This hooha about ladies dressed as a pillar-box has seen the BBC pushing the correlation between antisemitism in the Labour Party and “Islamophobia” in the Conservative Party. There is no real correlation; only fakes.
The Corbynites insist that the antisemitism crisis has been confected to discredit Jeremy Corbyn, while your average puzzled onlooker observes as letter-box-gate is increasingly inflated, hour by hour, for the purpose of vilifying Boris Johnson, who, according to the BBC, is cynically courting the populist vote en route to the top job.
Many believe the Labour Party’s anti-Israel rhetoric is a cynical way of courting the considerable Muslim vote en route to Number Ten.
On the one hand we have Nazi-like antisemitism in the Labour Party (emanating from the hard left and Judaeo-phobic Muslims) which is either being flatly denied by camp Corbyn, or dismissed by foolish left-wing politicians and media pundits as justifiable opposition to the policies of the Israeli government. (Which always comes under the heading “What Israel is doing”)
On the other side of the coin, it is argued that the very concept of ‘Islamophobia’ is false and that opposing or criticising Islam is not a psychological condition but a rational response to the creeping Islamisation that the BBC appears to be foisting upon us, which we have to pretend is fine or be deemed racist.
Genuine anti-Muslim bigotry may be a real phenomenon, but being flippant about pillar boxes is not it.
Why should we have to pretend that extreme Islamic garb is unremarkable? It’s ludicrous, impractical and medically inadvisable. Extreme fashions come and go; piercings, tattoos, crippling high-heeled shoes, all statements, like “Look at me. I’m a bit of an idiot.”
Wearing the Islamic, 'extreme modesty' costume in public is equally impractical, inappropriate and idiotic, but with an implicit message: “Look at me! I’m more pious than you, and unlike you, I’m virtuous and modest. You are debauched and immoral, but I am good.“
Evan Davis is a gay man, don’t forget. Why does he bat for the homophobic brigade? The way he handled Newsnight (6/8/18) is as baffling as watching while pre-Corbyn, formerly Blairite MPs silently cling to the sinking ship.
The item on letterboxgate followed a short item about antisemitism, so was asking for a BBC style link containing false moral equivalence.
“Labour isn’t the only political party that descended into hate speech. Boris Johnson wrote a piece for the Telegraph this morning about a ban on women wearing burkas and nikabs in Denmark. He came down clearly against such a ban, but in the process managed to say about Muslim women wearing them, quote. ‘ it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letterboxes. He separately said they looked like bank robbers.”
Evan leaned forward and gazed intently into the camera.
“Now you have to ask yourself how would that have sounded if something similar was said by Jeremy Corbyn, of orthodox Jews.
No! you do not have to ask yourself that. There is no equivalence. Boris was defending a legal right to wear this uniform but was acknowledging its blatant, undeniable ludicrousness. With humour.
Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, has a long and troubling record of Judaeophobic behaviour which is being unearthed in an ongoing series of revelations. If he made a disparaging remark about the appearance of religious Jews it would have a completely different and more sinister significance.
For the record, Haredi Jews do dress in eccentric garb and yes, it may indicate a wish for separateness, and it may give out some sort of “don’t come near me” vibe. It’s not as if this hasn’t been lampooned and described in flippant and derogatory terms many times by all and sundry, but have we heard defiant accusations of racism from that community? They’re probably so insular that they ain’t even bovvered.
Remember that time @JeremyCorbyn appeared on PressTV and said that the Israeli government and Israeli embassy are “very assertive towards all journalists and the BBC” and as proof of this said “there is a bias towards saying . . . Israel has a right to exist”. No? Here you go... pic.twitter.com/9Jy8l1VKHT— The Golem (@TheGolem_) August 7, 2018
 |
| My old man's a bus driver ('e wears a bus driver's 'at) |
“Well, there’s been a pretty sharp reaction to the Johnson column” continued Evan, as he brought Alex Forsyth in to reiterate the stuff outlined above. They cited such authoritative bodies as The Muslim Council of Britain and the ubiquitous Sayeeda Warsi (who was on radio 4 again this morning with Peter Hennessy) to underline their point, and as there was no-one available from the Tories, they consulted Mohammed Amin, Chair, Conservative Muslim Forum, who was duly outraged. Outraged by letterboxgate. Suffice it to say that one attribute that couldn’t be ascribed to Amin is GSOH.
Earlier on I saw on TV an animated lady in a full face veil fiercely expressing her indignation through a slit in her costume. Now you come to mention it, she did look as though she was dressed as a letterbox.
