One of today’s “interesting” Facebook postings referred to an eight minute video clip which had the intriguing title: “Three things you really should know about mainstream Islam”. Having listened to it, I thought it important and pertinent enough to share with my Facebook friends on my own timeline, along with my customary preface as to where I stand with respect to the issues raised in the clip, but on reflection I decided it would be better to write this post in order to set out what I think on the matter, with a particular emphasis on understanding Islam, particularly the non-extreme variant, which is followed by most Muslims, in and outside the UK.

I should say, I have already written about Islam in my writings, e.g. “Theological Musings”, and in earlier postings on this blog, in particular: “A visit to the mosque”, “Understanding Islam” and “Islamic Fundamentalism”. In the interest of economy of words and in order to encourage serious debate, I won’t repeat my thoughts here and point my readers to what I have written.

As for the video clip, much of it is true and important enough to be considered. It is not something, as I have argued previously, the powers that be are forthcoming in pointing out, and which more likely they choose to ignore. I sense they choose to be ignorant of points like those raised in the video and give out a particular spin, due to the fear of upsetting Muslims and wanting to maintain the status quo. Some of this is quite right of course: we do need to live in peace with our Muslim neighbours, Islamophobia is not acceptable and most of our Muslim neighbours are good people who give more to than they take from the surrounding community.

But there are some things in the clip I am not sure are correct and an angle, which strikes me as being unsympathetic and not entirely balanced , all of which warrants me adding a warning to those who wish to check out the clip for themselves and, like much of what I read, I take note of points raised, especially if these challenge my own views (usually a good thing), and in due course research them to gain a better understanding. Even so, there are enough points raised in the clip, and there is other media that merit consideration to look at, for me to say: check these out for they do matter!