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| Daily Mail: Reaping the Blackburn whirlwind |
| 2006-04-04 |
| no link was e-mailed from a friend in the UK The decision by the Blackburn mosque to cancel the planned visit by Condoleezza Rice is utterly unacceptable and deeply troubling. A mosque spokesman has said that it was cancelled not through dislike of Dr Rice but because of the threat by Muslim anti-war protesters to invade the mosque, thus compromising the safety of the visiting dignitaries. What an appalling state of affairs where the safety of the Foreign Secretary and a distinguished overseas visitor cannot be guaranteed against the threat of violent disorder. Aren't we all supposed to be engaged in a war against this kind of menace to life and liberty? If there are disagreements, however profound, the British way is to voice them in a civilised manner and never to resort to violence. It is essential that fanatics should not be allowed to disrupt our British way of life like this -- which, let it not be overlooked, is also pitching Muslim against Muslim -- and that we should not cave into this kind of inntimidation. But the response of both the mosque and the authorities has been worse than pusillanimous. If neither mainstream Muslims nor the British state has the courage nor the means to face down such a threat within the Foreign Secretary's very own constituency, how can either the Muslim community or the British government purport to be fighting to defeat the violent extremism that threatens us all? Even worse, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain has suggested that it was right for the visit to be cancelled because of the widespread opposition in the Muslim community to U.S. foreign policy. What insolent presumption. America is Britain's most crucial and important ally. It has played an essential part in our defence against tyranny in the past, and continues to do so. However strongly feelings may be running against the Iraq war, the fact is that British Muslims are British and should afford Dr Rice — a principal member of the government of our major ally — an elementary degree of courtesy. After all, if the US government is to be treated in this way over the Iraq war, logic dictates that these British Muslims would regard the British government with identical hostility over its own part in that war. And that is a very troubling thought indeed. It implies that some of them do not identify themselves as British but adhere to a hostile set of values. It is, however, richly ironic that this should have happened in the Foreign Secretary's constituency. For our man of straw has led the field in grovelling before religious intimidation. Only this week, in a speech at the Muslim News awards, he effectively blamed the west for Islamist violence around the world. Now the chickens of of appeasement have come home to roost in Blackburn -- their home town. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #2 The Lions of Islam vs the Chickens of Appeasement. Has a ring to it. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-04-04 19:14 |
| #1 It implies that some of them do not identify themselves as British but adhere to a hostile set of values. Give that man a prize. I would swap 'some of them' for 'most of them'. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-04-04 07:47 |