Spat At In London

I've several occasions where Muslim dudes were extra nice to me, even beyond the norm. This is in NE USA.

reply to post by DistantThunder


Same. It all depends on where you are and what the community is like.

reply to post by seabhac-rua
I think the lesson to be learned is that just because one is brown, it doesn't mean one can't also be an arse.

reply to post by Galvatron


I agree.

I get the feeling that a lot of people would rather label this guy a random nut job, than confront the issue that his contempt for me was religiously based and his behavior was something that is apparently not uncommon.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

Ok. I know people are going to call me racist, Islamophobe or whatever. Does anybody want to theorize why this man directed his angst towards me specifically?

Sorry you had a bad experience mate, but the bloke was probably just a nutter.

Nutters come in all shapes and sizes, and creeds.

One way to look at it, is if this was the mid to late 1970's and you were spat at during a gig, you were doing something the crowd liked! :-)

(punk era)

reply to post by luciddream


I hear you.

No, this guy was big and mean looking, and he looked like he wanted to kill me, it was very unsettling, I mean for somebody to unexpectedly walk up to and spit at you out of the blue, that's an eye opener.

And the whole street was full of people who looked exactly like him, as I mentioned in another post there were 3 or 4 guys standing nearby watching what was going on, almost like they were gauging my reaction, I think that if it had "kicked off" I wouldn't have fared well at all.

reply to post by MysterX


The guitarist from The Specials spat at me at a gig one night, but he smiled and nodded as if to say "no offense mate".

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Yeah. I really think is is more of a community thing, not a nutter thing. It's kind of like the excuse given when police abuse their powers. I know my experience wasn't because of a lone crazy, half a dozen guys were eyeballing me and some even whipped out cell-phones as soon as they looked at me. From my perspective, I can only assume they were calling their four friends to check me out. That's not a lone nutter. Where was everyone else saying "leave that man alone" or "what do you think you're doing?". When I hear a so-called good cop tell me that the few bad apples don't represent their policing community, I tel them "then don't stay silent when you know that one of your coworkers abused his authority".

I've done some work in Muslim countries (I do private security), and many of them are warm, hospitable, and friendly places. However, if I go to a fundamentalist christian community in the US, like Jehova's Witness, you'd better believe that I'd be stared at and feel ostracized. I was actually in Utah for some training about this time last year. I walked into a bagel shop before getting to the range and you could hear a pin drop as it was obvious that I was a non-mormon. The stares I got were about the same as those received in London, but none of them approached me about it. The 4 men that I encountered in London told me more about the community, than the religion, and that particular community was fundamentalist.

reply to post by Galvatron


You make a good point Galvatron, and I think that's what I needed to hear. I've worked with a few foreign Muslim guys who live here in Dublin and they're very nice people. I'd hate to see that kind of thing happen in my hometown, so far here communities can be distinguished by their relative wealth, or lack thereof, not by the level of religious fundamentalism it's residents harbor. It seems the UK and other EU countries are having big problems with this.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Moderate religion almost always seems to help people in some way. Fundamentalism almost always seems to harm people in some way. I'm not a terribly religious person. That's my experience anyway. My family is British, I'm actually the only member to be born in the US, I support Swansea City and The Bears in both kinds of football. There's a balance with everything in life, and I have found that fundamentalism brings out the immature and wicked sides of people on just about every issues and outlook imaginable. Lets take sex and violence as a good barometer. When sex is almost never spoken of and is a taboo subject, you get a society obsessed with it to the point that sexual abuse, rape, and incest is rampant and a serious problem. Likewise when violence is treated flippantly you have societies obsessed with it to the point that honor killings, stoning for witchcraft, civil war, and a myriad of other symptoms become a serious problem. Much like anorexics and the morbidly obese are obsessed with food, but in a different way.

Both extremes are completely irrational and immature reactions brought about by the momentum of indoctrination by a fundamentalist society. There's a balance point in the middle that fundamentalist societies don't teach where the reaction to sex or violence is not only considered, but acted on deliberately with reverence, understanding, education, and just a little apprehension all at the same time. It is therefore, a mature reaction. This is OT, but that's my problem with fundamentalist religion, it seems to, in effect, make nothing sacred.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Some parts of the UK have particular problems with Muslim extremists who seem to think they have a 'right' to enforce Muslim only areas.

It seems as if the authorities are very reluctant to acknowledge that there is a problem and tend to bury their head in the sand - anyone who complains about it or simply highlights it is immediately labelled a racist.

There are no such problems where I live, maybe that's because relatively few Muslims live here.
I know a few Muslims both here and from elsewhere and they are just ordinary people - but the majority live in their own little enclaves and seem to limit their contact with non-Muslims as much as possible.

Of course there are arsheholes in every walk of life - my hometown has more than it's fair share of them from every race and creed - but that seems to be the same the world over.

As for London, I hate the place - please don't fall into the misconception that it is representative of the UK or England as a whole because it most definately is not.
Quite bizarrely the one place I do like and have never had any trouble is Camden Town - I always try to head there on the increasingly rare occassions I go to London.

The guitarist from The Specials spat at me at a gig one night, but he smiled and nodded as if to say "no offense mate".

Which one?
I've met Roddy Radiation a couple of times and I've got to say he's come across as a bit of a prick but by all accounts Lynval Golding is supposed to be a cracking guy.
I've also met Neville Staples and had a good laugh with him.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Sorry but I had to laugh at this, I was just picturing the whole ordeal. Sounds like a scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Not to downplay it, dude was totally rude!

Maybe he mistook your for someone else?

In instances of extreme rudeness, I usually bite my tongue and be REALLY nice to people like that. Condescendingly so.

Hopefully you don't run into that guy again!

reply to post by DistantThunder


Nebraska? Or the north east?

Click here for more information.

The island that is Britain has an area of roughly 94,000 sq miles, on which dwells a population of 62 million. That makes the likelyhood of bumping into a loonbag pretty high.

I reckon most londoners would have smaked him in the mouth if he spat at them. Britain has a pretty aggressive culture, not a place for the meek, unless you're talking about the Cotswolds or somewhere like that. The Brits didn't take over half the planet using hugs and kisses.
A lot of foreigners ( Americans being the most guilty) are under the misapprehension that Britain is all "Cup o tea guv?" Bowler hats, umbrellas, jolly hockey sticks,morris dancing and how's your father?" Many take a while to adjust to it. A friend of mine from big bad NYC couldn't hack it, and said London was the rudest place he's ever been. Thankfully for him he never made it beyond London.

reply to post by blah yada


grimey and moody

but its the greatest place on earth

when i walk down the street..... i see women from every race, creed and country on earth

magnificent....especially in shepherds bush... its epic for bird watching lol

Well these people have been on the end of awful racial abuse in London.

The National Front, the British Defense League. Right wing, racist, nationalist, fascist.

They march en masse through immigrant neighbourhoods.

It get's to a point when you start seeing all whites as the enemy. We have done the exact same things for centuries.

We indirectly caused this problem, or our system caused this problem. It was only a matter of time before immigrants became empowered, and yes they're angry. Our armies have destroyed their homelands. Can't people see that connection?

Not saying the guy was right to spit at anyone, just I can understand the hate.





Not too mention the police abuse.

Next time that happens, use your fist to hit him in the sternum as if you were going to rip it out of his back. Only do this if you feel threatened, though. Don't do it out of malice. You could kill him doing that, though, rare.

Also do a downward kick on his knee, will tear ligaments and destroy the knee. Sometimes it's best to end a fight before it begins.

In this case, the moment he leaned in would earned him a lot of pain. Especially if he spit, which is aggravated assault.

Maybe you twanged a few bum notes on the old guitar and he was a disgruntled member of the audience expressing his disapproval with a bit of phlegm? How dare he spit at the king of rock and roll. Had you played that old favorite Nasheed song he might not have been quite so spitty.

I'm joking but seriously, spitting at people is disgusting. I would have gone back and collected the saliva for some DNA analysis.

reply to post by milkyway12


wtf!!!

your the best example of.... "sometimes, saying nothing is better than talking "