A question was posed to me the other day, ‘What would you do if your daughter wanted to marry an Indian?’.

A moments pause had me declaring ‘I’d be fine with it, after all we were all one country before 1947, we’re all Muslims so I’d be fine with it’.

Then a further question was put to me, you could call it the 64 million dollar question, ‘What if she wanted to marry a Bengali? Hmm, the silence was deafening, ‘I thought you said so long as he’s Muslim you’d be fine!’.

Ok, now this was a different heating device of the scaly variety all together. My own prejudice shocked me?

Now, I don’t want to offend my Bengali readers but I’m pretty sure Pakistani rates pretty low on other people’s lists too.

To be honest I don’t even know a single Bangladeshi. In my time at Billinge (my old school) I had friends from the Christian, Hindu and Sikh religions so quite clearly I am not racist. It’s strange but true that cultural racism is instilled in us subconsciously.

A thought occurs to me, I would be fine if she wanted to marry a white man who had reverted. My God this really is a colour thing! No hang on a minute, Bengali’s speak a different language so to fit in surely you would need to converse in their mother tongue.

If that was my defence then why do I feel an Indian is okay?

After all they speak Gujarati, now just because I understand them thanks to my ‘Troy Street Mosque’ days, why do I feel my cherub would understand?

She can barely fathom what Grandma is saying in Punjabi and you don’t get closer to Urdu than that!

You know something, I feel terrible with what I have declared.

I need to address this tainted judgemental thinking but not before asking you for some honesty, what would you have said?

Would you say when someone you know wants to marry someone outside your caste and nationality? Proclaim, ‘I would be fine with that’ while crossing fingers behind your back.

Or maybe you would handle the question with a slimy retort not too dissimilar to that of the most successful Labour prime minister, ‘I’ll cross that bridge if I get to it’.

I hope you are not preparing to mount your high stead thinking that day will never come for you.

This seems truly to be a colour thing, what will happen when a ‘black’ revert asks for your daughters hand in marriage? You would be torn in two directions ok; he’s an admirable character with a wonderful education and superb job but WHAT WOULD PEOPLE SAY!

Once again the age old ‘loyg kya kahen gaye’ would win over the Islamic teachings of welcoming all into the religion.

That darned race question has surely got me into serious trouble with the Nationals of East Pakistan. Someone once said to me ‘We are more racist against our own type, than anyone else’.

I would have to vouch for that after the response I have just given.

We all have two arms, two legs, and one head are we really that different?

Oh crikey now I’ve offended anyone missing a limb or having been born conjoined.

I think I should exit with the statement, we all bleed red.