Originally Posted by Bahtatboy (Post 11950907)

I didn't say it was wrong.

Originally Posted by nonthaburi (Post 11950969)

So why lump it in with a load of things that are blatantly wrong then.

It just looks like a cheap dig at some s.Asians

Originally Posted by Bahtatboy (Post 11950907)

I didn't say it was wrong.

Originally Posted by Norm_uk (Post 11950552)

What defines being British objectively:

1. Being descended in whole or part from the English, Irish, Scots, Welsh and other native groups of the Islands. In other words, Western European stock.
2. Speaking their languages (English/Welsh/Gaelic etc.).
3. Practising the culture of these peoples.
4. Or, adopting the language and culture of these people and identifying with them.

Being a British citizen however just means having a British passport/birth certificate etc. It says nothing of ethnic, linguistic and/or cultural status.

We seem uncomfortable accepting that British people are Western Europeans and thus tend to be white and as native to their land as any other group of Europeans just as Zulus tend to be black or Apaches tend to be red. And many of us don't like the mixed and non-white people who fully adopt being British (like our new Lord Mayor and some journalists who like to call them Uncle Toms and other utterly racist tripe).

People have been in the British Isles longer than the Arabs have been in Egypt, the Turks have been in Turkey or the Maori have been in New Zealand. And DNA shows most white Britons are at least in part descended from them. There are thousands of years of history as valid as anyone else's.

I'm not advocating some sort of 'purity' nonsense or 'whites only' but we seem to want to avoid the obvious truth that we have a distinct ethnic and cultural identity in the British isles but seem terrified to say it in case someone with a British passport gets offended (or more likely a white middle class metropolitan do gooder). We seem to prefer to chain incoming people to their ancestral culture and religion rather than promote the culture that made Briton attractive to move to in the first place.

Guardian readers may now have their embolism and start calling me racist :p

N.

Originally Posted by redShark (Post 11951153)

So what about the many thousands of white British Muslim converts who have adopted a different life style than yours and their women folks wear the Muslim hijab or even the Niqab? Some can be more British, blood wise, than you! So what category are going to put them in? The traitors category?

Originally Posted by redShark (Post 11951153)

So what about the many thousands of white British Muslim converts who have adopted a different life style than yours and their women folks wear the Muslim hijab or even the Niqab? Some can be more British, blood wise, than you! So what category are going to put them in? The traitors category?

Originally Posted by redShark (Post 11951153)

So what about the many thousands of white British Muslim converts who have adopted a different life style than yours and their women folks wear the Muslim hijab or even the Niqab? Some can be more British, blood wise, than you! So what category are going to put them in? The traitors category?

Originally Posted by Millhouse (Post 11951694)

I would vote for you.

Originally Posted by Meow (Post 11951779)

You would vote for him to do what?

Be cast away on a desert island without internet? Be silenced for eternity? be made to read more than one book?

Originally Posted by redShark (Post 11951153)

So what about the many thousands of white British Muslim converts who have adopted a different life style than yours and their women folks wear the Muslim hijab or even the Niqab? Some can be more British, blood wise, than you! So what category are going to put them in? The traitors category?

Originally Posted by Norm_uk (Post 11953773)

Culture covers a lot of things and feeds directly into law, politics and philosophy - which are critical and can make or break a nation.

Why did the Anglo-Saxons decide even before they had heard of Christ that being tried by a jury of your peers was better than say, Roman Law? Why does Sharia law not allow for precedent and bottom up changes to laws as the times change?

The Ottomans in their day were very advanced yet we don't think of them as champions of human rights or the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty being held highly for them except by the ruling classes.

Why did Voltaire praise the English systems of trade, medicine, and governance if all culture is about is art and music? And why did the English reach the secular Enlightenment before the Chinese?

Why were medieval English farmers richer than the farmers of the bottom five poorest nations today? Some places have vast resources yet they are poorer. Japan has little going for it in terms of natural resources yet has a high standard of living and low crime. Why is that?

It's because of culture. Culture affects thinking which affects laws, economic theory, human rights, concepts like government by consent etc. It's how we think and how we do things.

N.

Originally Posted by Bipat (Post 11953826)

...

Parts of Sharia law (family law, inheritance etc.) are taken into account in English Law.
Similar parts of Sharia law were introduced in India during the British rule--
causes resentment but not too much trouble...

Originally Posted by Bipat (Post 11953826)

It depends how you define the word "culture". The descripion of a person as "cultured" etc.
I wonder how you personally define the words "Anglo-Saxons"? If as I define them you are not quite accurate.

BBC - History - Anglo-Saxon Law and Order

BBC - History - Anglo-Saxon Law and Order

Parts of Sharia law (family law, inheritance etc.) are taken into account in English Law.
Similar parts of Sharia law were introduced in India during the British rule--
causes resentment but not too much trouble. No government would repeal such laws and lose Muslim votes.
No 'culture/legal system' including 'jury system' is perfect.

Originally Posted by Bahtatboy (Post 11953836)

Yeah, in the same way that some design features of an Austin Allegro are taken into account in the design of a Rolls Royce.

Originally Posted by Lightandbitter (Post 11953843)

borderline

save your keyboard for facebook