What is called Thought for the Day

Before I heard today’s news I was going to write about Ed West’s piece in the Spectator. Pegida and the Left’s morality play.

I mean he’s only saying what we’ve been saying for years, but perhaps more eloquently. I mean he is a professional writer so I’d bloody well hope so. 

(Kudos to Nick Robinson for articulating something I’ve been on about for years 

“I am not, though, required to be impartial between democracy and the alternatives.” I say true impartiality is the prerogative of the inanimate object.)

I'll paraphrase some of what Ed West says:

• The MSM gives a distorted account of multiculturalism. (Tick)
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• The Left  has always been a morality play in which the protagonist (the white liberal) rescued the stranger/underdog (Muslim immigrants) from the hostile prejudices of the conservative. (Tick)
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• The Left can’t admit that ‘new Europeans’ (Muslim immigrants) might “bring their own prejudices with them”. (Tick)
• 
  
• German/European guilt drives hostility to xenophobia and nationalism. Tick.
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• Diversity has become a religion. (Tick)
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• A liberal immigration policy that entails importing lots of illiberal people will necessarily mean the end of liberalism. (Tiiccckkk)

All these ticks. Said it all before. In the light of today’s atrocity in Paris all those ticks represent a very  regretful schadenfreude.

 So why is Angela Merkel still insisting that Pegida protesters are basically right wing racist Nazis? ‘No to Pediga!’ I noticed that Angela was careful to include a somewhat hollow sounding ‘No to antisemitism” in her plea. But really. When you’re defending Islam, which has antisemitism deeply embedded within, how sincere can you be with your ‘noes to antisemitism’? Or how naive.

The Guardian was keen to impress that the anti Pegida marchers far outnumbered the pro-Pedigas. So why, one has to wonder, was the BBC so full of the Pegida protests all day yesterday? You’d think the BBC would have concentrated more upon the backlash, as is their wont.

Of course after today’s atrocity, we’ll have to wait and see how long it takes before the backlash question takes over.

Priorities!

Why one might wonder, am I restating the obvious, which has little bearing on the BBC? Oh yes, I almost forgot. 

Did you hear it? Did you hear it this morning? Thought for the Day. It was a corker. 

“Lights out in Cologne” he called it. As soon as you heard the title you knew what was coming. You knew the gist, but couldn’t know the full extent of the deluded misguided Lefty sermonising until you heard the text.

So I’m going to flesh it out. 

“Not so long ago I stood on the steps of Cologne Cathedral in Germany and experienced the poignancy of being somewhere that had in recent history endured dreadful human suffering.”

That’s right, evoke the holocaust to associate yourself with compassion and righteousness. 

“Cologne is one of the cities to have seen growing protests against what is called the “Islamisation of the West”.

“What is called the Islamisation of the West”  This new-fangled, puzzling thing that, being a bishop, I don’t quite understand; and what, pray,  are the Beatles?

“What began as a small demonstration by a couple of hundred from the east German right wing has grown into marches of up to 18,000 people. And the majority of these people can’t be brushed off as wild neo-Nazis, although such people are deeply involved in shaping and leading the protests.”

He knows what “The East German Right Wing” are then! They’re not “what is called the East German right wing. They are in fact, undoubtedly and make no mistake, renowned Nazi trouble-makers, which bishops like himself know all about. They’re the wild neo-Nazis who threaten civilization and community cohesion, and they’re the leaders and shapers of these protests. 

“What is challenging about this phenomenon is how irrational some of the comment by protesters has been.”

Irrational is a word I’d avoid if I were you, Bishop. 

“According to some, all Muslims are to be seen as a threat to the blonde daughters of civilised Germans.”

Yes, there was indeed that soundbite. You know, the lady who said, rather pointedly, that she had four blonde-haired daughters. Let’s hope she was alluding to the disrespect ‘the immigrant’ has clearly and tragically shown to the likes of her infidel offspring rather than the supremacy of the Aryan race, which was the elephant-trap into which she stumbled. I’d prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt, but even if not - who’s to say she was representing the real Pergida?

(Get it? I’m sure you do. It’s an allusion to what is and what is not truly representative of the real you-know-what.)

“In language that will sound familiar on this side of the Channel, Germany is being swamped by Muslims – despite clear evidence in some of these places that the numbers of Muslims is very low.”

Bishop my dear, in this day and age - the internet, Instagram and the like, that’s hardly relevant. Everyone can see what’s going on these days. You’re a Tweeter yourself are you not?  It’s to do with disproportionate demands, refusal to integrate, backward cultural practices and shooting people.

“Why is it that in such matters perception is so much more powerful than reality?”

Right back at you Bishop Baines! 

“And why is it that the fires of fear are so easy to stoke when people generally begin to feel a bit insecure economically – or that we often feel the need to turn inward and focus our fear or resentment on the ‘outsider’?” 

Why indeed, and why the scare quotes round ‘outsider’? Even you must see, if you know the first thing about Islam, that they (Muslim immigrants) are the outsider, and the most religious, devout ones choose to remain so, deliberately and on purpose.

“ This is not to question the power of perception or the need for proper (and informed) debates about immigration and culture – at every level and from political leaders.”

Well. Au contraire. It absolutely is. That’s exactly what it looks like. Dismissing the Pegida protesters as mere Neo-Nazis is just that.

“But, it is to dig beneath the presenting rationalization for such protests and ask if all is what it seems to be – or what we would like it to be. Genuine motivation is not always immediately obvious, especially where fear or discomfort are concerned.”

Then start digging. It’s high time. 

“Read the Bible and you find ethnic cleansing, dreadful brutality and fear of those who are different. Yet, read the same Bible and you get injunctions to welcome the outsider, give hospitality to the asylum-seeker, feed the hungry, love the enemy as well as the neighbour, and drop the fear.”

Bible or no. You have to fear those who are intent on harming you. The West has already welcomed the outsider, given hospitality to the asylum seeker, fed the hungry and by God, even tried to love the wretched enemy. I mean. Open your eyes.

And the message is clear: we have a choice how to behave: be driven by fear and insecurity into suspicion and hatred of the other, or take the risk of dancing to a different tune.

Tell that to ‘what is called’ the outsider.  I hope the atrocity that has unfolded today in France has, if nothing else, opened a few eyes.