More about 'native customs' from that Englishman trapped in Saudia Arabia (he's a boater in his home country, thus the rant about the state of the English canals):
"This is the third time I have had occasion to mention the practice of discarding the ashes of the deceased in our rivers. This is a Church of England country. It is not, to my knowledge, a common or cultural practice to dispose of our dead in the rivers.
"It's not enough that parts of the Soar have already been given over to this non-Anglican practice. Now the Sikh community want to have another river to scatter the ashes of family members. They want part of the Ribble reserved solely for them, too, as place where they can toss their dearly departed away. Hindus in Bradford are also seeking permission to do the same in the River Aire. It has been mentioned that eventually they want all rivers to be designated as places to cast away the ashes of their dead. I don't think so.
"One Hindu complained that he had the inconvenience of taking the ashes of his recently departed to India. I am sorry that their nearest and dearest are causing them the hassle of going all the way to India, but why is that our problem? Surely the Ganges is in their homeland and is the place any good Hindu would want their ashes scattered anyway.
"I very much doubt if their government would change their laws to suit us. No, this is not about our tolerance of other ways of life. It's about their acceptance of our way of life, which is sadly lacking. We don't do that here! If we relent and allow this to happen, then what's next?
"I know, we can close all the churches down because we don't want to offend people from other religions. We can stop cattle farming because some don't like that either, oh, and don’t forget the pigs, we don’t want to offend our Muslim friends, do we? We have already banned Christmas in some parts of the country so why don't we just give it all up!
"Where do we draw the line? Right here, right now. This has to stop!
"If it is your religion to scatter ashes of your dearly departed in a river, then may I respectfully suggest that you go somewhere that is allowed. We shouldn’t have to change our laws to accommodate you; it is you who have to fit in with us.
"Me being a person who can only see the idea of God as a reason to promote wars and repress the poor, I refuse to accept that your indoctrination should affect my country. If your customs are so important to you, why did you come here?
"We have here the freedom of choice, you are free to choose to leave if you don't like the way we do things. I will of course stand by your side and defend your right to make that choice.
"Earlier this year it was reported in our local press that Hindus in India were complaining that Western festivals were diluting their culture. So much so, that bands of Hindus were going around forcibly breaking up gatherings of people celebrating St Valentines Day. Please don't expect us to make changes to our laws when, in your country, you have no intention of reciprocating."
23 August 2006
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2 comments:
Hey Rico
I feel that many are of the same opinion but because of the proliferation of Political Correctness they are afraid to speak out.
http://the-blogger-man.blogspot.com/2006/08/if-there-was-ever-any-doubt_25.html
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