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One of the best things we can do to protect brown & black people from discrimination & root out racism is to have absolutely no truck with illiberalism. People should be allowed, of course, to express whatever opinions they wish, however illiberal. 1/
But we should be allowed to critique them in the strongest terms, to expose how terrible they are—no matter what source they come from. And there must be no pandering to people based on skin colour or national origin. 2/
A lot of the resentment towards people of Pakistani origin, like my dad, comes from our pusillanimity towards those who have come with deeply inhumane views. From Salman Rushdie's fatwa to the support for CAGE—an avowed terrorist group allowed charity status, 3/
to the blind eye turned towards the grooming gangs. The bigotry of low moral expectations needs to end. We cannot allow the stereotype that brown people or Muslims or Pakistanis are inherently illiberal to be upheld. We can't let extremists be taken as their "representatives." 4/
"This is just the way these people are and it would be racist to oppose it" is an absolutely arse-backwards way of looking at this. Bring the full focus of the law down on people who plot or carry out violent acts. Don't pander to people who want LGBT education banned. 5/
While people must be allowed to practice their religion peaceably & we must allow people to think, say, write, listen to & believe whatever they wish, we need to treat them as equals in the eyes of the law. 6/
Would this be OK if a white supremacist group were doing it? No? Then it's not OK if the people involved are mostly brown-skinned. This isn't who my father was and it isn't who we are. Full stop. 7/
