Comments on: Racist Arsonist arrested

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 05 May 2006 17:19:09 +0000

“This was a common complaint in Birmingham too, that Asian shop owners behaved terribly towards black customers. ”
Then they wouldn’t have customers for very long would they? I very much doubt that a shopkeeper- whose existence depends on maximising his profits- is going to behave to customers in a way that is going to alienate them and make them go somewhere else, especially not a small shopkeeper in a large city where they have plenty of rivals.

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 05 May 2006 17:15:17 +0000

“There is NO evidence here that it as racist. ”
The fact that all four shops were run by Asians is evidence for racism as a possible motive. It is not evidence powerful enough to justify unequivocal claims however.

By: Sunny

Sunny — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:33:15 +0000

Mr Jatt – stop being a racist idiot. You’re as bad as them.

By: funkg

funkg — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:33:07 +0000

whats all this talk about black people from london coming to brum to riot? most black guys in uk would only travel that far to go to a dance or to check a girl. have you guys ever met any black people? or have you heard about us thru the daily mail? dont beleive the hype, same way i would never generalise Muslims or any other Asians, please dont do it to us. like i said b4 criminals should be locked up.

By: funkg

funkg — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:27:35 +0000

mr jatt,
im taking your comments tongue in cheek, if not listen to yourself you sound like a nazi.
anyway i hear what your saying, i live in west london and i feel embarresed when i see my ‘brothers’ begging money for beer, but to me its haram to sell it to them in the first place. maybe you should visit tower hamlets and see how the young asian brothers are faring there, same issues.

By: Mr Jatt

Mr Jatt — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:19:53 +0000

Blacks are jealous of us its simple. These filthy crackheads come into asian shops high on drugs demanding beer on credit i have seen it with my own eyes black jamaicans treat asian people worse than dogs in london. They seem to think they are kings of the jungle well we are not living in no jungle this they find hard to understand. Blacks are always crying racism but they dont do any favours to themselves by overbreeding and letting lose their bastards on our communities!!
Only solution i can see we will have to police our shops and areas ourselves and we will do better job then this police service.

few weeks ago during easter holidays these young black hooligans stormed an asian shop on the high street the poor shop keeper had a hole in the side of his head like a real nasty wound and even though i was telling the police which way the little bastard breeds ran they didnt seem eager to report it on their radios as in london police policy is save ur own arse first ..so policing our own communities is a must to tackle these scum!!

By: Mr J

Mr J — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:09:54 +0000

This i believe is linked to the birmingham riots u do know that blacks from london went down to birmingham to riot. This is also hardly getting any media attention for their policy always is to heavily broadcast evil that is done by asians not evil that is done to them. Asians living in black areas have always been targets of black crime from mugging to business robberies. I have yet to see anyone highlight this deepening crisis in a documentry!

By: funkg

funkg — Fri, 05 May 2006 08:27:06 +0000

what is the point of this thread? it should be obvious to all that this nutter should be locked up for good and that he does not represent anyone else but himself. he is nothing more but a common criminal albeit an insane one. all that talk about black/asian hostility is rubbish.

By: Rakhee

Rakhee — Fri, 05 May 2006 07:25:20 +0000

Come off it Sunny, you need it written down on paper before you believe it?

By: Sunny

Sunny — Thu, 04 May 2006 21:57:50 +0000

Hi alison – no moral equivalence. In the Anthony Walker case two of his friends (I think) escaped and said that he had been attacked because he was black. There was no question that it was a racist attack.

As you can see from this article, he was subjected to a torrent of racial abuse and been taunted because of his race before the attack later.

There is NO evidence here that it as racist. As yet. I’m not ruling it out, I just want some evidence before I start accusing people of racism.

By: alison

alison — Thu, 04 May 2006 20:34:11 +0000

Hi Sunny

In reference to the comment you left, im not clear as to why it is ‘lazy’ to point out that the MSM are not even handed in their presentation of racism. In the case of Anthony Walker the police had not any factual evidence before the MSM had gone ballistic. They alleged. As they are here. To muted media coverage in comparison yet where the crimes are both abhorrent. Im of the opinion that the media are poison in this respect.

Id agree that ‘The emotive issues behind racism are the major drivers of any extreme act. Awful fact but so true.’
Im curious to know if you agree with this and why you think moral equivalence is then so dismissable?

By: Rakhee

Rakhee — Thu, 04 May 2006 13:00:18 +0000

May seem like an obvious point but one of the key drivers for any act of racial terrorism, violence or just plain verbal insult is jealousy.

In The Sunday Times a few weeks back there was an entire section dedicated to Richest Asians. Stories of coming to the UK with 10p in the pocket (we’ve heard them before) and rags to riches tales will be celebrated by many but detested by others. Interestingly a similar section was not there for Blacks or Chinese. You get my point.

Jay – I can’t agree with you more. My parents worked so damn hard, ran a shop all to give me and siblings a superb shot at life. I’ll take on anyone who challenges shopkeepers and their livelihood. (Also it isn’t just asians who run shops – have you seen The Evening Standard’s campaign for Save our small shops??)

But if you are a person having lived in the UK all your life and not had opps at a great education or a loving upbringing, whether you are black, white or purple, human nature dictates in some people a sense of hatred and jealousy.

The emotive issues behind racism are the major drivers of any extreme act. Awful fact but so true.

By: Jay Singh

Jay Singh — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:44:06 +0000

Yusuf Smith

So when an Arab shop gets firebombed, maybe a couple of Arabs are burnt to death like the men in South London, do you empathise with the person who carries out that in the name of fighting against the evil and wickedness of Arabs who cackle as they bring depravity and prosititution to the ghetto?

I cannot believe the moral convolution of some people.

By: Jay Singh

Jay Singh — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:39:19 +0000

So if black shopkeepers behave terribly to Asians, can we firebomb them? Will we get your sympathy then? What about other random black people with bad attitudes to others? Can we complain about them and set some places on fire? And persecute innocent black people because once we felt disrespected by a black person once?

By: Sunny

Sunny — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:36:02 +0000

see only the worst of the communities concerned and therefore look down on them.

Yusuf has a point, though I’m not too knowledgable about American affairs. This was a common complaint in Birmingham too, that Asian shop owners behaved terribly towards black customers.

By: Yusuf Smith

Yusuf Smith — Thu, 04 May 2006 10:26:25 +0000

Roger: no I don’t. These stores foster racism against the clients, because the Muslim owners who think they’re so pious (with their Qur’anic ayats on the wall or – worse – the till) serve the non-Muslim black and Latino customers and run nightclubs and tolerate drug dealers and prostitutes offering business around their shop (which drags down the quality of life for anyone living nearby), and see only the worst of the communities concerned and therefore look down on them. It is a fact that in some towns in the US, all the liquor stores are owned by Arabs. Hence the racist attitudes a lot of Arab Americans have towards blacks.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 04 May 2006 09:49:55 +0000

Yusuf Smith: you have things the wrong way round. That post is an example of “racist attitudes” to Arab Americans, not “among” them.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 04 May 2006 09:46:17 +0000

It’s much more likely the fellow is mad. Racism- extreme racism- is often associated with mental illness. Whether all racism is mental illness is another matter ['though a very handy point to put to racists] but you’ll find very high levels of racism in mentally ill people after all, if you think you’re being persecuted you’ll pick a noticeable group to blame.

By: Yusuf Smith

Yusuf Smith — Wed, 03 May 2006 16:38:10 +0000

The attacks may have been linked to the Lozells trouble, but I wonder if it's also inspired by a spate of fire-bombings by Afro-Americans of Arab-run corner shops in the US last year. The attacks weren't the act of one lone racist; the culprits are thought to be members of one of the black cod-Islamic cult groups. The shops are often in mainly black areas and are known for contributing to racist attitudes among Arab Americans to Afro-Americans and Latinos (see this post. It's possible that this individual was partly inspired by those incidents.

By: SajiniW

SajiniW — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:46:53 +0000

The organised manner of attacks, re: locations and the announcements made by the bomber make me think he’s been set-up.

Even if an organisation hasn’t got him doing this in their name, instinct tells me that he’s representing a group grudge.