I am a "Racial Foreigner" says the BNP...

According to leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin, black and Asian Britons are ‘racial foreigners’. In recent news of the leaked BNP "Language and Concepts Discipline Manual", all people from ethnic minority groups are “no more British than an Englishman living in Hong Kong is Chinese". The classic line we hear from hardline BNP members is the age old adage that 'a dog born in a stable is not a horse”. In a rather shameful but common sense way it actually makes sense. When I ask the racial foreigners around me – sorry I mean when I ask my fellow British Asian counterparts whether they are British I always get the response “yes but I don’t feel it sometimes”.

I find it extremely amusing that Bradford was named one of the three most "English" places in England. Bradford has a high proportion of Pakistani Muslims as well as one of the country's highest ratios of fish and chip shops to people! Down the road to this very English part of Britain, lies Leeds – home to the 7/7 bombers. It goes to show that being a legal Briton does not mean you are British… and Griffin points out by likening the term British to an ethnic description.

This probably goes some way to explain why young British Asians become guilty of plotting and executing terror attacks in the land that has raised them. Young people who have the right to be as British as anyone else become disenfranchised with their environments to the point where they hail mutiny and cause chaos. I guess Nick Griffin’s point that these people remain “of the stock” where they come from is correct. "We don't subscribe to the politically correct fiction that just because they happen to be born in Britain, a Pakistani is a Briton… they're not; they remain of Pakistani stock." Point taken.

Griffin goes on to suggest that calling all people of colour British resulted in a ‘bloodless genocide’ because indigenous people were denied their identity. What’s wrong with being called a Black Briton or Asian Briton? I am an Asian Briton. I don’t tell other British people what their identities are. I guess I should drop the ‘Asian’ tag because I also feel this segregates me to a certain degree. But essentially I am Asian because my family originates from India. I am also British without question – I was born in the UK which legally grants me the right to call myself British but more importantly I adopt the British culture if that culture can actually be defined.

I am British and I come from Indian “stock” – and a very tasty stock may I add in the culinary sense. Talking of food, Chicken Tikka Masala is one Britain’s national dishes. There is a huge “stockpile” of “racial foreigners” in the UK:

Amir Khan - the UK’s most prolific boxing talent and of Pakistani stock.
Monty Panesar – a British Sikh and an England cricket sensation. Indian stock.
Lenny Henry – a Dudley born black comedian. “I am yam, what I yam” he would say in his deep Black Country accent.

Or funny-man Omid 'Iranian in UK' Djalili?
What about all the pretty “racial foreigners” now presenting on our news channels? Mishal Hussain, Nina Hossain, Susanne Virdi, Samira Ahmed? And not forgetting George Alagiah or Krishnan Guru-Murthy?
What about the activitists and humanitarians such as Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and Parvin Ali who has fought endlessly for the rights of Muslim women?
What about exceptional UK entrepreneurs like Karan Bilamoria, James Caan, Perween Warsi and Tom Singh? The list goes on and on…..

More importantly, what about the millions of hard working, tax paying, law abiding African-Caribbeans, Pakistanis, Punjabis, Bangladeshis, Chinese, Jewish and countless other community groups who contribute to the wellbeing of Britian today? All of these groups contribute to the United Kingdom but how united must one feel when still regarded as an inferior second class citizen?

There are so many “racial foreigners” in the UK that to take them away (Nick Griffin thinks we don’t exist) is to take away a lot of what Britain has achieved and will achieve in years to come as the UK becomes a further enriched melting pot of varying stocks.

And what of those who are mixed race? Are they ‘semi racial foreigners’ perhaps?
Leona Lewis is one Britain’s brightest singing talents and of mixed race background – Black Caribbean stock.
Craig David – the son of a Jewish mother and a West Indian father.
Lewis Hamilton is mixed race – the youngest ever Formula 1 champion.

So the next time I fill out a form that asks of my credentials in terms of identity, I will do what I usually do… I will draw a box at the end of the list, title it Human Being and tick the box with pride. Or maybe I should not bother, after all I don’t exist…