5 Sept 2007

Supermarket Incident

Now I'm no racist and some of my greatest friends have been from different ethnic backgrounds. I have always believed in taking people on face value whatever their background. However, this tale (which you may already have heard elsewhere) was relayed to me by a visitor to the station. It may be controversial but I think is worthy of an airing here?
A woman dressed in a Burkha was standing with her shopping in a queue at the supermarket checkout. When it was her turn to be served, as she reached the cashier, she made a loud remark about the English flag lapel pin which the female cashier was wearing on her blouse.
The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, "Yes, I always wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the Forces, and I wear it for him".
The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing and killing her countrymen, explaining that she was an Iraqi.
At that point the cashier became visibly upset and, a gentleman standing in the queue stepped forward, and interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman: "Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of men and women, just like this lady's son, have fought and sacrificed their lives so that people just like YOU can stand here, in England, which is MY country, and allow you to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen."
"It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as that in Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn't need to be fighting there today. However - now that you have learned how to speak out and criticise the English people who have afforded you the protection of MY country, I will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your way back to Iraq".
"When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as outspoken as what you are here in England, then you should be able to help straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you into in the first place, which appears to be the reason that you have come to MY country to avoid."
Apparently everyone in the queue applauded...

1 comment:

Alf Ventress said...

In 2006 the Dutch Government voted on making this form of dress illegal in their country:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4616664.stm

Dutch MP Geert Wilders is the man who first suggested the idea of a ban.

"It's a medieval symbol, a symbol against women," he says.

"We don't want women to be ashamed to show who they are. Even if you have decided yourself to do that, you should not do it in Holland, because we want you to be integrated, assimilated into Dutch society. If people cannot see who you are, or see one inch of your body or your face, I believe this is not the way to integrate into our society."