The Indian Takeaway

I'm English, right? - whatever else I may be, and one of the reasons I need a blog in the first place is because there's such a huge schism between me and most English people. I've not only been to Israel, I've also come to the conclusion that the Jews aren't in the wrong.

In England, that makes me akin to the guys that visited South Africa for sunlit holidays in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

But I'm English, so I had my first taste of Indian food when I was 6, and delighted both my father and the waiter by asking for more.

When I first came back from Israel, I had a fight in my local Indian restaurant-come-takeaway. They asked a simple question ('Where have you been?') and they got a simple answer ('Israel'), but I might as well have said 'Hell' or 'Breachwood Green'. The attitude changed, and although I got my food, it was made very clear to me that I was unwelcome there.

Four months down the line I risked visiting the same place. Only one of the men that worked there _that_ night, was working there tonight, and he gave me some tension. Like I'm planning to blow _him_ up... it's always interesting to live on the 'B' side. While I waited for my food to come, some skinny long-haired kid I never saw before walked by in the street outside. Our eyes met, and we both winked and smiled. The waiter promptly interrogated me: did I know that man? - because he was a bad, bad man.

I have no clue what the 'bad, bad man' ever did to deserve that accolade. Perhaps he went to Israel too?

I was trying to be sympathetic. I would like to be sympathetic. I have some problems with being sympathetic. I have issues with the fact that it was ever a problem to the owners there that I've been to Israel. I have issues with the idea that Muslims generally don't follow this thing; I saw a march against Salman Rushdie back in Sheffield that made my blood run cold. 3000+ people marching for blood and death and destruction. I haven't been on a march myself since then (I used to do that kind of thing), because the idea that this could happen in England at all, struck me deeply. Because I saw neighbours I knew and liked on that march, and because they locked up their shops and their wives and their children and they went out, men united in hatred. If the English tried to do that it would be prevented by the authorities; there's a law here about incitement to hatred. On that occasion, the Muslims were allowed to demonstrate their allegiance to a fatwah, and I suspect were under pressure to do so from the mosques. The powers-that-be felt it was more safe to allow their protest than to mention the rulebook; and on that day I walked in the opposite direction, alone.

I want to believe that there are good Muslims in the UK who hold both their religion and their civic responsibilities in their hearts, but I've yet to find a single one who does that without being compromised in some way.

I actually know more good Muslims in Israel than I do in England. What does that tell you?