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Wintonsweek Appeasement of Militant Islam Fanning Flames Of Terror Phillips’ “Londonistan” Says Apologists Making Crisis Worse Government Refusal To Recognise Nature Of Threat Jeopardising Us Corrupt Media Has Devalued, Deformed Case For Iraq, Israel “Multicultural elite gripped by self-loathing” Britain in general and London in particular have become the centre of extremist Islam in the west, but government cowardice and refusal to face the true nature of the threat coupled with a media dominated by self-loathers, has allowed the problem to fester into a civilisation threatening problem. Melanie Phillips, in her book “Londonistan – How Britain Is Creating A Terror State Within”, (Gibson Square £14.99) paints a depressing and frightening picture of the way radical Islam has set itself up in Britain, and pours scorn on the way the Labour Government and media elites have allowed a festering sore of evil to build up here, and merely shrug their shoulders and ring their hands when confronted with the facts. Rather than force the purveyors of a religion that is often incompatible with British values of free speech and openness to either shape up or ship out, Phillips, former Observer and Sunday Times columnist now working for the Daily Mail, says political correctness and multiculturalism are undermining common sense. “They (the London bombers of July 7, 2005) finally lifted the veil on Britain’s dirty secret in the war on terrorism – that for more than a decade, London had been the epicentre of Islamic militancy in Europe. Under the noses of successive British governments, Britain’s capital had turned into “Londonistan” ………………. And become the major European centre for the promotion, recruitment and financing of Islamic terror and extremism,” Phillips said. Phillips, also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s “The Moral Maze”, doesn’t think us British have the bottle to do anything about this, and she may be right. Decadent Britain Writer Amir Taheri, author of “L’Irak: Le Dessous Des Cartes”, put it this way in an article in the Wall Street Journal commemorating the first anniversary of the London bombing, describing how the ceremony in Regent’s Park was devalued by advising the Queen and government leaders to stay away, so that Muslims might not be offended. “The ceremony has been re-scripted as a simple, sober event to please a multicultural elite gripped by self-loathing,” Taheri said. Phillips, in her book, said Britain’s traditional values should always win out if there is a clash with alien ones. “Instead of acknowledging that Muslim values must give way wherever they conflict with the majority culture, they (governments, elites) believe that the majority should instead defer to Islamic values and allow Muslims effectively autonomous development.” “Why are you living in this country? “Not only am I British, but I feel British. The question I put to Muslims who do not feel British – who won’t share the British values of tolerance, freedom and democracy – is “Why are you living in this country? This may sound quite harsh. But it is surely a reasonable question,” Khan said. Phillips says this pandering to a foreign culture has happened because of a collective lack of self-belief amongst the elites who reckon our values are by definition racist and discriminatory. One of the consequences of this lack of belief has fuelled a dangerous attitude towards America and the Iraq war, fanned by the BBC and, of all things, Christian organisations. “The issues of Iraq, America and Israel are now conflated in the British public mind in a poisonous stew of irrationality, prejudice, ignorance and fear.” “The effect of all this has been to create a climate in Britain that has alarming echoes of Weimar in the 1930s. There is the same combination of amorality and appeasement, of decadence and denial.” Demonisation of America, Israel “The relentless demonisation of America and Israel by the British media, along with the demagoguery of George Galloway and Ken Livingstone, have acted as powerful recruiting sergeants for the jihad and have entrenched Londonistan in Britain’s national psyche. Instead of fighting these prejudices, the British government has decided to take the path of least resistance.” Phillips is incensed about the way the war in Iraq is devalued by talk that western involvement will somehow persuade young Muslims to become militant Islamists. “This is particularly grotesque, since what the British are actually doing in Iraq, along with the Americans, is trying to prevent Muslims from being slaughtered by other Muslims, and trying to help them to live in freedom and prosperity.” Phillips quotes the socialist David Blunkett and former Home Secretary of all people, one of the guiding lights of neo-Labour, which has happily led Britain down the slippery slope of the welfare state and multiculturalism, torpedoing on its way traditional British values and culture. Mission to destroy And still the likes of Tony Blair say, sorry, nothing we can do, the Muslims have to reform themselves. He just doesn’t see the extent of the problem. And it’s not just Blunkett who appears on a surprising side of the argument. Phillips reminds us that Prince Charles has floated the idea that he will no longer be Defender of the Faith when/if he becomes King, but Defender of Faiths. “This renunciation of the bedrock religious settlement of the British nation amounts to a repudiation of national identity by its future monarch – who has thus implicitly allied himself with those who seek to destroy it,” says Phillips. So-called moderates “If ‘moderation’ includes reasonableness, truthfulness and fairness, the reaction by British Muslims to the London bombings was not moderate at all. Yes, they condemned the atrocities. But in the next breath they denied that these had anything to do with Islam. Thus they not only washed their hands of any communal responsibility but - in denying what was a patently obvious truth that these attacks were carried out by adherents of Islam in the name of Islam- also indicated that they would do nothing to address the roots of the problem.” Amir Taheri agrees. “Muslim leaders and organisations have been in denial, or else have adopted a posture that could be described as “yes-but-however”. The posture starts with a “yes” – the mass murder of innocent people is indeed a horrendous crime. It then proceeds to a “but” – a claim that the terrorists had legitimate grievances ignored by the British government that shares the blame for the tragedy. Finally, it snakes to “however” – unless Britain recasts key aspects of its policies, it could expect more attacks,” Taheri said. Taheri also pointed to a Pew Global Attitudes Project, which found that Muslims in Britain hold far more negative views of the West than Islamic minorities anywhere else in Europe. A majority of Britain’s estimated 1.8 million Muslims found Westerners “selfish, arrogant, greedy and immoral”. Only 32% of Muslims in Britain had a favourable view of Jews, compared with 71% of French Muslims. The attitudes of Muslims in Britain more resembled those in radical Arab countries than those in the west, Taheri quoted Pew as saying. MCB tacitly supports suicide bombers So what is to be done? Phillips suggests a range of actions. Special courts should be introduced to deal with sensitive cases where evidence could safely be used. Funding of extreme organisations in Britain should be stopped. Newspapers and TV stations which spread terrorist incitement would be closed down. Surveillance of subversives in universities should be established. She wants inspection of material used by Arab speakers in Muslim schools. Imams would be regulated and monitored. Extremists would be expelled and extremist mosques closed down. Truly moderate Muslims seeking reform would be encouraged. No more multiculturalism “Britain is currently locked into such a spiral of decadence, self-loathing and sentimentality that it is incapable of seeing that is setting itself up for cultural immolation,” she said. “British Muslims are still being recruited for the jihad, and the country’s elites are still in the grip of the nation-busting, universalist mindset that has hollowed out Britain’s values and paralysed it in the face of the assault by Islamism. A liberal society is in danger of being destroyed by its own ideals.” Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a speech early in July, made Phillips point for her. In that weirdly theatrical pose of his when he is trying to make a particularly egregious act of cowardice sound brave, Blair said it is up to Muslims to put their house in order. Wrong. That is not going to happen. Reform Koran The problem is that Muslims themselves don’t appear to understand the problem. Or if they do, they are unwilling to do anything about it. Here is Prince Hassan of Jordan, in an article in the Sunday Telegraph of July 9, reflecting on the reasons for Muslim terrorism. “Firstly, we must make clear that Islam is not the problem,” says Hassan in his article about the foundations of terrorism. Oh dear. British Muslims like Saira Khan the last hope Perhaps the only ray of sunshine is the hope that British Muslims themselves, led by the likes of Saira Khan, notwithstanding the Pew report, will finally have the guts to break-free of the chains of the Muslim Council of Britain and its ilk, saying “You don’t speak for me, I’m British first and foremost.” Neil Winton – July 15, 2006 |
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