Posted on 02/04/2006 11:31:09 AM PST by Dark Skies
AFTER being acquitted of incitement to racial hatred last week, Nick Griffin proclaimed his trial to have been the best publicity for his far-right British National Party. He was wrong. A stronger advert was the protest outside the Danish embassy in London against a newspaper that ran cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Their chant – “UK you will pay, 7/7 is on its way” – made front-page news.
Anyone wishing to portray Islam as a fundamentalist religion that threatens British culture would have been delighted. But what would have pleased Griffin most was the silence from mainstream British political parties.
Griffin has sought to convey two messages: that immigration is a threat to British society and that Westminster politicians are too timid to even admit to the problem, far less do anything about it. He was in the dock for describing Islam as a “wicked vicious faith” and inviting his audience to “show ethnics the door in 2004”. His comments were found to lack the requisite “hatred” and he was acquitted last week.
No one has taken him too seriously. Since the days of Empire, Britain has managed to forge a strong multi-cultural identity – and voters find Griffin’s message as contemptible as it is absurd. So in last year’s general election, the BNP won a pathetic 0.7% of the vote – a far cry from the 17% won by France’s National Front in its April 2002 election or the 27% won by Jörg Haider in Austria’s 1999 elections.
While the far-right has enjoyed success across the continent, Britain has remained defiantly immune. Unlike the French, Dutch or Austrians, the British have never been persuaded that Islam threatens their jobs or culture. The Muslim protesters in London so faithfully lived up to the BNP caricature that they could have been Griffin’s henchmen in disguise. “Freedom go to hell,” read one of their placards. “Behead those who insult Islam,” said another. The British press may have decided not to reprint the cartoons of Mohammed, but the story itself will increase inter-cultural tensions far more. Events play up to the BNP theme of a “clash of civilisations” – that there is, indeed, a battle.
All this terrifies Tony Blair. The Prime Minister has for years worried that the voice of moderate Islam in Britain is being bawled down by extremists – and that, one day, the wind of racism will blow in from Europe. But what to do? The Home Office has held endless meetings about this subject and decided that moderate Islam in Britain must confront extremist Islam. But no one in the department has a clue on how to engineer this. So, meanwhile, Jack Straw – the Foreign Secretary whose Blackburn constituency is 25% Muslim – praised the British press for being almost alone in western Europe in declining to reproduce any cartoon depiction of Mohammed.
In France and Spain, newspapers have defiantly ran front-page pictures as if to make a point: yes, we’re a multi-cultural society, but we believe in freedom of expression. This involves printing images some readers find profane. In Paris, Le Monde has commissioned an ingenious picture of Mohammed drawn out of the words “I must not draw Mohammed”. In Jordan, a newspaper editor was sacked for reprinting the offending Danish cartoon.
In Britain, the decision has been not to provoke unnecessary outcry. The Danish newspaper commissioned cartoons to inquire on the limits of self-censorship in a free world. It has found its answer, on an international basis. This leads us to a profoundly political question: is there a line to be drawn between freedom of expression and the sensitivities of religions? Until now, the answer in Britain was an emphatic “no”.
Christianity is regularly satirised in UK newspaper cartoons. The Spectator magazine ran a series of pen pictures of Mohammed when the Danish controversy first broke and received no complaints.
But something has changed in the past few days, when a line has been drawn – voluntarily by the London media, to the applause of a government relieved not to be put in the position faced by the Prime Minister of Denmark.
He has made himself the target of death threats by saying he did not personally agree with the cartoon depiction of Mohammed – but would defend the right of newspapers to print what they want. This is how the Danes do things, he said.
David Cameron has (according to aides) said he wants “to be kept out of this one”. The only sound comes from Dominic Grieve, Shadow Attorney General, calling the Danish cartoons “reckless”. And he admits he hasn’t seen them. Little wonder if no one in Britain is prepared to print the image causing such ructions.
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen and declared a buoycott of Danish goods. The European Union has condemned the move. A “Buy Danish” campaign is starting off in America.
Blair is saying nothing. Yet many in Britain will be incensed by what they see as intimidatory clerical fundamentalism. And to whom do they turn? This is exactly how a far-right fringe party like the BNP enters the mainstream. There are no easy political responses to this bizarre cartoon jihad. But staying silent could be the most dangerous option of all.
"No one has taken him too seriously. Since the days of Empire, Britain has managed to forge a strong multicultural identity – and voters find Griffin’s message as contemptible as it is absurd."
This is all you need to know to predict the future of this moribund nation. They simply can't handle the truth so they will become extinct.
So, meanwhile, Jack Straw – the Foreign Secretary whose Blackburn constituency is 25% Muslim – praised the British press for being almost alone in western Europe in declining to reproduce any cartoon depiction of Mohammed.
One reason the BNP get such a low vote in Britian as compared to other european countries is that we already fought their kind in a previous World War and don't want to have to go through that again.
What is "their kind"? Alarm over Islamic immigration is a tad more justified than hatred of Jews, IMHO.
Blair's wife is an attorney and does work for the moose.
Their alarm doesn't stop at islamic immigration. If public sentiment sided with the BNP then islamic terrorism would be the least of our worries.
I vaguely remember that but I can't recall who her client's were.
One more time, Santayana to the rescue...
I will find and post a speech addressing this very point by an MP.... in 1968... 38 years ago!
Ping me when you do.
If the BNP starts getting more votes because of its stand against multiculturalism then the other parties will move in that direction, probably by proposing tighter immigration standards and deporting troublesome newcomers.
Better late than never, unfortunately.
"What is "their kind"? Alarm over Islamic immigration is a tad more justified than hatred of Jews, IMHO."
Don't worry, the BNP can do both for you for the price of one, and more besides...
War is coming to Europe again whether it wants it or not . I see little hope of anything occuring to avert this. As muslim populations grow they will more and more "demand" that their host societies change to suit their desires. The more that happens the more european's will be inclined to move in the direction of political parties apposed to muslim immigration...in the end europe can not continue to coexist with an intolerant, barbaric culture in their midst. The more muslims burn flags because of cartoons, the more inncoent women get gang raped by muslim "youths" The more muslim riots the more blah blah blah...the more europeans will grow intolerant of the muslim pressence. War will happen...one way or another. They say only two things are certain in life..death and taxes..I would say war is a certainty..its a natural state of man.
bttt
She took up a case of a muslim girl wanting to wear "jilbab" full length clothing (practicaly a burqua). A Muslim school had refused her permission to do so as they already had a less restrictive form a islamic clothing as school uniform (shalwar kameez - tunic and trousers) .
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1410634,00.html
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=3398
The legal chambers she work for declared the Iraq was "illegal" although she does not seem to have been involved in that decision.
You would think she would immediately leave if she disagreed.
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=3398
In 1925, the German National Socialists only had 27,000 members. In 1928 that had grown to 108,000, where they won 3% of the vote, giving them 14 seats in the German Parliament. In 1930, 107 seats. In 1932, 230 seats, and 288 in 1933. Hitler went from obscurity to control in just 8 years.
Why? Because the people were frightened. Not just of the economic times, which were bad, but about what they were hearing out of the USSR. A lot of ethnic Germans had emigrated to Russia under the Czar, and their relatives in Germany was hearing about the liquidation of the "Kulaks" (prosperous farmers) and the middle class under the Communists. The German middle class was scared that there would be a German Communist revolution there too
They can demand all they want, but in a stable democracy the only chance of getting what you want is by voting. Also muslims are not the only minority to be growing in Britain.
The more that happens the more european's will be inclined to move in the direction of political parties apposed to muslim immigration...
Well we'll see what happens to european countries that move in that direction compared to Britain that won't. Britain might set immigration limits and rules, but they will be across the board and will never involve banning immigrants based soley on their religion. The real dangerous people of course don't announce their extremist beliefs or protest openly in the streets for all to see.
in the end europe can not continue to coexist with an intolerant, barbaric culture in their midst. The more muslims burn flags because of cartoons, the more inncoent women get gang raped by muslim "youths" The more muslim riots the more blah blah blah...the more europeans will grow intolerant of the muslim pressence. War will happen...one way or another. They say only two things are certain in life..death and taxes..I would say war is a certainty..its a natural state of man.
We are no more going to have a war with a few fundamentalist muslims within the population than we are going to have a war with the anarchists who seem to be able to rally up orders of magnitude more protesters.
It is the fundamentalist muslims who have the most to fear from western society, not the otherway round. The more they and their families stay in britain the more exposed they are to the culture. Assimilation is a slow poison to islamic fundamentalism - something the French would do well to understand.
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