http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/2005_01.html Dhimmi* Britain An article in Muslim Weekly by the Labour MP Mike O'Brien makes crystal clear something that has been apparent for some time for those who have eyes to see. The Labour party is bending over backwards to appease Muslim sentiment. Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to please one electoral constituency or another. And there's certainly nothing wrong with trying to remove genuine obstacles or discrimination from one group or another. But the fact is that there is relatively little genuine prejudice against Muslims. What there is instead is a lot of irrational and unreasonable Muslim rage against anyone who tells the truth about Islamic violence and threats around the world, and an attempt to intimidate people into silence on the subject. O'Brien's article goes further and more explicitly down that alarming road. The Labour government is not trying to suck up to any other minority group in the same way. Nor is it driving the proverbial coach and horses through fundamental British values to do so. O'Brien's article is written in a craven, cringing manner which sounds alarm bells from the start. Effectively imploring Muslims to forgive the government for the war in Iraq, he throws bone after bone their way. One of the most disgraceful and disquieting passages is about Israel. Passing up the opportunity to deliver some home truths about the nnever-ending war waged upon Israel and the fact that it is merely trying to defend itself, he plays to this particular gallery in a way which can only incite further ignorant prejudice against Israel in the minds of those who desperately need instead to be educated in the truth and away from the propaganda of lies. Thus he writes: 'The reality is that the only way a Palestinian state will be created is if Israel is prepared to concede land it currently occupies on the West Bank and Gaza. Whether we in Britain like it or not, the reality of the modern world is that only the Americans can influence Israel. And it seems only Tony Blair has any influence with the Americans.' In other words, he is pandering to the view that the Middle East impasse is Israel's fault -- the opposite of the truth. No mention here of the need to stop Arab and Muslim terror as a precondition to peace and a Palestinian state. Instead, there is a weaselly attempt to argue that only Blair is worth voting for because only Blair can put pressure on the Americans to dump Israel. What a disgusting and cynical argument. Stupid too, since no Muslim is likely to buy that preposterous logic for an instant. But how revealing is this: 'When the Americans and Israelis refused to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair promptly sent myself as the Foreign Office Minister, to visit Yasser Arafat in the Muquata in Ramallah to convey the message that we had not abandoned him. Tony Blair's message was clear: we will work with the elected leader of the Palestinians, even if the Americans will not.' If President Bush doesn't count Muslim Weekly among his essential reading matter, someone whould surely show him this. So the British government had 'not abandoned' Arafat, eh? Not abandoned... what, precisely? The 'armed struggle' against Israel? Human bombs blowing up Jewish civilians? The PA's incitement of children to become 'shaheed'? The next revealing passage is this: 'The Muslim Council of Britain has been at the forefront of lobbying the Government on issues to help Muslims. Recently Iqbal Sacranie, the General Secretary of the Council, asked Tony Blair to declare that the Government would introduce a new law banning religious discrimination. Two weeks later, in the middle of his speech to the Labour Party Conference, Tony Blair promised that the next Labour Government would ban religious discrimination. It was a major victory for the Muslim community in Britain. 'But this is not the first and only time that Labour Party has delivered for Muslims. When I was a Home Office Minister in 1997, the MCB lobbied me to introduce not only a new law which would increase sentences for racial violence and harassment but also to recognise the particular problems faced by Muslims. As a result we were able to amend the law to make religion a factor in any violence and harassment. Today, new Crime Bill, announced in the Queens Speech is coming before Parliament to toughen the laws on incitement to religious hatred. This has upset some M.P.`s such as Evan Harris MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, who has said he will oppose it because it is unnecessary!' So there it is in black and white -- proof that the law against incitement to religious hatred, which has the power to shut down legitimate comment about Islam, potentially put Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, secularists and others in the dock for speaking the truth, and make the giving of offence a greater offence than intimidating Britons into silence (and in so doing destroy a fundamental British liberal tradition) is being introduced to buy Muslim votes. The price to be paid for invading Iraq, in other words, is to be Britain's freedom of speech. No wonder IslamOnline is gloating: 'After the Muslim support for their traditional Labour party had halved and the free fall of the party's ratings in the local and European Parliament elections, the government has come to realize the fact that the Muslim vote does really count and planned to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim citizens.The Home Office has already unveiled plans to put forward a legislation criminalizing incitement of religious hatred. "Such Muslim campaigns have actually paid off and scared away the Zionist lobby and the extremist right-wing," Mohammad Sawalah, the deputy head of the Muslim League in Britain, told IslamOnline.' And even more alarmingly, this: 'According to experts, the vile campaign of the Zionist lobby in Britain against the July visit of prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has backfired and cemented the position of British Muslims in society. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded that there was no legal ground to prosecute Sheikh Qaradawi as requested by Henry Grunwald QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The mayor of London has further apologized on behalf of the people of London for the fuss that overshadowed Qaradawi's visit and invited the prominent Muslim scholar back to the United Kingdom in October 2005'. Let us remind ourselves that Sheikh Qaradawi supports human bomb terrorism against Jews, the execution of homosexuals and domestic violence against women. No doubt IslamOnline would also have claimed, had their deadline permitted, the following additional British cultural scalp, reported in the Sunday Times on Boxing Day: 'THE Inland Revenue is considering recognising polygamy for some religious groups for tax purposes. Officials have agreed to examine "family friendly" representations from Muslims who take up to four wives under sharia, the laws derived from the Koran. Existing rules allow only one wife for inheritance tax purposes. The Revenue has been asked to relax this so that a husband's estate can be divided tax-free between several wives.The move is bound to create controversy if it leads to a change in the rules. It is seen as a breakthrough by Muslim leaders who have been campaigning to incorporate sharia into British domestic law.' Or also claimed, indeed, this crowned and majestic scalp, as demonstrated by the Queen's Christmas message: 'Discrimination still exists. Some people feel that their own beliefs are being threatened. Some are unhappy about unfamiliar cultures. They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat.' This was surely the first deniable Royal Christmas messsage in history. For it can be argued that all the Queen was doing was making a thoroughly decent appeal to all to be tolerant and to respect unfamiliar cultures and traditions. Amen to that, indeed -- if that is really what was meant by those words so carefully written for her. But it wasn't. For in the context of our troubled times, its meaning was unmistakeable -- and she sure as eggs was not appealing to religious minorities to forego discrimination and embrace diversity. Don't worry, your Majesty -- the government is about to have us thrown into jail if we don't embrace the right kind of 'diversity'. Meanwhile, Britain's 280,000 Jews -- who, having done nothing to threaten anyone, are being attacked in the streets and seeing their synagogues and cemeteries desecrated and who have to be guarded in all their public events against the threat of attack by Muslim extremists as well as by neo-Nazi thugs -- are effectively being told by the government that compared with 1.8 potential Muslim voters, they can go and jump in the lake. For senior Labour party activists say in terms that for the forseeable future the Jews are just going to have to lump it. Labour's priority lies with the Muslim vote. An excellent pitch for Mike O'Brien MP. For uneasy or frightened Jews and others, not quite such a rosy scenario. *'Dhimmi' is the status of infidels under Islam who are permitted to live in Muslim jurisdictions but only with restrictions as second-class citizens. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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