By
Tom Arms
Assad Shah was a popular man. People popped into his open-all-hours Glasgow shop for a chat as often as they did for a carton of milk.
He moved to Britain in the 1990s, loved his adopted country and never tired of telling people just that. He was raised that way. He belonged to the Ahmad yahya sect of Islam which preaches non-violence and love to all people.
On the Thursday before Easter, Assad Shah demonstrated his love by publishing the following message on Facebook: “Good Friday and a Very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation. Let’s follow the real footsteps of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get real success in both worlds.”
Two hours later a Muslim man walked into Shah’s Convenience Store and shot Shah dead. The shopkeeper was 40 years old.
Three days before I was in a large London supermarket shepherding 20 loud and raucous boy scouts who were selling Easter eggs for a local charity. They were not as considerate as they should have been, and many of the shoppers hurried past with disapproving glances—except the hijab-wearing Muslim women.
Almost without exception they stopped, smiled, dug deep into their pocket books and bought an Easter egg.
Turn the clock forward to Easter Day. The minority Christian community in the Pakistani city of Lahore is taking their children to an amusement park for an Easter treat. The Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar decides to attack. It plants a bomb. Seventy people are killed. Ironically, most of them are Muslim children. Apparently, they are also fond of amusement parks.
London, at the moment, is in the middle of a Mayoral election campaign. The bookies are betting on Labour candidate Sadiq Khan—known to all and sundry simply as Sadiq. If he proves them right he will secure the highest-elected office of any Muslim in Britain.
There are several reasons why Sadiq is the favourite. One is simple demographics. According to the last official census in 2011, less than half—44.9 percent—of London’s cosmopolitan population were what the census takers termed “White Indigenous British.” They reported that there are 50 “Non-Indigenous Communities” speaking 300 languages.
Sadiq is a first generation Briton. His parents moved to Tooting in South London where his father worked as a bus driver. Sadiq is the British equivalent of Horatio Alger. He went to the local school; put himself through university and law school and became a human rights lawyer. He was then elected to parliament and within a short time was sitting in the British Cabinet.
One of the reasons Sadiq is likely to be the next mayor of London is the bloc vote of the immigrant community. The other is that he is an exceptionally bright, five foot six inch human dynamo who passionately believes that elected officials should service the entire community.
If you listen to the news you may conclude that these days all terrorists are Muslim. But if you have carefully read the above—you will realise that not all Muslims are terrorists.
Tom Arms broadcasts on world affairs for a number of US radio stations including WTKF at http://www.wtkf107.com/. His Weekly Viewpoints discussion programme can be heard at 1830 EST on Wednesdays and his LookAhead at the next week’s main events on Fridays at 1800.
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