When I watched the reclaim rallies on TV and read about them subsequently it made me ashamed to be of the same genus.
We are all conceived the same way, a sperm and an egg meet. We die the same way, we stop breathing.
And what happens to us in between those two events is shaped very much but what we encounter through life, no matter if we are born to Muslim parents, Catholic parents, or athiests.
The same can be said for all people who go on to commit horrendous crimes, brutality and suffer dreadful mental illness. Often the perpetrators of terrible events are found to have suffered themselves apallingly along their own life journey, causing harm that makes them turn against humanity in all sort of ways (or against themselves as well, especially with mental illness).
Seems to me to be the epitome of ignorance to protest about the extremism of a few. Much better to find a way to kill the desire to be an extremist of any sort than to kill each other, or protest against each other. Trying to embrace each other as human beings and offering tolerance - hard though it is when confronted with someone or something you naturally detest - seems a much better way to go than holding up a placard.
And no, I dont go along with extremism, rape, murder, child abuse etc etc... I do however believe that early intervention along with just the milk of human kindness along the way, could go far in reducing the numbers of these awful crimes and making people feel they need to make some sort of statement collectively to be heard for whatever cause they choose (extremism).
Better to be a do gooder than a do-nothing-er or cynic and then to go along to protest about the end result with a feeling of nationalism and righteousness. Shame!
