Don't forget about the Heisenberg immigrant, who is simultaneously

1. a lazy sponger who just came here to live on benefits

and

2. taking your job

Sky News interviewed someone recently who said he was against immigration because it meant he couldn't get a job. It turned out that this guy was a convicted sex offender who had been in prison for his offence. But no, it was definitely immigrants to blame for him not having a job.

Maybe here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_Kingdo...

> The 2023 CONTEST report indicated that 75 per cent of the Security Service (MI5)'s caseload was from monitoring Islamist threats.

I don't support the violence and ultra-right (or just right) wings. I think that people have the right to protest.

I doubt you find many people here who are against the right of peaceful protest. But protests are only worthwhile if they address real issues, not misinformation.

How is beating up police officers protecting the cenotaph “protest” that people should have a legal right to?

What about burning down a community library because somebody had put the lie up on a local Facebook page that “all the kids books have been replaced by copies of the Quran”? Never happened, somebody lied, the lie spread, mob burns a public library down. Is that a legally protected right to protest?

On the 75% number, well, now you’re showing your hand. I will take your insistence you’re not a fellow traveller at face value, but I do need to point out you have drawn a line of association that the far-right want you to, they do it all the time, and it’s intentional and harmful.

You have called out a number referring to Muslims, but the “protests” were meant to be about immigration. Do you not think British people can be Muslim?

So let’s dive into the numbers [0], and have a think about something important.

In table 2.1 we find “Number of persons arrested for terrorist-related activity, since 11 September 2001, by self-defined nationality”. 3,302 of these people (62.6%), define themselves as British. It seems to me that by the logic of the dominant group being the dominant threat, MI5 should be spying on every Briton they can - these British people are all a threat to public safety!

Ah, but of course that’s not what people mean by “British”, is it? And there’s the problem. This is thinly veiled Islamophobia and racism. The far right like to suggest that “Muslim” and “migrant” are synonyms. It’s othering. It’s dehumanising. And you just showed you unconsciously agree at some level. Many people do, and it’s that sort of lazy thinking that means a) we never solve the actual problems we face as a society and b) create divisions when there don’t need to be any.

Migration has never been the risk some think it is. Protesting it by looting shops in your local high street is transparent thuggery. Provoking people to do so because of “immigrants” (nudge, nudge, we all know the targets are all brown people), is incitement to racial hatred. Threatening British born people because of their religion and skin colour because of “immigration” is - I think you can agree - not a reasonable form of protest at any level. The objection isn’t sound, never mind the protest action itself.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police...

> Do you not think British people can be Muslim?

Yes. I do not think so. I think that if you come to the UK you have to accept the culture of the UK. And if you don't like it - do not come to the UK.

I am a Russian living in Spain. I completely accepted the Spanish culture, my daughter (born in Russia) speaks Spanish and Catala as her native language, and her Russian is (much) worse than her Spanish. That's how we assimilate. Who doesn't want it should not come in the first place.

Can you define British culture?

Do you mean pre-Windrush when Irish people were OK, but black people were not? Do you mean pre-1926 when Irish people were not OK? Are Americans terrorists (18th century), or fellow countrymen (prior to that?). Catholicism was outlawed for 400 years, so we keep that or adopt the view after that (it’s tolerated), or prior to that (it’s a requirement to be accepted in society)? Do we need to roll back to pre-Norman invasion and expunge French influence? Is Magna Carta OK, because we have thousands of years of history prior to that meddling? Wait, do I like Vikings (they settled), or reject them (they raped and pillaged their way in)? What about the Romans who eradicated Celtic and Pagan ways of life?

What your comment suggests is that there is a single “British culture” to conform to. There isn’t, but the closest we have to it is a fusion culture.

The most popular foods - curry, fish and chips, burgers - are a result of remixing immigrant flavours. Our music, film, writing, all a fusion of ideas and styles and backgrounds. There is an official religion (the Monarch is the head of the church), but it’s observed by less than 2% of the population. Our laws (and constitution), are intended to flex and evolve over changing understandings of who we are.

So this might be hard for you to understand, but it’s what we like: come here, be you, be free, respect all around you. It’s what that whole punk thing was all about, it’s why Cool Britannia exists.

Yes, there is, and it is far from muslims culture, no matter how much you don't like it. You are on the side where burka is "part of multiculturalism", and I'm on another part.

Sharia law is not a part of European culture and should never be. Women and queer people should be respected, and no form of slavery should be justified by "religious beliefs."

Religious flamewar is not allowed on HN and we ban accounts that post like this, so please don't post like this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html