MY WORLDVIEW / 2016
I was born in Central Europe in the Czech Republic and the reason I decided to go to the UK was because of their acceptance of living alongside cultural mixtures of many different nationalities, races and, especially, religions. Immigrants currently entering Europe aren't only Muslims and terrorists; nonetheless, our media almost exclusively portrays any form of immigration as bad news. This continual reporting of violence isn't positive for anyone; however, a lot of people still believe everything the media tells them. The question is: do people think in different ways when they have not been given the full and unadulterated picture?
My hope is to put a stop to this planned hatred. Naturally, I wouldn’t choose to live in the same era as my grandparents, who all grew up together when there was peace between the Germans and the Czechoslovak people. Obviously, the situation today cannot be directly compared with the past, but there are, under scrutiny, many pertinent comparisons to be made. We have little chance of changing everybody’s viewpoint but we can help people to understand that religions aren't wrong; it’s simply not that black and white.
It is lamentable today that Western cultures have such a one-dimensional perception of Eastern cultures, particularly Islamic culture. They simply cannot see a difference. For example, I grew up in a small city, nothing like Manchester, and I'd never previously come across a religion like Islam, or, indeed, anyone who wears the Abaya.What I do know is that many ethnic groups are scared of these people and this fear is growing. Disparate parties who promise to stop illegal immigrants will have a better chance of winning elections.
This, to me, is not right, just or acceptable. In my humble opinion, Islam, such as it is, has never been truly understood in the West.. Clearly Europe was, and indeed still is, mainly Christian in its beliefs; however the past is already written. Perhaps we can’t stop everything bad that’s happening in the world today, but we can start to think in different ways: we are, after all, human beings and not simply medieval soldiers.