Rod Liddle defends the right of Muslim women to wear the veil! He writes: “Surely if there is one area where immigrant communities should be allowed do as they like it is in the clothes they choose to wear.” Could it be that Rod has suffered a sudden attack of progressive politics? Nah. He continues: “Attack the ideology behind the veil, the Islamic attitude towards women – not the veil itself. But the PM can’t do that because he’s already attempted to force all of us, by law, to respect that ideology, regardless of its misogyny (and, one might add, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc).”
Category Archives: Multiculturalism
Fascists applaud Blair speech on multiculturalism
“The Prime Minister’s latest utterance on the thorny issue of race relations looks like he has been watching copies of speeches made by Nick Griffin, BNP Leader and he looks as if he is backing a motion which was passed by a large majority at the BNP Annual Conference, two weeks ago, in which is was agreed that public wearing of Islamic headdress which covers much of the face, thereby preventing identification, should be proscribed….
“It all sounds much too little, much too late to make any real difference but at least Blair has vindicated the message of the BNP, a message gaining ground in areas where New Labour has abandoned its former support base.”
‘Has Blair seen the multi-culturalism light?’ asks Torygraph
“The most important feature of Tony Blair’s speech was an admission for which we have waited far too long: that there is a connection between Islamic extremism and political correctness. Muslims who hate this country are nourished by the constant assertions that our nation’s history is a catalogue of shame; indeed, many of them will have been taught this since their first history lessons in a British primary school….
“Multi-culturalism portrays itself as a means of celebration: in fact, it is an invitation to all minorities to complain, loudly and persistently, about their victimhood. And, when this self-pitying worldview comes into contact with religious fanaticism, the results can be – literally – explosive. That is presumably what Mr Blair means when he says that the events of July 7 last year threw the whole concept of multi-cultural Britain ‘into sharp relief’.
“The Prime Minister and his close colleagues are plainly fed up with the lumbering grievance-mongers of the race relations industry: in the fight between Ken Livingstone and Trevor Phillips, reforming head of the Commission for Racial Equality, they are cheering loudly for the latter. Good for them.
“True, the ideology that Mr Blair now decries has been advanced chiefly by his own party. Given his readiness to apologise for ancient wrongs, it would perhaps have been appropriate to acknowledge this more recent mistake. Still, we are delighted that Mr Blair has come round to the view that this newspaper has always held, and that our countrymen have clung to through decades of official bullying and hectoring.”
Editorial in the Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2006
Adopt our values or stay away, says Blair
Tony Blair formally declared Britain’s multicultural experiment over yesterday as he told immigrants they had “a duty” to integrate with the mainstream of society. In a speech that overturned more than three decades of Labour support for the idea, he set out a series of requirements that were now expected from ethnic minority groups if they wished to call themselves British.
These included “equality of respect” – especially better treatment of women by Muslim men – allegiance to the rule of law and a command of English. If outsiders wishing to settle in Britain were not prepared to conform to the virtues of tolerance then they should stay away….
Mr Blair’s volte face – just eight years ago he championed multiculturalism – was the culmination of a long Labour retreat from the cause. In recent weeks, Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly, John Reid and Gordon Brown have all played their part in a concerted revision of the Cabinet’s stand which began in earnest after the July 7 suicide bombings in London last year. Mr Blair, speaking in Downing Street, said the diversity of cultures in Britain should still be celebrated but the tone of his speech was against the ideology that became known as multiculturalism.
Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2006
See also the Times, 9 December 2006
‘Funds crackdown on religious groups’
Remember Ruth Kelly’s threat that the government was considering withdrawing financial aid from organisations like the Muslim Council of Britain and transferring its backing to more amenable outfits like the Sufi Muslim Council? Well Tony Blair pursues the same theme in a speech today at a Downing Street event. Under the headline “Funds crackdown on religious groups”, the Daily Star reports:
“Tony Blair has announced a crackdown on public funding for religious and racial groups as he set out plans to improve community integration. The Prime Minister warned that taxpayers’ cash had been too easily handed out to organisations ‘tightly bonded around religious, racial or ethnic identities’. In future they would have to prove they aimed to promote community cohesion and integration, he said.
“‘Very good intentions got the better of us,’ he said in a lecture at Downing Street. ‘We wanted to be hospitable to new groups. We wanted, rightly, to extend a welcome and did so by offering public money to entrench their cultural presence. Money was too often freely awarded to groups that were tightly bonded around religious, racial or ethnic identities. In the future, we will assess bids from groups of any ethnicity or any religious denomination, also against a test, where appropriate, of promoting community cohesion and integration.’
“He also ruled out any introduction of Islamic Sharia in the UK and called on mosques that excluded the voice of women to ‘look again at their practices’. The suicide bombings in London on July 7 last year had thrown the whole concept of a multicultural Britain ‘into sharp relief’, the Prime Minister said.”
The full text of Blair’s speech can be consulted on the 10 Downing Street website.
‘Don’t come here if you don’t like it’
Tony Blair today issued a strong warning to ethnic minorities that if they do not like Britain, they should not come here. The Prime Minister said “British tolerance” was the hallmark of the country and was a non-negotiable part of living here.
He used a keynote speech on ethnic minority relations to wade into the debate on multiculturalism for the first time, and promised a crackdown on groups who refuse to integrate into the British way of life.
Speaking at a lecture in Downing Street, he said: “London is perhaps the most popular capital city in the world today partly because it is hospitable to so many different nationalities, mixing, working, conversing with each other. But we protect this attitude by defending it. Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain, Britain. So conform to it; or don’t come here.”
This is London, 8 December 2006
In fact, if you read Blair’s speech, you’ll find that his remarks were almost exclusively directed against Muslims.
In defence of faith-based identity
An excellent piece by Madeleine Bunting arguing, against Amartya Sen, that the rise within minority communities of organisations based on faith rather than ethnicity is not the product of some top-down plot implemented by the government but has rather arisen as the result of bottom-up spontaneous self-organisation.
Woman in veil ‘sparks fury’
Channel 4 has sparked fury by planning an “alternative” Christmas Day message delivered by a Muslim woman in a veil.
Radical Khadija Ravat, who lectures on Islam, will appear on its screens while the Queen is giving her traditional afternoon speech on the other channels. Mrs Ravat’s talk is expected to focus on the heated debate about the veil following the recent case of teacher Aishah Azmi losing her battle to wear it in the classroom.
Evangelical lobby group Christian Voice’s Stephen Green said the alternative message will “put people’s backs up”. He added: “The niqab is a veil of separation between Muslims and the indigenous Christian community. This will expose multi-culturalism for what it is – a bias against the Christian population.”
Tory MP Philip Davies, who represents Shipley, West Yorkshire, said: “It seems Channel 4 is being provocative towards Christians. I would recommend listening to what the Queen has to say. Kick Channel 4 into the long grass. You would think that for one day of the year, during what is still just about a Christian festival, they could leave political correctness alone.”
Mrs Ravat, 33, a radical Islamist from Leicester, spoke out about the veil after ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declared it made community relations more difficult.
Daily Express, 6 December 2006
Call me an old sceptic, but given Channel 4’s past record in stoking up Islamophobia you suspect this is the exactly reaction they set out to provoke.
The old ‘multiculturalism causes terrorism’ myth
Commenting on the report “Migrants face new ‘Britishness’ test” the Telegraph takes the opportunity to repeat the usual right-wing, anti-multiculturalist nonsense about the causes of 7/7:
“The terrorist bombings of London’s transport system on 7 July, 2005, and their failed sequel two weeks later, brought a sharp public realisation that Britain’s attitude to absorbing immigrants needed to be rethought.
“For innocent civilians to be murdered in their scores in an indiscriminate attack was appalling, but even more shocking was the revelation that these acts had been planned by British-born Muslims: young men who had been raised and educated in this country, but clearly did not feel themselves to be a part of it. In the analysis and debate that followed these traumatic incidents, the scale of the problem became evident.
“Large communities of migrants were living in virtual cultural isolation in Britain. Often making no attempt to learn English, or to accept the national identity that they had adopted, these immigrant groups had been left to their own devices.
“The policy of multi-culturalism, which saw itself as tolerant and benign, had in effect encouraged them to remain tied to their old national or ethnic loyalties, rather than to participate in mainstream British life. The consequence of this failure to assimilate was a pernicious alienation that bred underachievement and a sense of grievance.”
Editorial in Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2006
‘Brave Trevor makes so much sense on race’
“There are quite a few useful rules of thumb in life. If something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is too good to be true. If a book is still boring after 100 pages, it’s not going to improve. And if Ken Livingstone violently disapproves of someone, the chances are that they are an admirable person. The London mayor keeps company with Jew-hating, gay-baiting Muslim extremists such as Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi. But he can’t bear the black, liberal chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips. Which is odd, as Phillips has so many brave and sensible things to say….
“It would have been easy for the chairman of the CRE to stay in the comfort zone of ‘diversity policy’ and the unquestioning defence of minority rights. Instead, Phillips supported Jack Straw’s expression of concern about Muslim women covering their faces in his constituency surgery. He criticised ‘so-called Muslim leaders’ for attacking Straw: ‘They were overly defensive and need to accept that in a diverse society we should be free to make polite requests of this kind.’ And he called on the teaching assistant Aishah Azmi to drop her discrimination case after she was suspended for refusing to remove her veil during lessons. Most of all, Phillips wants us to be able to talk about race freely, to bust the last taboo….
“Forget Ken Livingstone: Phillips talks a lot of sense. And it is not just ‘so-called Muslim leaders’ who should be listening to him. We all should.”
Mary Ann Sieghart in the Times, 30 November 2006