New Website for United Shades of Britain
United Shades of Britain | 07.04.2010 08:27 | Anti-racism | Culture
United Shades of Britain are launching their brand new website this Friday, 9th April and hope to see you there
Internet equality organisation United Shades of Britain will be launching their new website on 9th April, 2010. The website will continue their mission to encourage education, discussion and cohesion between all sectors of the community through blog posts, videos and other visual media. The Launch is being run in conjunction with a Facebook event, inviting people to come and join in the party on the United Shades of Britain Facebook Group.
United Shades of Britain originally started as Muslims against Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett, quickly transforming into Muslims and Non-Muslims against Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett as people from different backgrounds expressed their support for the movement. After Islam4UK was disbanded, members of the fast growing group voted to change the name and maintain it as an organisation for social change. Now over 14,000 members strong, the group encourages members to discuss issues affecting equality in society and find out about the different communities that make up our society.
The website goes live at 9.00pm on Friday 9th April and the online party kicks off at 8.00pm on the United Shades of Britain Facebook group.
We hope to see you there!
United Shades of Britain originally started as Muslims against Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett, quickly transforming into Muslims and Non-Muslims against Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett as people from different backgrounds expressed their support for the movement. After Islam4UK was disbanded, members of the fast growing group voted to change the name and maintain it as an organisation for social change. Now over 14,000 members strong, the group encourages members to discuss issues affecting equality in society and find out about the different communities that make up our society.
The website goes live at 9.00pm on Friday 9th April and the online party kicks off at 8.00pm on the United Shades of Britain Facebook group.
We hope to see you there!
United Shades of Britain
Homepage:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=385424445082
Comments
Hide the following 18 comments
Why shouldn't Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett?
07.04.2010 08:49
The state military are allowed to do it to promote their jingoism, brainwash their cannon fodder, and celebrate the murder of people overseas. So I'd rather Islam4UK is doing something useful like protesting against this instead of promoting some nutty brand of religion.
This group sounds a bit statist.
anon
Sounds Good
07.04.2010 10:52
Why shouldn't Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett? Because they're Fascists!
UK Fightback
-ists
07.04.2010 13:27
T
Islam4UK as fascists
07.04.2010 15:59
The difference is they are a tiny fringe of a small minority in this country. If this was a majority Muslim country I'd be worried and up for stopping them, but it isn't, so I'm not.
Groups like EDL and BNP on the other hand are more dangerous because they claim to represent majority groups and they are useful to the existing regime. History tells us the risks of allowing such groups to go unchecked.
anon
USoB stands against all extremists.
08.04.2010 11:41
Personally, I wouldn't have banned the march, as much as I disagreed with it. The group allows for varied opinions, and as a liberal I value freedom of expression when it is within the bound of the law, no matter how distasteful (I also, personally, wouldn't ban a BNP rally so long as it stayed within the law). I also never believed the march would actually happen. Choudary often proposes marches, whips up anti-Muslim hatred, then fades away again. When he proposed a march in October 09 in London, the "March for Sharia", the Express ran with the headline "Now Muslims demand Sharia". That, to my mind, is one of the biggest dangers of groups like Islam4UK. Whilst representing only a tiny minority of Muslims, he is creating anger and hatred amongst groups , including the EDL who started as a response to groups similar to Islam4UK.
Either way, they're banned now, and the group has widened its perspective. United Shades of Britain stands against both groups like Islam4UK and groups such as the EDL and BNP. We also do not agree with confrontational street clashes, and will condemn violent disruption be it far-right or far-left in origin. Our group is made up of 14,000 members with a wide variety of views and backgrounds. Many of our members protested against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this group, however, we are united by a desire to not see violence and disruption on our streets, to challenge supporters of terrorism and racist attacks, and to do so through communication and education.
In any social dispute both sides will exaggerate the magnitude of their conflict, their opponent's extremism, and their opponent's ideological bias. With this in mind, anybody trying to encourage communication will come under fire from both sides for 'creating a platform' for the other side. Here we are accused of being statist and pandering to imperialists. Elsewhere we are considered to be promoting submission to radical Islam. Realistically, we are neither. We are trying to cut through the hatred and perpetuation of polarised stances. Through talking to each other, and facilitating a safe space for sensible debate from both 'sides' we are uncovering that we have more in common than apart. All of us want no more terrorist attacks, no inequality and hatred, and a safe future for our children.
Come join in, we have an extensive list of topics being debated in our discussion area. We welcome constructive debate.
Aoife USoB
e-mail:
aoifeusob@hotmail.co.uk
Sorry
08.04.2010 13:17
T
The United Shades of Britain
08.04.2010 14:00
We are interested in serious debate with sensible people.
Jabran Ali
re: USoB stands against all extremists.
08.04.2010 14:35
Well, OK, fair enough, that seems like a laudable goal.
Forgive me for being initially suspicious, just sounded a bit similar to the EDL. Personally, I'm not a liberal against all extremism - I'm all for militant anti-fascism and anti-state anarchism - but I can see your point of view, and it sounds like it could be a good thing for what it is.
Some of those angry closeted EDL pissheads could do with a bit of hippy peace and love!
anon
Absolutely right
08.04.2010 15:20
Also i'm unsure of your definition of extremist.
Are British troops extremist?
Is the British Government Extremist?
Are the companies we work for extremist?
Or is it just fringe groups we are looking into.
And one last thing. I like your approach on sensible dialogue. You've nailed that definition. Spot on.
T
Don't knock it till you've tried it
08.04.2010 15:41
The link to the Facebook group is up there, join it and post your comments and questions. Lets discuss this in an open forum.
Jabran Ali
@T
08.04.2010 16:05
Go and find out then, it sounds like you've got plenty of time on your hands.
D von D
EDL and ISLAM4ALL
08.04.2010 16:22
Remember Gladio
@anon 14.35
08.04.2010 16:41
We're definitely not similar to the EDL :)
We all have our own ways of tackling things, and for our group we just don't think shouting 'fascists' at the EDL will help matters. We don't disagree that they are acting in a fascistic manner and there are strong racist elements in their group and their rhetoric, but we want disavow their members of the viewpoints they have been misled to, rather than heightening confrontation and risking further alienating people. To that end we, for example, run campaigns of myth-busting and fact-checking, whether there's a crazy tabloid scare story, or a BNP make-believe video doing the rounds, it can be useful to have a quick go-to for the true story.
Feel free to pop in and debate with us though. Pretty much the only group that hasn't come in to chat is militant anti-fascists.
Aoife USoB
e-mail:
aoifeusob@hotmail.co.uk
re: @anon 14.35
08.04.2010 17:08
I'd like to but I'm afraid I don't do Facebook for various reasons, although I know it can be a useful tool to reach people. Good luck anyway, a multi-pronged attack on things like the EDL can't be a bad thing.
anon
Website up and running!
09.04.2010 20:52
The site's up!
There's a blog section, with opinion pieces and bits of info and short articles, and an FAQ which has myths and prejudices that we come across frequently, taken to bits and shown to be totally untrue.
Want to claim the flag back off racists and fascists? Send us a photo for the Fly the Flag campaign. For me, Britain is great because of our multiculturalism, tolerance and freedoms, the backwards-looking empire-missing views of racists who claim our flag as their own don't represent the things about Britain I'm proud of!
We welcome ideas and contributions, so if you have thoughts or an article you'd want us to add, get in touch either using the link on the page, or through an admin of the FB group.
The party is rocking in the group at the moment, so if you read this before about 4am, come along and join in!
It doesn't matter which religion you follow, or what background you come from, because there is one thing that links us all to each other: we are all human beings.
:)
Aoife USoB
e-mail:
aoifeusob@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.unitedshades.org.uk/
Hmmm, strange
11.04.2010 00:39
However, I hope you also include all of the pagan and pre-monotheistic religious dates too on your front page. The ones that Christianity and Islam and the other nicked as part of their march through Europe and the rest of the world. I hope you also include atheistic events too... Though personally, I find the idea of organised religions pretty silly, so the basis of bringing different denominations of silliness together is a bit difficult to fathom.
Krop
@Krop
11.04.2010 02:02
I've not personally helped with the calender, but just looking at this month I can see dates marked including the non-religious Earth Day, as well as Buddist, Hindu and Zoroastrian dates, and even May Day, so I'm guessing they've tried their best to include everything they can think of, and certainly it's not just the Abrahamic faiths that are represented. However I'll pass on the comment. If there's any dates you've noticed missed that you'd like included, feel free to send us a comment on our feedback form and we'll add it in asap.
We're about bringing together people, not religions, and our admin team and membership features people of many different faiths, and those who are not religious.
If we're going to tackle hatred and intolerance, best to have a united front to do it, rather than splitting off into different groups based on religion or politics or disagreements of ideology. This is something that affects us all. We should all stand up to terrorism, violence, prejudice and hatred, wherever it comes from.
Feel free to pop in and chat with us on our FB group.
Aoife
Aoife USoB
e-mail:
aoifeusob@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.unitedshades.org.uk
Fair enough
11.04.2010 16:40
Krop