More than absolutely necessary

I love this animated Christmas greeting from The Times. I particularly enjoyed Corbyn struggling with his bow and upside-down guitar.

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Just tell me. Am I an Islamophobe? Not that I think it’s a valid term, for reasons I’ve stated many times before. However, when I read articles on websites like Gatestone Institute, I feel my reservations about Islam are well-founded and not. a. phobia. 

This piece is just one example of thousands. Denmark: Why Integration Fails. By Judith Bergman

Here’s a taster:

“In a recent survey conducted by the Danish Ministry of Foreigners and Integration (Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet), 48% of descendants of non-Western immigrants in Denmark said that they think it should be forbidden to criticize religion, according to Kristeligt Dagblad. Forty-two percent of immigrants who had lived in Denmark for three years agreed with the statement, while only 20% of ethnic Danes agreed with it.

Some people might just dismiss Judith Bergman too as an Islamophobe, for this and many other statements she (and others) have made, but this circular argument is the road to nowhere.

Melanie Phillips has got herself into trouble - the kind that emanates from people who hate Melanie Phillips more than absolutely necessary (a riff on the old joke about the definition of antisemitism.) 

Hatred of Melanie Phillips is a kind of running theme, but it came to a head (again) after her article about antisemitism appeared in the Jewish Chronicle. For once we have an article that doesn’t obfuscate and contort the facts just to avoid linking Islam with hatred of Jews. The vitriol this has piece brought upon her - and also upon Stephen Pollard for publishing it - is made even more devastating and hurtful because most of it comes from the British Jewish leadership.

My immediate reaction is to ask why the Board of Deputies and many prominent Jewish figures in the public eye (including showbiz) will stand up to fight against antisemitic bullying in the Labour Party but are too terrified to criticise ‘another religion.’ Is it a fear of being accused of ‘hypocrisy-of-the-racist-kind’? They seem afraid to delve too deeply into the quagmire of koranic-based antisemitism, too quick to equate antisemitism with Islamophobia and too easily discombobulated by semantic misinterpretations of terms like “Semite” and similarly distracting irrelevancies.

Another disturbing factor in this toxic soup is the undeniable tendency amongst groups and individuals that identify as ‘Jewish’ to call for open borders. This seems to me, yet again, as if failing to offer unlimited and unconditional sanctuary to refugees, no matter who they may be or why they need refuge would look hypocritical coming from the descendants of parents or grandparents who benefited from the (restricted) sanctuary that Britain once offered them. “And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.” 

The inescapable conclusion one has to draw from this is that a kind of tacit blasphemy law already exists. So am I an Islamophobe? And if so, what odds does it make? 

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I have been reading all manner of articles here there and everywhere about the persecution of Christians - often perpetuated or orchestrated by majority Muslim countries. The BBC reports it occasionally, in this case after the report by the Bishop of Truro, but on the whole, our national broadcaster remains pretty uninterested in this phenomenon unless, of course,  the persecution (falsely) implicates Israel somewhere in the mix. We hear a lot from the BBC about the treatment of Muslims in China, India and Myanmar, but not so much about the fate of Christians in Indonesia, Russia, Cameroon, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Egypt, China, Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Iran, the Gaza Strip or Iraq. 

Come to think of it I haven’t noticed as many of the traditional yuletide Palestine-victimhood stunts this year. Wot, no Banksy? No Lucy Winkett? No Danny Boyle? 

What’s going on? 

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Did you see the TV coverage of the Parliamentary debate yesterday? I was transfixed by those obnoxious cackles heckling Suella Breverman’s speech. I know the new Speaker is a nice fellow and a breath of fresh air, but surely letting that appallingly coarse cacophony go by without comment or reprimand was non-interventionism gawn mad. The Express suggests the culprit was Joanna Cherry; the SNP won’t confirm or deny. (Bear with me if this video migrates from Suella into another topic.)

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In stark contrast to Craig’s progressive bite-size format, I’m lumping all these observations together. You may see this as an example of ‘sublime to ridiculous’ but at least it’s diverse.

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What did you think of the way ITBB’s “Fifty Festive” became TCW’s “Fifty Shades”? I thought Craig’s holly-sprig laden format had the edge. Many thanks and congrats to Monkey Brains for the material. 

We have to face the fact that ITBB is a niche blog in comparison to TCW, which often features in the ‘Seen Elsewhere’ section of Guido Fawkes's blog. I bet that generates quite a bit of traffic.  However, (Oh no! There’s going to be a ‘however’) one of the drawbacks of attracting traffic/comments in considerable volume is that it puts your blog at greater risk of being discredited by your btl commentariat, arguably, through no fault of your own. 

I have caught a whiff of some nasty, antisemitic innuendo below the line on supposedly right-wing blogs and in various MSM comments fields. The Spectator and The Times are not immune to this. A couple of dubious names regularly comment on TCW. Until someone takes issue with these buggers they must feel that they’re amongst friends. At least we don’t get much of that here in our obscure hidey-hole.

One of our (former) commenters took offence when we questioned his use of a potentially provocative moniker, which he seemed to have reserved especially for us. While I appreciate any faith in our defiant refusal to kowtow to Politically Correct censorship, we don’t really need to be ‘discredited by association’ any more than absolutely necessary, especially as that particular commenter happily modifies his moniker to accommodate the sensibilities of TCW.

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Funny that this squeamish inability to admit that antisemitism is rife in Muslim communities is so prominent amongst the many-not-the-few. Does this have any bearing on the widespread condemnation of Tommy Robinson? After all, he hasn’t shied away from exploring the root causes of Islamic-based antisemitism and anti-Christian ‘ism’. 

Let’s face it, no-one’s going to be saying “Tommy Robinson was right all along” in the immediate future. But then, we’ve heard the Prime Minister speaking out against BDS. So one never knows. Interesting times.

The PM:
"When it comes to standing by our friends, one innovation that this Queens Speech introduces is that it stops public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries.... that with nauseating frequencies that turn out to be #Israel" pic.twitter.com/iqMHiFLrkP

— SussexFriendsofIsrael (@SussexFriends) December 19, 2019