Offended Muslims

[TRNCVaughan]

Just been to Near East Uni Hospital for an appointment.
Surprised to see Christmas trees and various Christmas decorations, and not an offended muslim in sight.
Have they got it right while in the UK they have got it wrong?

[Mowgli597]

Yes

[woodspeckie]

We have a Muslim Father Christmas visit us on Christmas morning at the Hotel where we stay.

[niceone]

I worked with a Muslim, he sent me a Christmas card every year and wished everyone a happy Christmas, too much negative hype in the press.

[kerry 6138]

Yasser Arafat always attended Christmas mass in Jerusalem , dont think it was just because Jesus was a Palestinian.

[petronemma]

the media appear to be going out of their way to stir hatred towards muslims, its disgusting.

i have been to the UAE for christmas and they celebrated it big style over there, there were huge queues in Abu Dhabi and Dubai malls for kids to visit santa (wasn't aimed at expats either), christmas trees everywhere and english christmas songs in all shops. ...here it is lovely to see christmas getting bigger each year, my son attends a local government school and on christmas day they exchange christmas presents and encourage english kids to talk about the festivities (albeit santa is known as Baba Noel) and even have a christmas tree in classrooms, decorations and welcome christmas cards, wonder what the uk would make of that?

[woodspeckie]

Father Christmas is known as Noel Baba in Turkey.

[petronemma]

thats the one woodspeckie, couldn't remember which way round it went whether it was baba noel or noel baba. i always get it the wrong way lol

[kaiserphil]

I suspect that in the UK some liberal-minded people are determined to be offended on behalf of Muslims, rather that stirring things up. I think much of the nonsense like "Happy Holidays" and "Festive Tree" comes from them.

We know a couple who are exactly like that.

[Ragged Robin]

thats the one woodspeckie, couldn't remember which way round it went whether it was baba noel or noel baba. i always get it the wrong way lol

'

I thought it was Baba Noel! Either way he visits Girne every Christmas and gives presents to the Turkish Cypriot children!

Perhaps the race/religion that is in the majority - and /or on home ground - feels more secure and can afford to be more relaxed.

PS "Santa Clause" is an abbreviation of St.NIcholas who was born in Turkey

[fatouche]

Saint Nicholas is from Turkey.

[Keithcaley]

RR - In ILELI - our local supermarket - TRNCVaughan was known as Baba Noel (or was it Noel Baba?), at least until he shaved off his beard!

[Ragged Robin]

Sorry Keith that is outside my catchment area and I d on't know the gentleman in questions! But just so long as he does not sing "Jingle Bell Rock" as one of the blow up Santas outside a Girne shop used to do very time the door opened.

At the risk of being called a spoilt sport just think I came here to get away from the Christmas hype and commercialisation .................................

:

[Keithcaley]

RR - if you look back to post number one of this thread, you will see who started it!

Just as an aside, I worked for a while in the UK Midlands, heavily populated by immigrants of various persuasions from the Indian sub-Continent - not just Muslims, but Hindus, Buddhists & Sikhs as well, and I have yet to meet a single one of them who was offended by our 'National customs', or by our celebration of Religious holidays such as Christmas.

Which leads me on to this...

At the time, the local Council (Birmingham, I think) was expressing the view that Muslim shopkeepers would be offended by being required to sell National Lottery 'scratchcards' which bore a cartoon drawing of a pig...

I asked the Muslim owner/manager of my local 'mini-market' whether he was, in fact, offended by this.

He said "Look, I sell Bacon, Pork sausages, Pork pies and sausage rolls, because that's what people want to buy, I don't eat them because that is against my religious beliefs, but that doesn't mean that I am offended by others eating them, or that I am offended by selling them.

Why should I be offended by selling something which just has a picture of a pig on it? - I don't understand!"

This tends to make me think that the supposed 'politically correct' awareness campaigns are engineered by people who either -

1) Have no knowledge of the opinions of the minority whose feelings and sensibilities they are supposedly protecting or

2) Make up the scenarios in which people 'might' be offended in order to justify their own jobs or

3) Promulgate the impression that we are obliged to abandon our Traditions, with the deliberate intent of creating racial division and racial hatred.

It is of course, a well-established political tactic on the part of ruling parties (and others) to engender mistrust and hatred between sections of a population, on the basis of 'divide and conquer' - i.e. while they're fighting each other, they're not challenging 'our' positions of power...

In my experience, People, no matter what race, colour or religion' are just 'People' - and pretty much alike!

Just my opinion!

[jofra]

AND - "political correctness" appears to change at the the whim of those who proclaim it - in the 50s/60s/70s it was wrong to use the expression "black people" or "blacks".....
Now, "coloured" is "unacceptable" and "insulting" - "black" is the correct term!
Incidentally, my son's godfather was my oldest and closest friend (now sadly gone) from before I met my wife (!) - who just happened to be Jamaican...
Come to think, "political" is about right - nothing but lies, hypocrisy, deceit, corruption.... add whatever you think fits!

[kaiserphil]

AND - "political correctness" appears to change at the the whim of those who proclaim it - in the 50s/60s/70s it was wrong to use the expression "black people" or "blacks".....
Now, "coloured" is "unacceptable" and "insulting" - "black" is the correct term!
Incidentally, my son's godfather was my oldest and closest friend (now sadly gone) from before I met my wife (!) - who just happened to be Jamaican...
Come to think, "political" is about right - nothing but lies, hypocrisy, deceit, corruption.... add whatever you think fits!

Exactly, and I recall in the early 70s the MoD issued an instruction that the word Blackboard was to be replaced by "Chalkboard".

That was at the same time that the expression "Persian Gulf" was replaced by "The Gulf".

[Keithcaley]

I wonder what will happen about the South China Sea, the Black Sea, The Black hills of Dakota, The Scottish Highlands and the Yorkshire Moors?

[waddo]

It all started when Robinson's took the golly off the jar! Its been down hill ever since - give the majority a target to aim at and they leave the real problems alone! I too remember the demise of the blackboard in the MoD and the many memo's that went around explaining why it could not be called a "whiteboard" (that was the thing you wrote on in chinagraph) and why they all had to become chalk boards - that even through supply did no longer hold stocks of chalk!! As a service instructor at the time I was often berated by management for using the wrong term - lol.

[sophie]

Bring back the Gollywog. He was my absolute favourite cuddly as a child. He got me through trials and tribulations of a pretty tumultuous childhood, plus operations, deaths etc etc in my family. Without him I'm not sure I could have coped from age 4 to 10. Stitched up, patched up, darned up with one missing eye and gold rings in his ears. Im going teary eyed just thinking about him. To hell with all the PC in the UK.

[Mowgli597]

I wonder what will happen about the South China Sea, the Black Sea, The Black hills of Dakota, The Scottish Highlands and the Yorkshire Moors?

And let's get rid of the "British Isles".

aka in some quarters of Ireland as the "Atlantic Isles".

[woodspeckie]

I wonder what will happen about the South China Sea, the Black Sea, The Black hills of Dakota, The Scottish Highlands and the Yorkshire Moors?

And Black Puddings

[mrsgee]

And the Black Country......lol ...it will always be the Black Country to us folks what cum frum theer........ Gods own country....and its BLACK!

[Ragged Robin]

I rather like the following sidelight on the "colour question" - btw I have no idea who wrote it:

When you are sad, you are blue,
When you are angry you are red or purple
when you are jealous or sick you are green,
when you are a coward you are yellow

and you have the f****** cheek to call ME coloured!

Keith' post reminded me that a few years back there was a paragraph in a UK paper about a Muslim girl who had complained about a colleague keeping a china pig on her desk. It so happened that the paper had chosen (?????!!!) to print this directly below a paragraph on why Turkey should not be admitted to the EU> It was hard not to get the impression that the inference was that Turkey's membership would lead to the banning of toy pigs and other horrors. It so happened that at that time the local supermarkets were carrying a range of paper products with Disney characters printed on them. I wrote to the paper to point out that on my desk as I wrote was a box of paper tissues bearing a picture of - among other animals - a small toy pig - and that the note on the back said "made in Istanbul"! Furthermore these boxes were widely available in the Supermarkets and none of the mainly Turkic Muslim customers seemed any more concerned about the toy piglet than they were about wild creatures (a bear and a tiger) floating down a river under a purple umbrella.! Needless to say my letter was not printed.

No prizes for guessing the Disney film concerned!

PS to avoid attacks and disputes the blue colour is purely to differentiate between the quoted snippet and the rest of the post, and not from ANY ulterior motives.

[jofra]

Gollywogs!
That has just reminded me again of my oldest friend/son's Godfather - on reflection, he was definitely a stirrer! Back in the late 60's/early 70's, when his (Jamaican/Polish) nieces were born, each time he bought the new-born a gollywog, as he did when my son was born - he found great amusement in the reactions of shopstaff when he made his requests/purchases....
I missed his humour and tolerance when he retired and finally went home to JA, and even more when he finally passed on.