[Jordan]

So, I couldn't help but notice in preparation for the summer Olympics, London has deployed 18,400 (the lowest number I've read is 17,600) soldiers to keep the event 'safe'. To give you some perspective, according to the Washington post, current troop levels in Afghanistan are around 9,500. London will also have, in addition to the small army they've set aside, two warships, jet fighters, helicopters, and....missile bays stationed on residential roof tops.

It's pretty obvious who they're anticipating to cause mayhem. It's painfully obvious, yet any official government statement on the issue uses the amorphous and utterly censorious term 'terrorism'. They've even made comments on UK television stating these measures are not specifically pointing towards Islamists.

The UK has done more than any other host country for Muslims, especially in terms of granting them adequate voice and support to function in society. There are even tenants of Shiria in the UK, which Muslims can use amongst themselves in the court of law.

Pew polls (another link) show that UK Muslims have no interest in assimilating with the UK. It would seem more Muslims are worried about pop culture influencing their way of life than extremism.

The UK is at a crossroads. On one hand they are paralyzed by years of white guilt, so much so that they are totally incapable of disparaging certain cultures. Yet, on the other hand they will drop 1.5 billion on security out of fear of these groups, to whom they can’t openly criticize. Sure, pundits in the UK say what they want, but these people are often dismissed as racists and warmongers, which generally will stop conversation in its tracks.

The term I heard from Daniel Dennet, Tufts university philosopher, is ‘hyper-multiculturalism’ which is either the Western worlds inability to cast judgment on others in light of its historical shortcomings or the need to believe that all cultures are more or less the same with an equal distribution of good, bad, and ugly. Another issue the UK deals with is fear of reprisal for saying not nice things at all about Islam.

edit
*total security for Olympics is at 50,000 with local police and private contractors taken into account

This post has been edited by Jordan: 24 July 2012 - 05:03 PM

[Jordan]

SIGH

haven't posted a topic in eons and first thing I do is post one in the wrong place. PLEASE MOVE TO DEBATE CLUB for me!