Posted by Melanie Nathan, June 17, 2013.

Two men were arrested in January after a series of incidents in London saw members of the public harassed by self-styled vigilantes who posted footage of their activities online. One included a clip showing a man being subjected to homophobic abuse. The incidents are believed to be linked to a group claiming to be behind “Muslim patrols” of Whitechapel. In the latest video in which a group of men described themselves as “vigilantes implementing Islam upon your own necks”, a man is followed and told: “Get out of here you fag … Don’t stay around here any more.” His pursuers tell him that he is “walking through a Muslim area dressed like a fag.”

Apparently the Muslim Patrol in the area continues to impact students and others in the area.

In a Video represented below one such man admits to being a vigilante for Islam and when a passerby defends her rights saying: “this is Great Britain” the self described ‘Muslim vigilante’ responds: “This is NOT so Great Britain. We are vigilantes implementing Islam upon your necks.”

This post represents the views and personal experience of the young student in London, who is not named for reasons of safety and security:

We need to talk about things we don’t want to talk about:

by Anonymous Medical Student, June 17, 2013.

I am —————- , who has now completed my first year of ————– University, in London. In addition to that, I was born and raised in ————-, a country with ———– people. For most of my life, I lived in small, safe bubbles. But then I moved to London and I had to face a reality that was by far unexpected.

I knew that London was a big metropolitan city and I knew it was dangerous, that I would better not walk alone during the night, that I would need to be careful about burglars and so on. What I didn’t know, is that in certain areas of London, it is not safe to be certain ways. Right now, it is not safe to be a Jew (or even worse, an Israeli) and it is not safe to be part of the LGBT community.

Soldier Lee Rugby was brutally killed by an extreme Muslim convert some weeks ago in East London. The convert was influenced by Anjem Choudary’s extreme and destructive ideology. Unfortunately extremists like Choudary live in East London and continue trying to implement Shariah law (Islamic law), preach hate towards non-Muslims and brain-wash young Muslims into extreme acts and jihad.

When I arrived in London, I knew nothing about this. After a couple of months living there, a friend of mine posted a link to a series of videos on facebook. That was the moment in which I became forced to accept that I would have to give up some of my freedoms if I wanted to protect my security. The videos were about the Muslim Patrol, a self-organised group of Muslims vigilantes controlling the streets of Whitechapel near my university, confronting passers-by and demanding that they conform with Shariah laws.

In the videos, the vigilantes are seen throwing away bottles of alcohol from people’s hands, because Whitechapel is “a Muslim area”, insulting a girl wearing a skirt and lastly, chasing away a gay man from the area, because homosexuality is not permitted. The group also covered up an H&M advertisement for underwear with black spray, because it was perceived as immodest and unacceptable. Some of them have been arrested, some of them are still free and continue their series of activities.

At the beginning I said it is not safe to be a Jew, what I referred to was that violence is also seen on campus, where acts of anti-Semitism have continued to rise in recent years and where to have a balanced discussion regarding the situation in the Middle East and possible solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is impossible.

Many times this is masqueraded by the words “I am anti-Israeli, not anti-Semitic”, but even in such cases, when speaking with people holding these views, it becomes clear their problem is not policies of the Israeli government: it is the existence of Israel itself, it is blaming Israelis for everything that is happening around the world.

It is inter-changing the word Zionist with the word Jew, making no difference between the two and digging further into the ideology, it becomes clear that many if not most of these students make no distinction between Jew and Israeli whatsoever.

I want to make something clear, which for me is quite obvious, but I guess for people reading this it might not be so: I am aware of the fact that extreme Muslims are a small minority and that most of the Muslim population in Europe in general do not agree with their views.

I believe you can have coexistence only if you try to respect one another and if you are ready to compromise. Having said that, I firmly believe the problem in London (and in many other cities all over Europe and the world) is that the Muslim population does not actively condemn acts carried out by extremists: you watch television, read the news and you will see that most Muslim clerics continue to say that these acts have nothing to do with Islam, that Muslims are not like that and so on.

There is no direct condemnation; there is no uprising against extremism and willingness to bring reforms that are long needed. Instead, extreme Islamists and clerics, who most of the time are themselves influenced by Wahabism, an extreme version of Islam originating from Saudi Arabia, are left to use Mosques and British squares and manifestations to influence more and more Muslims.

They teach them not to assimilate or trust Christians and Jews, to hate the “kuffar” (derogatory term for a non-Muslim), they teach them that Islam will dominate around the world and Shariah law will prevail. We are seeing a clash of two ideologies that are too different to live together peacefully in a same place and I am experiencing a misuse of the term political correctness: it forces people to ignore what is happening; it forces people not to speak out the truth. Isn’t the truth correct in itself? Can’t people accept that basic freedoms, such as for a girl to wear a skirt, for a man to be being openly gay, for people to drinking alcohol on a night out are things that shouldn’t be taken away from us on the streets of London?

I have noticed these things simply under my role of person, of human being; irrespectively of what groups I am part of, my nationality or creed. I remain convinced that as long as politicians who only care about their governing period of four years keep quiet and do nothing, as long as the majority of Muslims do not want to acknowledge there is a problem with extremism within their faith and that reforms are needed, the situation is going to get worse. And by worse, I mean worse for everyone: non-Muslims and Muslims alike. A situation like this in the future will only bring more separation, diffidence and hatred between us, culminating in acts with terrible consequences.

Note redactions due to safety and security of the person who wrote the commentary.

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