Posted on 07/03/2007 9:36:19 AM PDT by Eurotwit
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word Muslim in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that the phrase war on terror is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more consensual tone than existed under Tony Blair.
However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness.
The sudden shift in tone emerged in comments by Mr Brown and Ms Smith in the wake of the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
Mr Browns spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language.
There is clearly a need to strike a consensual tone in relation to all communities across the UK, the spokesman said. It is important that the country remains united.
He confirmed that the phrase war on terror strongly associated with Mr Blair and US President George Bush has been dropped.
Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed by police investigating the latest attempted terror attacks. Mr Brown himself did not refer to Muslims or Islam once in a BBC TV interview on Sunday. Ms Smith also avoided any such reference in her statement to MPs yesterday.
She said: Let us be clear terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions. Terrorists attack the values shared by all law-abiding citizens. As a Government, as communities, as individuals, we need to ensure that the message of the terrorists is rejected.
Tory backbencher Philip Davies said: I dont know what purpose is served by this. I dont think we need pussyfoot around when talking about terrorism.
But former Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said: This is quite a smart idea. We know that the vast majority of Muslims are not involved in terrorism and we have to accept there are sensitivities about these matters.
This is exactly the kind of wussified pc crap that will doom us.
Sounds very Monty-Python-esque.
I will not believe this until I see it posted in the Londonistan Times.
The IRA should have had it so good.
Don't be judgemental. Who are we to say that the folks setting off bombs in public areas are bad?
Not every muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a muslim!
“Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed...”
Let’s see here.... 27-year-old Muhammad Haneef, was arrested late Monday .... Authorities identified Bilal Abdulla, as the other man arrested.... A man arrested late Saturday on a highway in central England Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha... nahhhh....
He got it right.
It’s not “Terrorists are Moslems”.
What he means is “Moslems are terrorists”
OK, so it is now the "Scuffle with Men Who Don't Like Us."
Insanity.
Unfortunately, no.
They will only not be offended when you are dead! How is that an improvement?
Ban the queeran! It is an incitement to murder!!!
We live in an age where Python and Scrappleface are, with each passing day, more and more difficult to tell apart from the daily news.
It's time for Western Civilization to stand in the face of idiotic political correctness and the silly notion of unquestionable tolerance and diversity. This is the cause of the current trouble, and our eventual downfall will be traced to a lack of leadership and unity in the face of such ridiculous ideas.
Thanks for giving the world the Britannic inheritance before succumbing to the barbaric hordes, at least.
A quote from an 1899 book by Winston Churchill, “The River War”, in which he describes Muslims he apparently observed during Kitchener’s campaign in the Sudan
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
At least Chamberlain did ultimately end up declaring War on Germany.
Brown is definitely in the early running for “Upper-Class Twit Of The Year”.
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