You'd think, wouldn't you, that any normal, decent Muslim attending a march in London last Saturday would be doing so in order to distance himself (it's always a himself, of course, because their womenfolk just do what they're told) from the savage thugs who - claiming to worship the same deity as the protestors - had besmirched the reputation of Islam by burning a Jordanian pilot alive and posting a video of their almost inconceivably foul, subhuman act. Or maybe they'd want to condemn the neanderthal thugs who slaughtered staff and visitors at Charlie Hebdo in the name of Allah just one short month ago.
Not a bit of it.
No, what this bunch of charlies (there were about a thousand in total, but they were delivering a petition to Downing Street signed by 100,000 assorted freedom-haters) were protesting about was the publication of demeaning images of Mohammed, whom they regard as their prophet. Apparently, people who break the rule - like, say, the Charlie Hebdo journalists - should be punished. Only, of course, the Charlie Hebdo journalists have already been punished by the protesters' somewhat over-eageer co-religionists.
Compassionate, or what? (Well, what, obviously.)
I suppose one should have allowed one's eyes to drift over this photograph, pausing merely to wonder once again why, given their contempt for Western values, they're, y'know, still here in the West, rather than safely sequestered with like-minded liberty-loathers in some parched Third World crap-heap. But the symbolism was simply too shoutingly obvious for one's gaze not to be arrested.
I wonder what Monty - who played a significant part in defeating a regime which pumped out anti-Semitic propaganda, butchered Jews, treated women as second-class citizens, sent homosexuals to prison camps, and had one or two minor issues with freedom of speech - well, I wonder what he'd have made of the disrespect shown to his statue, and therefore to his memory, by a bunch of "Britons" who wouldn't have a clue who the Great Man was or what he had done for this country and for the cause of freedom generally.
One shudders to imagine who the protesters' heroes are. Presumably not Wellington, Nelson, Gladstone, Thatcher or the Duke of Marlborough. Ah, multiculturalism - don't you just love it?
And, as has been widely discussed on Biased BBC, there was a calculated news blackout of this event by the craven BBC. In some ways that was an almost bigger disgrace than the event itself for its implications on the very subject of freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteSurely, it must be time for a reckoning with the Corporation.
Just as the BBC ignored Obama's outrageous remarks telling the West not to get on "our high-horse" over the behaviour of Islamic terrorists because of what Christians did 900 years' ago. Biased BBC does a great job pointing out the more obvious news airbrushings carried out by Auntie, especially in its occasionally jaw-dropping Middle East coverage.
DeleteAs for a reckoning - don't hold your breath. Governments come and go, but the Beeb goes on forever.
I hold a slim portion of hope that UKIP might do well enough in the next election to at least give the BBC pause for thought. Or, just as possible, that it might overplay its hand by reacting too ludicrously.
DeleteOK, I did say slim...
Given that they stand for everything the BBC despises, I'm quite surprised by the amount of coverage they've received . I assume that's because Farage can be relied on to liven up dreary live political gabfests and because UKIP is a thorn in the Tories' side, rather than because of any sense of fair play. If UKIP do really well, cue news and current affairs items about the spectre of Nazism stalking our streets and warnings about a Far Right bloodbath of anti-immigrant violence and Robert Peston assuring us that we'll die of hunger if Britain were to be mad enough leave the EU.
DeleteSo that'll be more of the same, just a bit noisier, then.
DeleteI'm glad to see quite a fuss being made about the BBC's failure to report the muslim protests. Likewise, about plod's sinister probings into who dared by a copy of Charlie Hebdo.
Sooner or later this Internet thing might actually achieve something.
'buy a copy'. for heaven's sake!
DeleteI'm sure heads'll roll over the Charlie Hebdo fiasco (only kidding). What did the goofy timewasters actually think they were doing???
DeleteThe last time I was in Whitehall was for Remembrance Day. It's always a moving and respectful occasion. However I didn't notice any of our bearded and burka friends then.
ReplyDeleteI can't think why...
They were probably too overcome with patriotic fervour and gratitude for the bravery and sacrifice of previous generations to attend. I can't think of another credible explanation for a phenomenon which I too have noticed.
DeleteA very upsetting image. At least they do not seem to have defaced the statue unlike the people who scrawled "Islam" across the Bomber Command memorial and the Animals in War memorial [I do not know what the donkeys had done to anger our excitable friends?] in May 2013. WPC Fletcher's memorial in St James' Square has escaped their attention thankfully and Greenwich Council has courageously decided to avoid offending Islamist sensitivities by not featuring Drummer Lee Rigby's name on his memorial in Woolwich [instead, it carries the inscription " to commemorate all these servicemen and women who have served or lived in Woolwich and who have given their lives." ]. I wonder what the Americans make of this? I do not even want to think about it.
ReplyDeleteMontgomery is a bit of a hero of mine. Just two stories if I may. He was very prickly. On a trip to Chicago post-war he threatened to cut short his visit when his host introduced him as "Bernard Sir Marshall Fields" [ Marshall Field's is a huge department store, the rank "Field Marshall" does not exist in the American Army, confusion all round]. Also, in 1962 he attended our School Speech Day and inspected our Cadet Corps in uniform. We were all terrified in case he stopped and asked us a question as he sauntered down the ranks. He was both tiny and mesmerizing. The people squatting about his statue are probably descended from the corpse-pickers and grave-robbers that the Eighth Army had to drive off with gun-fire after the various North African battles. Could go on, but won't.
I suspect that, in the countries from which many of these people hail, donkies serve different purposes from the ones we normally associate them with.
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone doubts the story of Lee Rigsby's name being deliberately excluded from a memorial by Greenwich Council, there's an account of one of the very worst examples of craven official dhimmitude here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808070/Fury-council-s-decision-not-Woolwich-memorial-site-Lee-Rigby-case-offends-Islamic-extremists.html
As long as we don't offend moronic blood-crazed nutters, the sensitivites of the vast majority of Britons can obviously go hang.
I wonder what would happen if they clambered all over The Lincoln Memorial.
ReplyDeleteI don't know - but Obama would probably appoint them as special advisers on community relations and invite them round to dinner with his BFF Al Sharpton.
Delete