Rice cooked in Londonstan

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has met [mostly desi] Muslim leaders in north-west England in a trip during which protesters expressed anger that an architect of the Iraq war was on their home turf… Dr Rice had been due to visit a mosque in Blackburn until its governors withdrew their invitation out of fear the occasion would be hijacked by demonstrators…

Cartoons lampooned the visit with The Independent carrying one showing a sign at a Blackburn Indian restaurant: “We regret we do not serve Rice.” [Link]

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60 thoughts on “Rice cooked in Londonstan

  1. For example, Sikh Canadians have lower levels of education than other Canadians, and in the Vancouver area, have higher than average involvement in crime.

    on another note, where can i read more about this?

  2. Given the generally poor performance of Muslim students in the UK, the high-rate of Muslim cousin marriage leading to higher rates of birth defects, their higher rates of incarceration –

    Surely, the above reference to cousin marriage and hence the illegitimacy of the cousin loving protestors was made in jest.

  3. KXB:

    As for the jab at paan and kulfi sellers – I don’t know what brought that about.

    Didn’t you more or less say their opinions are worthless?

  4. KXB,

    American Muslims oppose the war, many are working actively through associations to get their opinions heard in Congress, they are at the forefront of pointing out civil rights violations, and they have rejected violence.

    Agreed, and this is a point I’ve made myself numerous times here on SM.

    However, I don’t see what any of this has to do with the protesters in Blackburn. They weren’t violent and don’t necessarily have anything do with British-based jihadis or more extreme groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir or Al-Gharaaba.

    These people were not necessarily affiliated in any way to those groups who protested against the Mohammad cartoons in London a few months ago and who were demanding — some would say threatening — violent retribution.

    So we’ve moved from saying that individuals that are part of ethnic groups with poor social outcomes should not have their political opinions heeded to saying that foreigners should not have their political views heeded.

    Something that KXB appears to not be factoring into the eqution is the fact that the US and the UK are very close political and military allies, and that one of the major reasons why the UK became involved in the Iraq war was due to the alliance with the United States. So I would say that, if British citizens disagree with certain decisions by the American government, then in this particular case they would be totally justified in voicing their political opinions when faced with an American foreign official who is perceived to espouse the aforementioned political/military decisions.

    But I can’t give much respect to people who believe that removing Hussein from power – a man who killed more Muslims than anyone in the 20th century, who invaded Iran, annexed Kuwait, launched missiles into Saudia Arabia and Mecca – was an unforgivable act of aggression

    It’s not the removal of Saddam Hussein they object to, but the fact that they regard the original justification of the war as being under false premises, along with the continued occupation of Iraq which they feel is now unwarranted, plus the high number of Iraqi civilian casualties and the various abuses that have taken place.

  5. Jai (and to anyone living in GB),

    A little offtopic,

    1) How many Iraqis live in Britain ? 2) What is their attitude about the present situation?

    Regards

  6. Gaurav,

    1) How many Iraqis live in Britain ?

    I have no idea about the exact numbers; there is a small minority here, but not very many, certainly compared to the South Asian population in the UK.

    2) What is their attitude about the present situation?

    It’s probably going to vary according to the individual and how they (and their parents, in the case of 2nd-Generation British Iraqis) felt about Saddam Hussein when they decided to migrate here.