Tolerating Intolerance: Multiculturalism Is Destroying Europ

[Poetess]

In facing down the Islamist menace which haunts Europe, Porter is right on the mark, however Methinks old Henry Porter doesn't go far enough. A bit soft on fascism. But what say you?

by Henry Porter, The Observer:

If the majority of Muslims truly want to integrate, they could start by kicking out the preachers of hatred from their mosques

Imagine the Archbishop of Canterbury or any senior Anglican clergyman giving a sermon which suggested that homosexual men should be thrown off a mountain; that they were no better than filthy dogs. Imagine another priest rising in another church to preach that children should be hit for not praying, that women were deficient, should walk behind men and only go out with their man's permission. Consider what the reaction would be if a third joined in by saying all Jews were born liars.

The media would be trembling with indignation for weeks. Questions would be asked in the House and the archbishop called to account for the state of his church. There would be demonstrations, commissions of inquiry and Baron St John of Fawsley would be summoned from retirement.

But when these statements are made in British mosques and recorded by a secret camera for a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, it seems nobody takes much notice. This might have been because Undercover Mosque was broadcast three weeks ago, as the nation was obsessed with Jade Goody's behaviour on Big Brother. While Goody has the power to cause an international incident, it seems that weekly attacks on women, gays and Jews raise little interest.

I suspect the lack of outrage has a lot to do with the degree of separate development that has taken place in Britain while so many of us were living the multiculturalist dream. Whatever Muslims say, the standards that most British institutions live by simply do not apply to the missionaries of Saudi fundamentalism who, as demonstrated beyond doubt by this documentary, are attempting to poison relations between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Britain and to establish what amounts to a separate community under Sharia law.

It's important to understand that while this was not a portrait of the whole Muslim Britain, it represents a significant part which cannot be ignored. The Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, where much of the programme was filmed, has the equivalent status of a cathedral and it was here that the clerics felt able to speak in this truly shocking way. Given the events last week, it's worth remembering that one cleric in the film suggested that it would be no tragedy if a Muslim soldier serving for the British armed forces in Afghanistan was beheaded.

Actually, the impact of this film did not come from any direct revelations about terrorism, but simply from the loathing and violence of the language used by these preachers about the 'kuffar' or infidel: i.e. the rest of British society. With the exception of the BNP, there is no grouping, community or party in these islands that permits itself to express such hatred. This hatred, so often accompanied by acute sense of persecution, has become a dangerous habit and a very great threat to our entire society.

Again, I stress the majority of Muslims wish to live peacefully and integrate into British society. This was emphasised by the Policy Exchange report last week which was written by three researchers, two of whom have Muslims backgrounds. 'The majority of Muslims,' says the report, 'feel they have as much, if not more, in common with non-Muslims in Britain as with Muslims abroad.' Nearly two- thirds of Muslims would prefer to send their children to a mixed state school, compared with the 35 per cent who would prefer to use Islamic schools. And well over a third agree that one of the benefits of modern society is the freedom to criticise other people's religions or political views, a much higher proportion than I would ever have guessed.

It is a shrewd and balanced study that needs careful reading. 'By treating Muslims as a homogenous group,' it says, 'the government fails to see the diversity of opinions among Muslims.' So while 84 per cent of Muslims say they have been treated fairly in our society, 75 per cent of young Muslims want women to wear the veil, one in eight expressed some admiration for al-Qaeda and 40 per cent want to live under Sharia law.

The thing I fear most is the growth of an alternative account of reality among radicalised youth, a parallel truth almost uncontested within British Muslim society. The rest of us don't oppose it because either we think it isn't our business or we suffer from the mistaken belief that Jade Goody's alleged racism is where the real struggle lies, an error of the multicultural age.

I first encountered this other truth on the afternoon of 7 July 2005 while in Edgware Road near where one of the suicide bombers had blown up the tube. Several young Muslim men I talked to could only accept that this was a fiendish plot hatched by MI5 to blacken Islam's names. Much the same is said of the Madrid bombings or the attacks on the United States in 2001.

There is no limit to the paranoia and fantasy to be found on Islamist websites and last week we heard it from the people of Bordesley Green in Birmingham, where Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi lived before being killed on active service in Afghanistan. The initial arrest of nine people in connection with a plot to behead a serving soldier was seen as a tactic to draw attention away from Iraq and to support John Reid's campaign to extend 28-day detention without trial for terrorist suspects. Any account, however bizarre, seems preferable to the one that suggests that these individuals may actually have been plotting to torture and kill fellow Muslims. We shall see what happens, but it seems to me that a reflexive sense of persecution is beginning to disable people's reason in these communities.

Nobody owns the truth and there is rarely ever a single account of life accepted by everyone. For which reason I disagree with the EU's proposed law to make it illegal to doubt the history of recent genocides. During the 1990s, I campaigned long and hard to publicise the massacre of 8,000-plus Muslims in the town of Srebrenica, visiting the area in north east Bosnia many times, but I cannot see any good purpose being served by jailing people who deny the massacre happened. We must fight the mad and the bad with argument, reason and, most especially, ridicule, but never imprisonment.

That is not to let off the fundamentalist clerics, many of them Saudi-trained, who come to this ancient democracy to preach intolerance, the oppression of women, the killing of gays, the brainwashing and mistreatment children and the mutilation of offenders. In a week when the Catholic church has been forced to bow to new anti-discrimination laws, it seems extraordinary that the views of a man such as Abu Usamah, a violently anti-gay Muslim cleric, go unchallenged by politicians and other clerics. This fellow needs to be exposed for the bigot that he is without us getting our knickers in a twist about being anti-Muslim.

And it would help if Muslims themselves would take a lead because men like Abu Usamah are in the process of poisoning the minds of a generation with their hatred and dreadful fantasies of imposing theocratic societies in the West. It is in no one's interest to let him have the floor for long.

Islam has much to boast about, but I suggest the Saudi missionaries have nothing but trouble to offer Britain. By the admission of the Arab Human Development Report, published in Cairo in 2002, Arab societies are crippled by the lack of political freedom and knowledge. As Pervez Hoodbhoy, a celebrated Muslim physicist, commented: 'High-quality, mind-opening education is virtually non-existent. Half of Arab women cannot read or write. The entire Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth the number that Greece translates... in the thousand years since the reign of Caliph al Ma'mun, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain does in just one year.'

This is not about cultural supremacy, but about defending reasoned discourse and our liberal traditions against a group of men who wish this society nothing but ill.

[Koronto91]

Poetes,

When did you tire of spamming people's PM's with your perverted messages?

[Padishah]

[quote="Poetess"]
As Pervez Hoodbhoy, a celebrated Muslim physicist, commented: 'High-quality, mind-opening education is virtually non-existent. Half of Arab women cannot read or write. The entire Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth the number that Greece translates... in the thousand years since the reign of Caliph al Ma'mun, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain does in just one year.'
[/quote]

Really? On what statistics does Mr Hoodbhoy base this assertion? Has he personally counted all the tranlated works since the reign of Caliph Ma'mun, and then compared it to the number of books translated in Spain yearly? How many books are translated in Spain yearly?

Me thinks this is babble from an Irshad Manji clone who has a problem with Muslim Pakistani's having Nukes, but has no problem with Indian, Israeli and North Korean Nukes. Got patsy written all over him.

[quote="Poetess"]
Again, I stress the majority of Muslims wish to live peacefully and integrate into British society. This was emphasised by the Policy Exchange report last week which was written by three researchers, two of whom have Muslims backgrounds. 'The majority of Muslims,' says the report, 'feel they have as much, if not more, in common with non-Muslims in Britain as with Muslims abroad.' Nearly two- thirds of Muslims would prefer to send their children to a mixed state school, compared with the 35 per cent who would prefer to use Islamic schools. And well over a third agree that one of the benefits of modern society is the freedom to criticise other people's religions or political views, a much higher proportion than I would ever have guessed.
[/quote]

Wonderful. It is recognised that the majority are going along with the programme. We can stop the bellyaching, as the majority are on your side. If we're going to harp on about an obstinate minority, we'll be hear till Christ returns, and get nothing productive done. Unless, you'd rather just bash Muslims for the sake of it, while simulatenously crowing that the majority are fine. We'll understand your motivations then, Monsieur.

[zulaika]

[quote="Koronto91"]Poetes,

When did you tire of spamming people's PM's with your perverted messages?[/quote]

bal ma'aragtey....had iyo jeedh waxey nala dul taagantahey nonesense PM's that serve to no one's delight...and now she wants to debate us on issues...Fockin' piece of sh!t

waa qaxbad, qaxbad dhashey.

[Grant]

It's a good article on one of the most important issues of our times.

@ Poetess

[eyes-only]

I don't read The Observer