sir bernard ingham
his poliitcal views and the manner in which he moderates a discussion.
any thoughts?
best,
Dushwari
Re: BBC show on Sunday at EST 10:00 AM with
anyone knows the credibility this news paper?
Bernard Ingham: A foolish misperception of our tolerant society
View GalleryTRAVELLING to London from Yorkshire recently, a chap in Arab rig under a top coat gave me what I thought was a rather intense stare from the platform as the train pulled into Grantham.
Later, minus headdress, he appeared in my first-class compartment. He tried to engage me in conversation but I indicated, as I do with all I take to be beggars, that he was wasting his time. I also alerted the woman attendant that I thought he was begging.
He then tried to talk without success to the woman sitting across the aisle and a chap on crutches further along.
He had two goes but eventually left after drawing a blank and we never found out what he was really up to. The woman across the aisle showed her concern by saying she was rather glad I was sitting nearby, but added: "I find this suspicion all rather sad."
"So do I," I replied. "But it is inevitable when we are being blown up"
On reflection, I am not sure that was the right comforting note to strike with my fellow passenger. I am, however, pretty certain that Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, would take it as evidence of his claim that perceptions of Muslims are so negative that there is a danger that people's minds will be "poisoned, as they were in the Thirties".
Perhaps inevitably this has been taken to mean that we are in danger of acquiring the same regard for Muslims as the Nazis had for Jews.
A day earlier, Dr Bari was reported as saying that British society would benefit from adopting aspects of Islamic culture such as arranged marriages, modesty and sexual restraint. I share his desire for less flaunted sexuality in British life but on arranged marriages – as with his remarks about our perceptions of Muslims – I conclude that, too often, he communes with the fairies.
With the possible exception of royalty, we Anglo-Saxons gave up arranged marriages long before I was a lad and, given the divorce rate among those who enthusiastically enter into holy matrimony, I think we would be unwise to revert to imposed unions.
But that is by the way. My main concern is with Dr Bari's apparent determination to expose his obtuseness for all to see. My advice to him would be the same as that given recently by the King of Spain to another crackpot, President Chavez of Venezuela: shut up.
According to the security services, we have enough potentially murderous Muslim fanatics running around without Dr Bari encouraging them by offering what could be taken as justification for their jihads.
If he still had the brains that Allah gave him, he would condemn all terrorism, and acknowledge that the British are intelligent and fair-minded enough to recognise two truths: most Muslims are not terrorists but, now that the IRA has more or less abandoned bombs and bullets, only Muslims seem inclined to blow us up.
Against that background, our troops fighting a bloody war against Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, the regularly publicised homicidal nature of al-Qaida and the posturing of the president of Iran, it would not be surprising if Muslims had poisoned British attitudes towards them. But it is irresponsible of him to suggest that we take a condemnatory view of Muslims per se.
On the contrary, we take an immensely tolerant view, even to the extent of permitting virulent Islamic agitators to spout their poison in mosques. We have no truck with the harassment of Muslims. Even under the pressure of uncontrolled general immigration, our doctrine of live and let live in freedom under
the law persists towards all races and creeds.
So why is Dr Bari being provocative? Could it be that he takes his cue from the host of politically correct, white, British, nominally Christian do-gooders who welcome all immigrants, regardless of legality, and promote the divisive evil of multi-culturalism instead of emphasising the need to observe our laws and customs and integrate into British society?
I fear that they encourage excess in immigrant communities by implying they are somehow victims of British racialism if they cannot lead an entirely alien British existence in their own exclusive enclaves.
I have news for both Dr Bari and foolish British do-gooders. My fellow passengers and I treated the Arab beggar, if that is what he was, no differently from any other we might encounter on a train – except, perhaps, with greater courtesy than if he had been obviously British.
Last Updated: 14 November 2007 8:44 AM