an individual the average Brit feels him/herself perfect in comparison. There have been Moslems living here quietly for several generations, but the great and varied influx of immigrants from all corners of the globe hide them and make people tar everyone with the same brush. That some elements seem to be on a terrorist campaign does not mean all are, any more than disaffected knife-wielding teenagers form the majority of that age-group. However our inbuilt prejudices can provoke or exacerbate a situation which would not otherwise have arisen. Above all everyone who declares he or she is a Christian should be totally innocent of any such attitudes - yet in history regrettably it has often been the Church that has been at the forefront of promoting such attitudes. We have much to repent of.