A Shameful Day

Today we woke up to some extremely shameful news, news that should cause every single Briton to hang their heads in shame.

In Belfast around 20 families, over 100 individuals have had to flee their homes following a spate of racist attacks, and from what I can gather this has been going on for a while. The family originally tried to create a safe zone for themselves around one home, but this home was not big enough and a church kindly offered their hall up as a safe haven, and now they are living on an indoor tennis court until they can be housed somewhere they will be safe.

And why were hey being targeted? Because they were Romanians, furthermore they are ethnically Roma, a culture that has come under attack all over Europe.

These acts have included the smashing of windows, the harassment of innocent women and children, shouting Nazi slogans, pushing through pages of Hitler’s Mein Kampf through the letterbox, and even threats to cut the throat of a five year old girl. According to press reports crowds of youth have gathered at the homes of this Romanian community to carry out this heinous acts, but the police have so far been unable to make any arrests.

Over the past few years there have been growing reports coming out of Ulster of a rising tide of racism, attacks on a lot of ethnic  minorities, but particularly those from the east of Europe. In April, Northern Ireland played Poland in a world cup qualifier and in the build-up and aftermath there was a huge rise in attacks against eastern Europeans.

So why has racism become such a problem in Ulster, well in 1996 the police in Ulster began recording racially motivated crime, and there were 41 incidents, a number which is far to high. But last year there were nearly 1000 incidents. Some people say that sectarianism has created a culture of intolerance in which not only is violence met out against people of different religions, but against other ethnicities as well.

Now this is not to say that everybody in Ulster is acting in a racist manor, in fact on Monday a group of residents in the area of Belfast where the Romanians lived, held an anti-racist demonstration, but they were attacked by youths throwing bottles at them and giving Nazi salutes.

Some people might say that knee-jerk cries of “racism”  in this case will make a constructive debate about the immigration debate more difficult, and that these incidents are simply the response of people seeing jobs going to immigrants rather than the indigenous population, particularly in a time when unemployment is hitting levels not seen for a generation.

BE SERIOUS, let’s not kid ourselves these incidents are racism in its most straightforward, brutal form. The attackers believe that “all Romanians are thieves/beggars/criminals, etc” and are determined to force them out, regardless of what individuals may or may not have done. Its pretty serious when this kind of racism results in an entire community having to evacuate an area in fear.

Some of the Romanian have been so scared that they no longer feel safe in our country, and some of them are making plans to return to Romania. Some might say that’s a good thing, well they would be wrong, the benefits that immigration has brought to this country far outweigh any negative effects.

I lived in Suffolk for many years and on the farms, there was always a need for workers to do simple menial jobs like pick the cabbages, apples, etc. But the farmers always had a job getting people to do this work because it was seen as beneath most people, ironically I knew some people who would rather be on benefits then do good honest work like that. So how did the farmers cope, well they brought in immigrant workers from mainly eastern Europe, and guess what, they worked hard and they worked well.

The immigrants who come to this county add to our diversity, they add to the collective good and make a real contribution to our country. And at the end of the day these Romanian are as human as you or me, we bleed the same blood, the only difference is that we were born in different places.

Bahá’u'lláh the prophet founder of the Bahá’í faith said in the Hidden Words:-

“O CHILDREN OF MEN!

Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since we have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest”

So he teaches us that no matter what the differences there are between us, whether they be racial, religious, which football team we support, that we are in essence, equal with each other.

For years this kind of low level racism has been an undercurrent in not only Northern Ireland, but in British society as a whole. Barely a day goes by without papers reporting on wages being forced downwards by cheap Polish labour, or teachers struggling to teach classes where some pupils do not speak English as a first language, or even that council tax is rising because of the money allegedly being spent housing immigrants.

Worryingly the BBC showed some interviews with people on the streets of Belfast who were blaming the Romanians for the trouble!

‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:-

“Should any one contend that true and enduring unity can in no wise be realized in this world, inasmuch as its people widely differ in their manners and habits, their tastes, their temperament and character, their thoughts and their views, to this we make reply that differences are of two kinds; the one is the cause of destruction, as exemplified by the spirit of contention and strife which animates mutually conflicting and antagonistic peoples and nations, whilst the other is the sign of diversity, the symbol and the secret of perfection, and the revealer of the bounties of the All-glorious.

Consider the flowers of the garden; though differing in kind, color, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty.

How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches, and the trees of the garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity of color, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when divers shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought together under the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest. Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas and convictions of the children of men.”

So its not the suppression of difference between us that will give us peace and harmony, but an increase awareness of the difference between us, and a respect for those differences. Conflict is not the result of diversity, but rather it is the result of our immature attitude towards it that cause conflict.

The Romanians here are not to blame nor is multiculturalism, these attacks are the result of a minority of people who are unwilling to accept that which is different to them, and if we do not act together to solve these issues, they will occur again and again.

God Bless

Michael