The Award of Witless Statement of the Year goes to...


By Max Coutinho

What is the witless statement of the year? 


“One thing is to have ten western neighbours and another completely different is to have ten Muslim neighbours in our building” - Filipe Melo, Portuguese MP from the Chega Party


I would love to get the footage to see in which context these words were said, however, this sentence a priori is one of the less intelligent ones I have heard off late. 


First, yes, it is totally different to have 10 Muslims as neighbours and 10 westerners: 6/10 Muslim neighbours are cleaner, more silent and respectful. I have 5 westerner neighbours: one of them doesn’t wash her windows since she moved in 1 year and half ago; another one sends cigarette buds down onto my yard. At 2am, the first ones fights with her beau of the season waking up, thus, all the building; not to mention that her doorstep exudes a perfume of urine and marijuana.


Indeed, it is totally different. 


Second, when we speak of Westerners we refer to a geo-designation and when we mention “Muslim” we refer to a follower of Islam (i.e. Religion). I am a Westerner yet I am Jewish and I know Westerners who are Muslim, the same way we have Westerners who are Hindu (like the United Kingdom’s PM), so what on earth was Filipe Melo saying? It’s this sort of thing that makes people look stupid in public. 


Third, if Filipe Melo was referring to Asian Muslims (Indian, Bengali, Pakistani etc), he should’ve mentioned them straight away instead of playing coy; but even so…if there are problems with this community: whose fault is it? 

Furthermore, it is dangerous to generalise because among such communities there are good people and the Portuguese authorities know very well who the rotten apples are: if they don’t act it’s because “Money is the sweetest hangover” and they don’t want to get over…


Many people say Chega is a Far-Right Party but I say they don’t have the sophistication nor the complexity required to be Far-Right. Chega (Enough) has a good name but bad eloquence and even worse ideas. Chega, it's enough! 


(Imagem: Filipe Melo [Ed] - Google Imagens)

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