Shhh - don't mention Islam

Shhh                                                                        Source: The Catholic Thing

The so-called 'religion of peace' looks anything but peaceful as refugees attempt to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban swept to power. They promise an 'inclusive government' that is compatible with Islamic law so the sting is in the tail particularly for women and girls based on previous experience of Taliban rule. 

Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility for the latest slaughter of innocents outside Kabul airport. The suicide bomber will not have regarded his own death as suicide but as having been slain in battle as a warrior for Islam with the promise of 72 virgins in the after life.

The killer's victims were mainly Muslims legitimised by rival interpretations of their faith.

Mass slaughter by Islamists is not an isolated event. 

In June BBC News reported that armed men killed at least 160 people in an attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso. The fight against West Africa's Islamist insurgency was reported to be at a critical stage. 

In January BBC News reported that "around 49 died and 17 were injured in the village of Tchombangou, while another 30 died in Zaroumdareye". Several violent incidents in Africa's Sahel region had been carried out by 'militant groups'.

Currently, Christians in Nigeria are living in fear of another attack according to House of Lords member Baroness Caroline Cox. "There are reports on the ground that Islamic terrorists are planning an attack on Jos, capital of the Plateau state in central Nigeria", she said.

Whether or not this attack takes place or when there other atrocities in Africa, based on previous experience it is unlikely that there will much if any media attention. Hence the scale of the problem is not as obvious as it should be.

According to Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2019 "at least 33,769 Islamist terrorist attacks took place worldwide. They caused the deaths of at least 167,096 people. We can also say that Islamist terrorist attacks account for 18.8% of all attacks worldwide, but that they are responsible for 39.1% of the lives lost due to terrorism; or that, during the years studied, there has been an intensification of this violence and that the deadliest period is the most recent: from 2013 onwards, in our opinion, Islam has become the main cause (63.4%) of deaths due to terrorism in the world. We identify and quantify operating methods and targets. The vision of the phenomenon improves, the image becomes clearer. In this way, we show that the majority of the victims of Islamist terrorism are Muslims (91.2%).

The threat of Islamist attacks greatly disrupted our lives long before the arrival of Covid-19. 

As The Catholic Thing put it in Religion and the Re-classification of Islam:

"Air travel is not what it used to be. In the 1980s and 1990s, you could accompany your relatives or friends to the terminal, sit and talk with them at the gate while waiting for boarding, give your kisses and hugs, and leisurely head back for home. Teenagers and some “20-somethings” will have no such memories. Now it’s the baleful experience of security lines, searches, removing stuff for the metal detectors, and full body pat-downs for people who – like me – have metal implants.

"Mosques are being built everywhere. Saudi Arabia has funded the building of thousands of mosques throughout the world and has supplied massive funding for the more than 2000 mosques in America. Christian churches are forbidden in Saudi Arabia – and are being destroyed in Egypt, Pakistan, Syria, Nigeria and elsewhere, where their existence was previously allowed.

"And we learn of the unusual “cultural” proclivities of Islam – execution of apostates and homosexuals, ideological and legal relegation of females to inferior status, female genital mutilation, divorce without appeal, rape without defense, honor killings, stoning for adultery, etc."

There is much to fear from a such threatening, political ideology. 

Another member of the House of Lords, Lord Pearson, was condemned as Islamophobic merely for discussing the fear of Islam.

Here is an extract from what Lord Pearson said as published in Hansard and reproduced in the Archbishop Cranmer blog:
 "So I submit that it is not phobic to fear Islam, which is responsible for by far the most violence on our planet today. However, if we so much as even try to learn and talk about Islam, we are immediately called Islamophobic by the Muslim Council of Britain, Tell MAMA and other suspect organisations, yet we can say what we like about any of the world’s other religions and nobody turns much of a hair." 

Free speech is under threat. 

Church and state leaders who embrace Islam as a religion of peace should take note.

What is truth?

This video is the subject of the 2016 'Featured Post' highlighted in the Right Hand Column: If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. 

The presentation concludes that it should not be hard to tell a 5' 9" white guy that he is not a 6' 5" Chinese woman. But clearly it is. Why?

Three years on there are increasing reports of intimidation and exclusion for stating what previously would have been regarded as obvious.

Sexing at birth is a normal part of life. One's classification as male or female is duly recorded on one's birth certificate. With gender fluidity, people identifying as genderqueer or non-binary express feelings at variance with their birth classification which everyone else is expected to agree with regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Defying reason it is cultural Marxism gone mad.

So far the only 'men' who have had babies are women who have retained their wombs after transitioning but the success of womb transplants has led some to claim the breakthrough could open up pregnancy to all sexes.

While a tiny minority of people fall into this category the demands of the trendy left are having negative effects on free speech with charges of hate crime for voicing any contrary opinions or simply saying what previously would have been regarded as obvious.

Recently a leading tax expert was sacked by a Think tank for using 'offensive language' after she tweeted that 'men cannot change into women' in a transgender row. In an article and a series of more than 100 tweets she rallied against government proposals allowing people to self-identify as a particular gender.

Jordan Peterson, described as one of the "the greatest thinkers of our time", has been branded a racist, misogynist and an Islamophobe for warning against the dangers of "identity politics and raving ideologues because they are divisive and not grounded in reason or fact".

The government sacked its housing adviser Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton after he appeared to repeat antisemitic statements and denied Islamophobia was a problem. His reported remarks had been taken out of context.

A Cambridge University social scientist Noah Carl has been dismissed after administrators appeared to capitulate to a mob of activists (students and academics) who mounted a campaign to have the scholar fired for “problematic” research. Not because his research is fraudulent or inaccurate, but because "there’s a risk it could lead indirectly to bad actors promoting views that could incite racial or religious hatred". It matters not whether the scholarship is true; the critical thing is whether it upsets people, Quillette reported.

Australian rugby star Israel Folau was pronounced guilty of a "high-level breach of Rugby Australia’s professional players' code of conduct" for expressing his Christian beliefs based on the Bible, eg,1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

Christian Concern has issued a Prayer Alert for Felix Ngole who was expelled from his social work course for saying on Facebook that homosexual practice and other behaviours are sinful. Christian Concern warn that "Court transcripts expose extent of threat to Christian freedoms".

Double standards prevail. The Saatchi Gallery covered up artworks after Muslim visitors' complaints while ‘The Holy Virgin Mary’ by Chris Ofili, an Africanised painting of the mother of Christ that rests on two big slabs of elephant dung was displayed in 1997 despite complaints.

When Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture in 2006 in which he explored the historical and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between violence and faith, he was forced to issue an apology in response to the angry reactions.

'Correct' knowledge or belief. What is truth today?

Nonpcopinionophobia

Left: Hundreds of people protested against the veil ban on Wednesday Source: BBC/AFP  

Right: Mary McAleese at Dublin Pride with husband Martin (right), son Justin (second left) and his husband Fionan Source: BBC/PA

"Denmark has got it wrong. Yes, the burka is oppressive and ridiculous – but that's still no reason to ban it." - Boris Johnson. The Telegraph (£)

Boris Johnson wrote his article in the Telegraph after the first woman was charged in Denmark for wearing niqab after the Denmark veil ban was introduced.

The law does not mention burkas and niqabs by name but says "anyone who wears a garment that hides the face in public will be punished with a fine".

Nevertheless, the Guardian headlined the event: Boris Johnson's burqa remarks 'fan flames of Islamophobia', says MP.

In the article Boris Johnson is accused of “dog whistle” Islamophobia by a former Conservative chair, Lady Sayeeda Warsi, who said the lack of action by the party over Johnson’s comments showed it was “business as usual.”

Sayeeda Warsi had previously called on the Conservative party to launch a “full independent inquiry” into Islamophobia in the party and warned the Tories were "pursuing a politically damaging policy of denial about the problem in its own ranks".

Back in 2010 she spoke out about what she sees as the rise of Islamaphobia in Britain. By coincidence in 2010 Sayeeda Warsi was "named one of the world's '500 Most Influential Muslims' by Middle East think tank the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. She also topped the UK's Muslim women power list."

Also getting in on the controversy, "Labour demanded that the Conservative chair, Brandon Lewis, refer the former foreign secretary for mandatory equalities training, amid renewed calls for the party to open an independent investigation into Islamophobia in the party.

"In a letter to Lewis, the shadow equalities minister, Naz Shah, said Johnson’s comments were “ugly and naked Islamophobia” and said Lewis should abide by his word to give Tory members diversity training to combat Islamophobia."

While many people will agree that the Denmark veil ban is reasonable, Boris Johnson did not but he is accused of making Islamophopbic remarks.

Honest opinions are no longer acceptable unless they conform to the latest politically correct dictums so people at large are deterred from saying what they feel for fear of being condemned as Islamophobic regardless of the facts.

In 2011 I blogged under the heading Islamophobia:
"phobia /pho·bia/ (fo´be-ah) a persistent, irrational, intense fear of a specific object, activity, or situation (the phobic stimulus), fear that is recognized as being excessive or unreasonable by the individual himself. There is nothing irrational, excessive or unreasonable about the fear of Islam. In her University of Leicester speech today the Tory Party Chairman, Baroness Warsi, raises the now familiar cry of Islamophobia, warning that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice. If it is a question of either we would have to choose "extremist" because at the root of the Islamic ideology is a belief that Islam is supreme and that any means, including lying (taqiyya), are legitimate weapons to achieve world domination."

Constant claims of 'Islamophobia' regardless of the context is a device used to raise a political ideology to a level beyond criticism while religions such as Christianity are under constant threat. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this phenomenon is its contradiction with feminist ideals of 'equality'.

Feminists have used similar tactics in the Anglican Church with their constant cries of misogyny and homophobia. After attacking Western Anglicanism their attention has turned to the Roman Catholic Church which is threatened from within as well as from outside.

 Irish Church must confront issues to avoid 'decline into irrelevance' shouts the Tablet headline. "The Church needs to confront its teachings on issues like celibacy, female ordination, its theology on sexuality and its hierarchical structure, otherwise it will continue to decline into irrelevance, Fr Kevin Hegarty has warned."

In an obvious nod towards secularism he said, “People began to lose confidence in an institution whose teaching on this subject was so out of sync with their lived experience.”

Mary McAleese who was the Irish President of from 1997 to 2011 has condemned the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality as "evil" and was "hopeful the Pope would change the church's position on the issue".

No doubt the former President was influenced by that fact that she was the first recipient of the Vanguard Award at the Gaze LGBT film festival in Dublin. In June she became the first former Irish president to take part in the Dublin Pride parade when she marched with her son Justin and his husband Fionan.

If the Roman Catholic Church follows the example of Western Anglicanism, what hope is there for Christianity in the West?

Free speech must be maintained. If people disagree they must defend their position. Fair comment must not be silenced by unwarranted charges of phobias.

Destructive and outrageous

Rachel Treweek was the first female bishop to sit in the House of Lords     Source: Christian Today

The Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, has blasted the presence in Church House, Westminster,  of Jules Gomes, formerly a priest at St Mary's on the Harbour on the Isle of Man, who addressed a group of supporters of the former Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, who is accused of historical sex abuse.

She said it is 'outrageous' that a disgraced priest banned from ministry has been allowed to speak at the Church of England's headquarters. There is another side to that story in the following video (5 mins in).

Choosing to ignore our great British tradition of freedom of speech, bishop Treweek said "I think it is outrageous that he [Jules Gomes] has been allowed to speak at Church House under that title ['Rebuilding bridges'] when his writings demonstrate that he is not up for living in reconciliation or relationship.'

Her objection was that Gomes had been "invited to speak under that 'wonderful title' whereas all his writings about me and other bishops who are women are being destructive and destroying bridges not building them".

So in her view opposition on theological grounds to the ordination of women is "destructive"! Treweek was not only priested but consecrated bishop in an organisation which claims to belong to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church while adopting its own rules to permit the ordination of women against the wishes of the vast majority of Christians, including most Anglicans. The decision was a huge impediment to unity. That was destructive.

Not content with their members being admitted to the priesthood and the episcopate, the feminist organisation Women and the Church (WATCH) has persistently tried to undermine the process which enabled them to be ordained. That is outrageous.

Digging their own grave

                                                                  Photo: Church in Wales

Saturday witnessed an unexpected milestone, over 900,000 page views for the Ancient Briton blog which was started in 2010 after some friendly banter about the way the world was going. My aim was to air the grievances we had discussed while attempting to avoid being left behind by the grandchildren as technology advanced. Clearly I am not alone. My thanks to all the commentators who have added their views in support or to the contrary.

Inadvertently a platform has been provided for free speech for Anglicans who have become marginalised in their own Church as ambitious clerics drive their own liberal agenda. "If you don't like it you can leave" used to be the response to traditionalists. For those who have remained their resolve is being tested further.

Also on Saturday the Church Growth Modelling blog published Conversion to the Diversity Ideology
Part 2 - Justification of Hypotheses. Here is an extract:

The Church in Wales is an Anglican church, and like many UK denominations, is indicating decline to extinction [8].  Last year the attempts by its leadership to introduced same-sex marriage were stalled by significant opposition from diocesan representatives. Since then the bishops of the church have issued a pastoral statement that indicates the Church’s conversion to Diversity in the public sphere [9].

Notably there was the display of the rainbow flag as the identification badge (C).  The unenlightened laggards within the church are subtly discredited with statements like  “the Church is not yet ready to accept same-sex marriage” (D). There is a general confession of, and apology for, past damage the church has done to gay people (B). Though the actual offences, and the people involved, are not identified, leaving the reader to re-write history for themselves in order to make sense of the statement (A).

We 'unenlightened laggards' are regularly condemned from on high for holding a contrary opinion to the new Diversity Ideology. "Lacking in love and understanding" we are the new sinners according to devotees of the Queer Bible, yet these are the people who will have "killed off" the Church within a generation. 

It's a funny old world which is why I started blogging in 2010 and have continued to do so despite the many gagging attempts of people who have no interest in free speech from the top down.

Quartet

                                                                                                                        Source: BBC Films

Amongst the burgeoning diet of murder, violence and intimidation on TV, last evening saw the screening of the BBC's comedy drama, Quartet, a delightful film with a happy ending for a refreshing change. Some of the best comedy lines are repeated in a Review here.

Under the cover of senility the cast are allowed to say what they think without fear of PC dictatorship, a spirit which helped us get through difficult times when Nazism was our greatest threat.

What a shame we have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. Free speech is constantly being challenged. In our Universities special interest groups seek to determine the agenda while on the national stage Donald Trump is in trouble for expressing his opinion. Parliament will now discuss whether he should be banned from UK after a petition gained enough signatures to force a debate while radicals continue to pour out their hate of what is left of our democracy.

One of the most effective antidotes to hate is ridicule but such humour along with free speech is being suppressed for political gain. That is the problem MPs need to consider.

Meanwhile, escape the gloom:

LGB / T

I have been taken to task for being homophobic because I do not support same sex marriage so I was pleased to see this video which strikes back at homosexuals who like to claim that love justifies everything, misquoting the Bible for their own ends. The interviewer claims to be 'normal' because he is gay and 'married', a concept hotly contested by Milo Yiannopoulos, a 'conservative' gay who receives "really poisonous, vitriolic nastiness" from other gays and bomb threats from feminists for his views which is becoming typical of the behaviour of special interest groups as they try to ban or shout down speakers with whom they disagree.

My thanks to Breitbart for this informative video although the piece was headed "I AM SO DONE WITH THE TRANS OUTRAGE BRIGADE: WHY I’M SUPPORTING ‘DROP THE T’". The transgender community it seems is irritating the gay community to such an extent that there is a call for a complete break.

Thrice married and the father of six children, Caitlyn Jenner is a modern would be eunuch with female enhancements who was given the 'Transgender Champion' award at the American 'Glamour Woman of the Year' awards. The recent headline "Caitlyn Jenner flaunts some serious side-boob as she dares to bare in black dress" is curiously at odds with her masculine voice and Y chromosomes which prompted Germaine Greer to argue that transgender women are not women but males dressed as females. So good luck to the 'Drop the T campaign' and to Milo Yiannopoulos and Germaine Greer as they argue for a return to sanity.

If those clerics who promote same sex marriage were to follow the example of Milo Yiannopoulos in encouraging heterosexual couples to get married that really would be a step forward.

Quaint Britain

Unprotected: Wearing a cross may cause offence to other faiths!

Protected: Muslims praying in the street wearing Islamic dress.

This was the case until the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) eventually ruled after a long struggle that the UK had failed to protect the freedom of Nadia Eweida (pictured left) to manifest her faith in the workplace. In another judgement the ECHR ruled that Abu Hamza (pictured right) along with five other terror suspects could be extradited after spending £4million on their keep in this country. Those remaining are still at liberty to do as they please within the law and they demand their right to be heard. Not all enjoy the same privileges.

Life in Britain can often seem somewhat quaint to say the least. While Islamists are still allowed to peddle their venom under the protection of the law some peace loving Christians are still not allowed to display a cross on “health and safety” grounds, a position strengthened by HM Government when they argued that this was not a breach of human rights because wearing a cross is not an essential tenet of Christianity.

No doubt with the best of intentions the Hope not hate (Hnh) organisation is conducting a campaign to prevent two speakers who oppose Islamic extremism from entering the UK to address the problem. The Left Foot Forward Blog is urging "Don’t turn Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer into free speech martyrs" but in its opening line there is a hyper-link which fools people into signing the Hnh letter to the Home Secretary simply by clicking the "written" link! 

There is an obsession in this country in showing Muslims in the best possible light on the premise that not all Muslims are bad people. They are not but their beliefs are contrary to the Christian faith. The latest example can be read here but an entirely different story is told in pictures here and in a video here. Some of the items on Pamela Geller's blog do seem extraordinary as do the events recorded by Robert Spencer in his Jihad Watch but they are no less real because they take place in other countries. 

Mercifully we in Great Britain are exposed to less frequent Islamist attacks than others thanks to the vigilance of the security services but Christians and other non-Muslims in Islamic countries and beyond are under constant threat. Should we not not be allowed to heed the warnings and decide for ourselves?

Postscript

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have been banned from entering Britain to explain the threat posed by Jihadism, what Melanie Phillips describes as 'The British government's jihad against free thought' here.

Defiance is the only answer

"Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."


Read the background to this post here. The Coalition for Marriage site can be found here.

Innocent

The verdict of 'Innocent' following the trial of Geert Wilders is welcome news not just for Christians alarmed by the threat posed to Christianity and other non-Muslim faiths by the spread of Islam but for free speech in general.


The public prosecutor said that in Holland it is forbidden to offend groups of people and to incite discrimination and hatred. It would be an odd world if only Muslims were allowed to say what they like and discriminate against other religions.