'Rewrite British History To Reflect Other Cultures'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9-25-2007 | Chris Hope

[blam]

'Rewrite British history to reflect other cultures'

By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:48pm BST 25/09/2007

Parts of British history need to be rewritten to emphasise the roles played by other races and religions like Muslims, a prominent race relations campaigner has said.

Trevor Philips, the chairman of the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, said the history of Britain did not properly reflect the contribution of other cultures.

Rewriting the country’s history would demonstrate to Britons in the 21st century how other groups apart from Anglo Saxons shaped the nation.

He told a fringe meeting at the Labour conference: "We may need to revisit our national story – we want to rewrite that story to tell the whole story."

The rewriting should start with the story of how the English fleet led by Sir Francis Drake fought off the Spanish Armada in 1588, he said.

The important role played by the Muslim Turks, who delayed the sailing of the Spanish fleet so that the English ships were better prepared, had been airbrushed out of the story however.

Mr Phillips said: "When we talk about the Armada, it was the Turks who saved us because they held up the Armada after a request from Elizabeth I.

"Let’s rewrite that, so we have an ideal that brings us together so that it can bind us together in stormy times ahead in the next century."

Mr Phillips, the former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, declined to offer any other examples of parts of British history that should be rewritten.

He also said that he supported a campaign by the musician Billy Bragg for a new written constitution to define what it means to be British in the 21st century.

"We have to have an expression that is native and right for us," he said.

"We have to have a more explicit set of understandings under which we can all live together."

Mr Phillips, who was educated at Queen’s College Boys School in Guyana, also suggested that there should be a set celebration for when people were given British nationality.

Nationality lessons were necessary because people were moving around the country more than ever before, providing less opportunities to integrate. Last year 6.5 million people moved house, he said.

Earlier this week Mr Phillips said that economic migrants could be forced to make a bigger contribution to the cost of public services.

Mr Phillips said that some migrants who stay in the UK only for a short time should pay more for the use of schools and hospitals.

[Enchante]

Battle of Lepanto = 1571

[fortunecookie]

Parts of British history need to be rewritten to emphasise the roles played by other races and religions like Muslims, a prominent race relations campaigner has said.

Sigh. What's that about those who don't learn from history... (rhetorical)

[fortunecookie]

And how would this weenie go about re-writing the account of Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732?

It should be difficult to twist that decisive battle. But for the revisionist leftie, easy enough. Call it hateful Christian aggression. Few will complain. Facts? Historical references? Nah - just someone's biased opinion, or so the revisionists will claim. Look at the vilification of Columbus.

[RightWhale]

Many people outside the discipline of history have no idea how history is done. This is especially clear when they instruct historians how to write history. They will have to hire a flunky to write this, and it won’t be history.