This morning on the tube there was a black preacher man espousing the word of God out loud.
He was mixing it up reading passages from the Bible and giving sermons on, as far as I could tell, whatever came into his head. The principle message was that we all should all let the light of Jesus Christ into our lives and follow the ways of God.
He was, for all intents and purposes, a Christian fanatic. And, as you would expect, everyone just ignored him and carried on reading their Metros and listening to their ipods.
And this got me thinking.
If a muslim were to stand up on the tube, read loudly from the Quran and espouse the word of Allah, would people have reacted differently?
Rightly or wrongly, I think I would have done. Given the the history of Muslims on the tube (and no, not all of them you lefty bastards), should one start to get fanatical, i'd be a bit nervous.
Whereas the Christian chap was roundly ignored, do you think someone would confront the Muslim?
Would 'the fear' of a muslim fanatic on the tube be justified/acceptable do you think, or would it be the culmination of media sterotypes and racial prejudice?
And as I alluded to previously, because I know you'll all like to jump straight up on your highest horse, i'm NOT talking about Muslims or Christians in general, just the ones that are so 'dedicated fanatics' that they feel the need to stand up on a tube in rush at Bank and loudly preach the word of their respective Gods to anybody and nobody.
So yeah, discuss, if you like.
why does it matter that he was black?
forgive me i only read the first sentence
what does it matter he was
a man?
ive had a public argument with the shouting gimp from leeds before
lasted a good 20mins and a left reddened and defeated. you cant argue with a fanatic, cos they have the 'power of truth and light' on their side, and apparntly no matter what arguments i could put forward i will always be wrong until i accept jesus into my heart.
least i live in a house and that knob sleeps in a box
I once saw that guy with another
krazy kristian who was wearing a leather jacket with a sleeveless denim jacket over the top, which had "Jesus is King" painted on the back of it. That was rad.
sweet!
the best is the guy with a whole house attached to his bike, sits outside H+M mostly. on that big street anyway.
and the guy who plays bille jean and hallelujah, played a song with him last yr and it was fun. hes got a pretty good voice
public perception
being a result of various factors, including politicians, the media, history etc etc etc
I'd just be annoyed someone was shouting
to be honest
U.K
is still technically a Christian place, in recent times it has been Muslims that have blown up people, therefore you (british people) would rather trust christians that muslims.
I'd say it's more secular really.
But I see where you're coming from.
There were 2 preachers in Sheffield town centre the other weekend, I really wanted to debate with them but,as inside-outside said, you can't win.
...
72% of the British public say they are Christian
2.7% Muslim
(2001)
I think it is fair to say that people have a right to be annoyed if muslims preach on an underground which was exploderised by people who were fundamentalists in that religion.
Oh, and before someone says it
no, it doesn't really matter that the preacher was black.
So if you could get down of your high horse that would be wonderful. It's no the focus of the debate and has been argued to death before.
Oh, I see someone already got in there.
yeah, but it was meths
does that count?
ooo bitch
i love politics...
to answer the question tho
i think people would get freaked out yes. i heard someone went onto the tube recently and started screaming allah ou akhbar and was immediately violently restrained. wouldnt have happened if it was a hare krishna. but then hare krishnas dont wage holy wars!
I think Cardiff have got a chance.
You have to fancy Pompey, but of JFH & Ledley are on top of their game then you never know.
Pompey 2 Cardiff 1.
I'd be alarmed if someone yelled this on a tube
What about Hare Krishna type people?
If American teen films have taught us anything it is that street dancing is an act of violence
I'd be too polite to say anything
I wouldn't want to upset someone who was just preaching and had no intention of blowing up the train
I'd probably just think, shut the hell up..
..to any preacher, of any religion.
...
There's a spot outside Walthamstow Ctrl where fanatics of various stripes gather to be fanatical - Muslims, Christians, Socialist Workers, Animal Rights - they all get ignored as one.
Sometimes the Christians will bring a band though. That's why people like them.
Is it P.O.D?!
Doubt I'd react differently
but I'm sure some members of the public would. Rightly or wrongly, there's a general climate of fear of the Islam faith at the moment.
Part of it is natural given some of the stuff that's gone on this decade "in the name" of Islam while some of it has been fuelled by the media. The rest comes from a lack of understanding of what their faith is actually about and a perception that it teaches nothing but intolerance.
Thousands of Rangers fans singing
anti-catholic songs in Manchester on Wednesday while they took over the city. If they'd been singing anti-Muslim songs, would they've got away with it?
Rubbish
.
I don't take any notice of anyone in the street.
I'm English and I keep to myself.
Yep, they
left a lot of that around. As well as piss and shiit. Nice smells.
Well, yes!
When you have 200,000 all of whom are smashed they can generally sing whatever they like.
Honestly?
Christian fanatics on public transport amuse me, they always make the journey go quicker.
If it were a muslim fanatic, I hate to say it, but I would feel quite nervous.
Reading some of the posts
it seems I made not have made the context clear enough.
I'm not talking about fanatical preachers generally, but specifically in the confines of a tube going through the City in rush hour.
Do you think people would get up and leave, or tell the Muslim preacher to fuck off, or actively get physical (not seual) with them?
I think it would lead to aggression.
me too
*may
*sexual
it seems unlikely that a terrorist would draw attention to himself like that, so i'd not be worried
maybe boris should have banned preaching and not alcohol from the tube.
not that unlikely
I agree, it's not that unlikely.
If you are going to blow yourself up on the tube, I don't think you'd care about being discreet about it!
In fact, if I were going to do it, i'd probably want to give speech beforehand to gee myself up and to tell Allah to have the virgins ready.
i was just thinking
that, as you say, it seems such preaching makes people nervous which could make them move away and so away from the bomb. maybe.
Terrorists > Bond villians
I think so
but I'm tempted to think of it in a purely psychological threat-based context, rather than it being a question of predjudices and that.
I would say that a person's perception of threat in this situation would depend on perceptual 'closeness' to what the person perceives an actual July 11th-type scenario would be like. So, yes, I think you'd have to ask: does the speaker talk and dress like a cartoon depiction of a fanatical Muslim? A fanatic of any type; ie. not quite in touch with reality? Do people feel closed in (as per the tube)?
I don't think it's wrong for people to feel edgy in those situations (as a kind of automatic response); it's all burned into us so deeply by the media. Of course, the real issue is whether your behavioural response is valid. It's one thing to 'confront' the speaker and try to explain to him that he's making you nervous; another to put him in a sleeper because you think there's a chance he's going to 'splode you.
I was on the tube on monday when a 90+ man got on with a wooden crucifix
and started blessing and/or exorcising people one by one in a very frantic manner, shuffling down the aisle. When he got to the end of the coach he put the crucifix in his pocket, and looked around him with a very satisfied smile.
I would normally despise this kind of thing but he was pretty frail, I probably could have taken him down. And as my friend said, we may have needed it, after our weekend at ATP.