LONDON -- Well, in less than a week it appears the British
authorities got them! But what are they? The BBC last week edited
out the word "terrorist" in its coverage of July 7th's subway and
bus bombings in favor of the word "bombers." The BBC believed that
the word would be less offensive to certain aggrieved British
groups. Yes, terrorists have feelings too. Now that the men who
committed these grisly crimes appear to be Islamicists with
terrorist sympathies and suicidal intent, can we call them
terrorists? Can we call them Muslim terrorists? Can we call them
Muslim suicide bombers and terrorists?
London was stalwart and inspiring last week. In the aftermath of
the, dare I say, terrorist attacks, the Londoners went about their
business, vowing to apprehend the criminals and otherwise carrying
on just as they had during the War whose victory they celebrated on
the weekend -- German sensibilities be damned. But the longer I am
in London, the more I discover that there are unsettling
undercurrents within the government and among elites. One is the
application of politically correct rules to coverage of the news.
Another is to outlaw free speech as it relates to the treatment of
Islamofascism and the bloody consequences of Islamofascism.
One of the first concerns of some after the bombing was a
concern about "backlash." Frankly I did not know at first what the
term was supposed to refer to. Was it referring to overreaction in
terms of government action, say, London's exerting some sort of
pressure against foreign countries that harbor terrorists? Was it
referring to increased police action against the citizenry? No, it
was referring to hooligans attacking Muslims, which had not
happened yet and so far has not, save for a few broken windows at a
mosque. That sort of thing is deplorable, but why was violence
against Muslims among the first concerns of British elites? The
answer is that local Muslims have orchestrated this concern.
They have been very effective. As Mark Steyn pointed out in the
Daily Telegraph, "In most circumstances it would be
regarded as appallingly bad taste to deflect attention from an
actual 'hate crime' [last week's bombings] by scaremongering about
a non-existent one." Yet apparently this has been going on for some
time, and now Prime Minister Tony Blair is hustling through
Parliament a so-called Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. If passed
it would send a person to jail for seven years if he is accused and
convicted of authoring words found offensive by aggrieved religious
and racial groups, for instance, I suppose, aggrieved terrorists.
Opponents argue that would protect Satanists and other unusual
believers.
How would it affect another journalist writing recently in a
British paper, Charles Moore, former editor of the Sunday
Telegraph and London's Spectator? Recently he quoted
from a Saudi imam welcomed to Britain by Mohammed Abdul Bari of the
East London Mosque. The Rev. imam a couple of years back in Mecca
described Jews as "scum of the earth," "rats of the world,"
"monkeys and pigs who should be annihilated." When the imam is
criticized by the likes of Moore, Abdul Bari furiously defends him.
Moore went on to quote the local Muslim Weekly's Sheikh
Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi writing that parliamentary democracy in
Britain must be replaced by "a new civilization based on the
worship of Allah," and he described the leader of the Tory party as
"an illegal Jewish immigrant from Romania." He also referred to the
"near-demented Judaic banking elite."
In his trenchant article noting that Islam has yet to come up
with a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, Moore criticized another
visitor to London welcomed by London's left-wing mayor, Ken
Livingstone. The visitor, a world renowned spiritual leader, Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, supports suicide bombing in Israel, whipping
homosexuals, and killing Americans in Iraq, civilians and soldiers
alike. Research such as this could land Moore in a British
calaboose if the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is passed.
In the West certain groups have a knack for capturing the moral
high ground and ending debate. When the feminists did this and the
gay rights groups accomplished this, mischief ensued but nothing
more damaging. If Islam's apologists for terror accomplish this
feat, the world is in for more than mischief. London will be in for
more carnage and America too.
topics:
Business, Islam, Law, Iraq, Israel, Fascism
