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
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| 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.
A typically balanced panel to discuss Letterboxborisgaffegate on Newsnight tonight - with two Muslims and one non-Muslim. By my reckoning, according to our always believable ONS figures, that means Muslims were over-represented on the panel by at least 30 times (in relation to UK population). Still Lord Sheikh's troll-like delivery and constant demand that the "veep" be withdrawn from Boris might have made up for that imbalance.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile is there nothing that the BBC will not "Islamasize" ??
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/45095590/indonesia-earthquake-imam-prays-on-as-tremor-rocks-bali-mosque
I did notice that - and had a little smile... don't they realise we know what they are up to?
DeleteI totally agree with Boris. Why are we becoming frightened in objecting to the Islamification of the U.K. Just because the BBC would be happy if such a thing were to happen.
ReplyDeleteWe all remember when Jack Straw asked one of his visiting constituents to remove her hijab and what a fuss that caused. Straw was perfectly within his rights in what was surely a ridiculous and ludicrous incident.
I abhor the hijab and what it stands for as I abhor religion and how people are brainwashed by it. You can imagine my shock when Channel 4 news was first fronted by a hijab wearing female. It must have been John Snow's day off. Oh how the BBC must be itching to copy Channel 4 News and do the very same thing.
What women have to go through to bring us all into this world is truly amazing. But to have them covered in head to toe in that ridiculous black body covering monstrosity the hijab, is frankly a form of imprisonment.
I see that BBC Bake Off winner Nadia, who received a lot of hate over her wearing of the hijab, well she's now watered her hijab down to what now looks like a more pleasing Jamaican head scarfe.
Yes you used an interesting phrase here yesterday by saying 'The BBC's aggressive Diversity Policy being way over the top.' I couldn't agree more
And yet looking at the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers it appears that generally the media are not with Boris on this one. Why is that? Have we all been brainwashed by the BBC into thinking what is right and wrong now.
In a way I wish that this excellent blog was called 'Is the BBC Biased... Is The Pope Catholic.'
John...North London.
One slight note of dissent...the BBC is NOT in favour of the Islamification of the UK, anymore than Theresa the Appeaser is...but the people who lead the BBC, the Guardian, the Civil Service and the Conservative Party are people who think they are very clever and know better than us...they think that by a policy of "repressive toleration" to use a phrase from the 60s, they can win big in the long term...they think Islam will eventually crack and submit to modernism, as the Catholic Church did in the late 20th century.
DeleteThey are all - whether Chukka Umuna, Yvette Cooper, Stella Creasy, Ken Clarke, Anna Soubry, Philip Hammond, or Theresa May - generally agreed on "The Project"...arriving at some distant point where there will be general equality of outcome between men and women, between races and across the social divide, where there will be no strict gender division, where British culture will be subsumed under a much more vibrant world culture, where the traditional family will be irrelevant, where religion will be a strictly private matter that has no bearing on public policy, where national borders will be abolished and where there will be harmony across the globe. Yes, it is a utopian vision, but that is what they are working towards whether slowly or quickly.
So they have given the keys to the driver of the tank of Islam to help in the destruction of Western civilisation to clear the ground for Utopia. At which point they expect the driver to hand the keys back?
DeleteI think you are right MB. But the “The Project” as you describe it, is even more terrifying than ideas about Islamification. Hasn’t the terrible history of the twentieth century not taught us about the devastating consequences of the belief in Utopias?
DeleteI remember Jonathan Ross making the exact same 'letterbox' comment years ago on his Saturday morning BBCR2 show. His quip, quite funny at the time, went unnoticed as a part of the BBC output. It was some time later after Ross played his practical joke upon Andrew Sachs that he was temporarily 'out of favour' - just until the fuss died down.
ReplyDeleteSee Guido for the letterbox joke having been used on HIGNFY and in the Grauniad. Boris seems to have been signalled out for islamophobia because he is not in the BBC elite camp, (though I would class him as privileged) and he poses a threat to them and their plans for a soft Brexit.
DeleteThe BBC are using one of their favourite unattributable phrases on this to make politicised comments:
ReplyDeleteSome say ...
This is as absurd as the furore over the use of the word swarm. Has Boris Johnson compared burka wearers with Nazis or accused them of being part of a worldwide conspiracy? Putting aside his rather sensible point that outlawing the wearing of burkas is not the answer, he has merely used a rather a colourful description - in fact a rather apt one. Was it really offensive? I think a great many people would agree with him. Burkas do indeed look like letterboxes. But there is now a hierarchy of offence in which certain groups have more right to be offended than others. I’m afraid I can’t remember the programme, but I heard this very point forcefully put forward by some dopey academic quite recently on Radio 4. As an older white male I’m at the bottom of the pile. Anyone can offend me with impunity.
ReplyDeleteBut back to burkas. Only the most self-flagellating liberal would be happy to have a complicated surgical procedure explained to them by a doctor wearing a burka, or their children taught by a burka wearing teacher. Yet somehow we can only describe burkas in positive terms or risk the wrath of the Muslim community and the idiot left. Can you imagine the reaction of militant feminists and the whole motley collection Beeboids and Guardianistas if some sect on the fundamentalist margins of Christianity were preventing women from going out in public uncovered? Why are they silent now?
But as you have indicated the main issue is why have the BBC, at this particular time, given such prominence to what is basically a non-story? I think we know the answer.
What's wrong with swarm anyway? Our language uses metaphor all the time. You only have to hear the weather forecasters on the BBC or any TV station with their weird vocabulary. Clouds bubbling up and rain sinking south? Going back to swarms, I don't think you are allowed to refer to hordes, either.
DeleteNor influxes...indeed anything that might describe what's happening is outlawed.
DeleteI keep thinking about the language. Why do we or (leave me out; I refuse) why does one obediently use the language of phobia, adopted by some group or other? Phobias are awful things. Agoraphobia, say, causes real mental terror and suffering, seriously disrupting the life of a person and their family. Isn't it trivialising to use that word of not liking or criticising or actually opposing Islam instead of simply calling it anti Islam? And what is the fascination with words for women's Islamic garb of the overall covering /letterbox kind? And yes it is ridiculous to hear someone on the BBC, Mishal Husain possibly, trying to liken it to those Jews who wear black hats and curls. They're nothing like. And there is nothing else comparable either.
ReplyDeleteHeard that Warsi interview with Hennessy. Wasn't it revealing in many ways, not least how desperately keen Cameron was to get her into government? And who is going to believe that posing at No 10 wearing traditional dress was because it was comfortable in warm weather? Not me anyway.
Warsi, the BBC and Theresa May all suffer from Anglophobia and Trumpophobia.
DeleteAh yes, there is that: the phobia word can be turned back on folk. Good point.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC continues to stoke the fires in which it hopes to see Boris 'punished.' Unless I am much mistaken, the vast majority of the population agrees with him, so the Beeb is shooting itself in the foot. Have you noticed, by the way, how carefully the BBC is choosing its photos of niquab-wearing women? - several show, not the 'regulation' letter slot, but an oval about 3" deep, revealing a pair of heavily made-up eyes & considerably more flesh than the ayatollahs would approve of; I strongly suspect some of these shots were pinched from a 'Vogue' photo-shoot.
ReplyDeleteMake that 'niqab'.
Delete"Nazi-like antisemitism": so Labour have made it illegal for Jews to work, kill them in the street, and on an industrial scale in concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteEither I missed that - or you're in denial about what the Nazis did.