Marrakech: A Riad Rooftop

you are truly a cocksucker

Yes, I could put some up there at some point. Thanks for the compliments!

Yes, I’m a Paki. I proudly admit it. I don’t know if you can read Harold, but my blog is called “Suspect Paki”. Those symbols at the top left? That’s English. Did you have to get someone to type your message for you after you saw the pretty picture?

You sir, are a racist. A creature despised by 99% of the British population. Thankfully, law allows me to call a spade a spade.

That’s an interesting take on the world Harold. You are obviously colour blind despite your professed racism, otherwise you’d see just how many people the Americans have murdered, supported (stupidly) by Britain.

However, I’d appreciate it if you’d take part in the relevant threads. This thread is about my trip to Morocco. Thanks.

A few of points I’d like to make (1) I’m white, and; (2) I’m Muslim. My faith is grotesquely misrepresented by the media – that’s not my view. Non-Muslim researchers such as Elizabeth Poole have assembled an impressive body of evidence to support this view. But I don’t need to read Poole to know that, really. I read books on Islam (I’ve got a religious studies degree) and I talk to Muslims around the world and in the UK and I find it hard to square my knowledge and experience of my own faith with what TV and the newspapers say about us. So my advice, Harold, is to stop believing everything you read/see/hear in the media (are you so unquestioning about other issues?) and read a book about Islam written by someone who knows what they are talking about. Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies’ “The No-Nonsense Guide to Islam” is very readable.

Have you seen any historical sights over there? Nice pics.

Forgot to add, taking the piss will backfire in the end!

us asian boyz will krush all da white trash soon so watch it harold !!!

we will rulez da uk we r here 2 stay

out

Charming!

Harold, your punctuation is shit. Your grammar is shit. Your spelling is shit. I speak “your” language better than you. I write “your” language better than you. It’s more my language than yours.

Plenty more “English” like me and others like me than ignorant racist gutter rats like you. I bet that’s hard for you to deal with!

Now fuck off back to the sewer you came from.

Assuming this has posted i will begin, hello Shahid, ( assuming this is the person who made the page ). I think Harold’s grammer was fine, he may have voiced his opinion quite strongly however. The sad fact is that about 80 percent of Britain would prefer a white country, i did the research just so you know. I am not as strongly fuelled by hatred of other races as say Harold is, however I do understand where he is coming from, it is the idea that when someone intergrates into a society, one should adapt to the countries ways and customs, instead of alienating themselves and their families, due to their customs. It is a growing problem that causes obvious clashes between people, by that I mean people like you and people like Harold. There are people on both sides who are obviously more forceful than the likes of you and dare I say me, Harold and Atif K are my examples. So i suppose my point is that we should all adapt to suit each other, but not conflict with the previous culture. I mean this Shahid, I may not agree with many of the comments you have posted, but I can honestly say that I respect you and your point of view.

P.S. Other guys who read this and want to comment about me, please don’t single out myself and other people’s grammer because people are not perfect and we make mistakes.

Mr X, Harold picked on the wrong person. I have integrated brilliantly, as did my mother and father, as do most Muslims I know. I don’t claim to be English, that would be absurd, but I do claim to be a Londoner and I do claim to be British. Being Muslim and British is not incompatible.

I made the point about Harold’s English because mine is better. Speaking and writing the language well is an indication of good integration. Shilpa Shetty showed just how absurd racism is through her superior command of English over that of Jade Goody.

I’m not convinced you did the research. After all, “white country” includes all of those Eastern European immigrants that are so frequently the target of complaints from Daily Mail readers.

Culture is not the issue in my opinion, so much as perhaps a shared value set is. You should know that I feel the value set of many Muslims in this country is more British than that of many native Anglo-Saxons and has been for a while. I don’t piss in my neighbours’ gardens after a drinking session. My white neighbours in Fulham did. Thankfully I’m in Willesden now, where Polish and Irish frequently piss in the street, at least having the courtesy not to piss in neighbours’ gardens. Still, all white.

You saw my repeated attempts to reach out to Harold, but he insisted on breaking my rules, an imperialist indicator if ever there was one, i.e., I respect the rules of my native country, but he won’t respect my blog rules, or the rules of common decency. He doesn’t get that its OK for me to call myself Paki, that is taking back ownership of a word, but it is not OK for him to use that word.

I would love to see him argue the toss over the use of “nigger” in Kensal Rise and see how long he retains the use of his teeth.

most british people dislike pakistanis. tis a fact

You know if you don’t like where you live and people actually act that way then I would suggest moving to the west of England, it is considerably more desirable than London. I don’t know your life well enough to know if this is feasible, just a thought.

That is what comments are for after all.

Woops see I made a typo, Scottish, not Scotish, sry

I just read my original comment that I wrote today, and I found a number of grammatical mistakes. It is quite late and I was tired, sorry.

My final comment is concerning the way everyone on this page seems to agree with your general ideas and views on life, however the thing that I find annoying is that Harold, who is entitled to his opinion, is so quickly attacked by the viewers of this page. I can understand why he is the subject of this, obviously its because he has verbally attacked you Shahid, But when Atif K uses comments that stir racial hatred , no one says anything against him. The things he has said quite honestly sound like they come from a radicals mouth, of course they don’t.

All I am saying is that I think some of the comments on this page are being overlooked by you when they clearly need addressing, personally I don’t think my first statement deserved a remark such as ‘ fuck em ‘ I thought I was going to have an actual conversation with an educated individual.

You obviously are.

Dear Mr X, I don’t always agree with the comments on my page, from either extreme, but I leave them up for a bit of balance. Some of the worst comments from both extremes get deleted.

I certainly wouldn’t bracket Syed in with the extremists though. If he finds racism glossed up with reasoning offensive, he’ll find many rational people (of all colours) with him on that, myself included.

I guess we all need to jump the gun a little less about people, and I have certainly been guilty of that. When found out, I apologise.

Please don’t mind some of the comments directed towards you, if you saw some of the comments about me I’ve had to delete, I think you would be horrified.

Thanks for discussing things in a civilised way.

Dnt knw why for some reason I think MrX and Harold are the same people, just under a different name.

nice peacefull picture

Hello Mr X,

Apologies for the lateness. I hope I’m not too late to make a statement- I’d hate to be the last person to contribute to this thread. Your entirely civil and gentlemanly open letter makes me unworthy of the privilege. However, I don’t feel I can let this lie. I know I should, but really, I can’t.

Mr X, I’m sorry if you think that I’m singling you out. I don’t mean to. It’s just that anyone who has ever tried to rationalise racism for me ends up failing. I just don’t get it. Also, I notice that those people, largely, tend to be stupid. My usual response to racism, jingoism etc. is to walk on, change the channel, switch off or close my eyes. So please take heart in the fact that I am responding to your posts: you seem like a nice chap. The average man on the street, even.

That’s part of the problem though; you believe that the street belongs to you.

I’m a second generation Asian living in London. I speak another language at home and when with friends. I wear a prayer cap on Fridays. I wear non-Western clothing when I can/ want. I shop in Asian stores where possible. My family have contributed to the economy and to the social fabric of this place for years. I won’t tell you what I do for a living but I’d like to think I am doing the same and possibly more. I make every effort to integrate: I, along with a lot of other British Asians, will sit in a Pub to socialise, celebrate Christmas, speak English, vote and pay taxes. I am sure that I do pretty much everything you do on a day-to-day. But on the other hand, none of my workmates have ever celebrated Eid with me (not even a ‘Happy Eid’) or considered socialising in a place that doesn’t serve alcohol or arrange work parties in a place that offers Halal food. But that’s cool, I don’t make an issue of it, because I’ve integrated. I realise that when you mean integrate you mean ‘do like I do. I can do that. In all honesty it doesn’t bother me. But when you start talking about integration it gets me thinking. When do I stop integrating and you start respecting my choices in the way that I live? This isn’t Rome. This is London. This is the place that my family, my friends and myself have helped build. So. Step. The. Fuck. Off.

Mr X, you don’t see it but you are blinkered by this view that we owe you. Yes, my parents did get a better life by coming here but they had to work for it. Along with thousands of others from South Asia they were offered jobs by the British government of the time. Those jobs weren’t taken from white British citizens: they were jobs created by a booming economy and the change to a service industry. Don’t forget that this nation was built on the sacrifices of peoples from all over the world. The colour of your skin or how long your blood line goes back doesn’t assign you right to tell me or others how to live our lives. Of course, being a citizen of this great nation you are free to make a suggestion, just as I am afforded the freedom to tell you to fuck off.

I am a proud member of this nation- I’ve got a Union Jack in my window, I support England in the cricket and always ensure that my comrades have access to a cuppa by contributing to the office kitty. And I’m not unique. I’m not the only Asian with these views.

Mr X, what I’m saying is that your views are outdated, backwards and ignorant of facts. Your shock at being “attacked” for such views is evidence of your naivety.

That said Mr X your ability to review what you’ve said and admit mistakes is admirable and refreshing. Hat’s off to you. I’ll try and remember to do the same in future.

Racism is unacceptable. End of story. BTW Syed, if you don’t already, you really should have a blog! Your story reminds me of my United KKKingdom post.

Hello – I just caught up with this thread.
I know my comments aren’t specific to the stunning picture but they do relate to the extensive thread that developed.

I am a Brit – increasingly seeing myself as English in this post devolution world. I lived in Australia for about six years and in general found that to be a fairly racist place. I moved to Singapore where the races seem to get on really well. I lived there for three years and now am back in England.

One thing however did strike me as a good national attitude shared by both places.
People were proud of their countries.
They have very clear ideas about who they are and what they expect from immigrants.
They expected immigrants to also be proud of where they lived.
Their rules are very obvious and their borders are strictly controlled.
Anyone moving to either country has been triple checked.
People are ‘allowed’ into both countries on merit and ability.

If you came across someone who had recently come into either place you knew they were both valuable and were seriously vetted.

In intelligent circles racism is abhorred – indeed absurd. (Australia is more diverse geographically and has more variation in attitudes to race). Even in Australia with racist trouble occasionally brewing and their all white imperialist traditions you had the distinct feeling that there was a plan in place and things were getting better every year.
There was hope.There was a genuine political desire to develop a real mulit cultural Australia.
It does seem to be working.

One thing that was striking – any unjust criticism of either country was always met with a response of ‘if you don’t like it here why don’t you move somewhere else’.
And you know you couldn’t help admiring that attitude. An attitude of we know who we are, we want to live in an optimistic and vibrant country.

Race, religion and roots are important but this is our home and I want my home to be a palace.

I do wish Britain were more like that.

Perhaps I am just naive and miss the point of everything.

What do you think the Aborigines would make of that?

You didn’t predict it though, did you Alan? And you have no suitable riposte. All you have presented is a racist’s drivel. His statement is redolent of hypocrisy and forgetfulness. I’m more interested in what you think.

And by the way, Australia’s PM is John Howard, not Michael Howard.

Regardless, I agree with the bulk of what he says, I just don’t like it coming from a hypocritical racist bastard like him, that’s all. And it’s not the elephant in this room, I have advocated much of the above on my blog for years. So what is the point you are trying to make?

For me, there is a potential for conflict when the cultures traditions etc etc of the immigrant peoples are incompatible with the laws regulations, traditions of their new country. (I suppose you’d include holidaying abroad too). And with conflict and disagreement comes demonising, tribalism and entrenched positions. There is pressure on the nation to adapt to the newcomers, and on the newcomers to adapt to the new nation.
When people emigrate in significant numbers to another country, I think they tend to look to live in the same areas as each other, with the result that you get areas where a new nationality predominates. I suppose New York historically is a great example.
On the one hand, this creates a tremendous amount of mutual support within the new community, but also reduces the need to integrate/learn a new language etc for many individuals. And as a byproduct, increases the them and us attitudes within the indigent people and the immigrants. This is a worldwide cross cultural thing, I think its the way people on the whole tend to behave.
If I was booking a hotel in say, Peru, and the choice, all else being equal, was a hotel where there were no white British guests and a hotel with 30% white Brits, almost certainly I’d choose the second second hotel. Human nature, yes?
I have no answers to offer, just my own attitudes and behaviour which I hope is tolerant and welcoming of others to the best of my ability