January 09, 2008

Britain: Where Are the Minutemen…Er, Home Guard?

Observing the meltdown of the Anglosphere’s cultural hearth over the last few years has been a painful experience, as Britain marches off a cliff toward self-inflicted cultural oblivion. The place has an alarming number of Muslims who openly declare their intention to conquer by demographic means and establish a beachhead sharia-stan in Europe. Yet the British people are not reacting to the threat.

All of Europe holds a tiger by the ears because of Muslim immigration, but Britain seems the most paralyzed by fear, confusion and political correctness.

Don't Brits understand that in today's war for civilization, the people must lead? Perhaps they were spoiled by Winston Churchill putting away the appeasement creature of his day (Neville Chamberlain) and leading the nation against the Nazis. But there seems to be no Churchill waiting in the wings this time. The people must step up to the plate.

In varying degrees, elites of every nation perpetuate the problem, as they tiptoe around the touchy question of how much diversity is acceptable. (Hint: honest sociology reveals that less is better, because diversity decreases trust.) Authorities of varying stripes apparently believe that naming and criticizing enemies would hurt their feelings—what kind of leadership is that? One major drawback to the philosophy of globalist cultural relativism: the wrong-headed idea that the concept of enemies is outmoded; there are only people who are not yet socially included.

In July 2005, 52 persons were killed and many more were injured in terrorist attacks on London. The killers were Muslims, the offspring of immigrants, following the jihadist admonition to kill infidels. Yet the BBC in particular wanted to overlook who was responsible (Muslims) and the underlying cause (unwise immigration) even though the horror and carnage were deeply shocking.

None of this developing unpleasantness comes as a surprise, but the accumulation of jaw-dropper news stories has been concerning. Whatever happened to the people who stood alone against Nazi fascism in 1940? The symptoms of devolution have been unsettling to behold:

British history requires a rewrite to include Muslims, according to Trevor Phillips, head of a new equality commission. It's apparently not enough to rework actual history into a cartoonish diversity fable (Angles and Saxons and Jutes, oh my). Hostile Muslims now must be written in as positive characters to satisfy the nanny-state on steroids, despite the many Britons killed on their own soil by immigrant jihadists.

A political hopeful who made a perfectly reasonable remark about immigration was forced to resign. Conservative Nigel Hastilow said he was only expressing the opinion of his constituents. "When you ask most people in the Black Country what the single biggest problem facing the country is, most say immigration," he wrote. "Many insist: 'Enoch Powell was right.'" (‘Rivers of blood’ candidate forced to resign, Times, Nov 5, 2007)

No area of cultural tradition is safe from Britain's diversity police. According to a recent report from the Labour Party, Christmas should be downgraded in order to increase self-esteem among other religions. Whatever happened to the idea of the immigrants assimilating to the nation of their choice? Britain has reversed the most basic premise of immigration: When in Rome, do as the Romans do—an aphorism attributed to St. Augustine early in the Christian era.

The medical professions are often persuaded into disturbingly PC behavior. A hospital in northwest England introduced burqa-style gown to suit Muslim preferences. In another instance of fawning to foreigners, overworked nurses were made to move Muslim patients' beds toward Mecca five times daily. One nurse remarked, "It would be easier to create Muslim-only wards with every bed facing Mecca than have to deal with this."

In a rare naming of the problem, a senior church official warned that territory claimed by Islamists for Allah could be unhealthy for non-Muslims.

“Islamic extremists have created ‘no-go’ areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, one of the Church of England's most senior bishops warns today.

“The Rt. Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester and the Church's only Asian bishop, says that people of a different race or faith face physical attack if they live or work in communities dominated by a strict Muslim ideology…

Bishop Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, gives warning that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran. [Bishop warns of no-go zones for non-Muslims, By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Telegraph UK, Jan 6 2008]

For his honesty, Rev. Nazir-Ali has been condemned by Muslim groups that demanded he resign. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague—from the Conservative party! — got weaselly about the existence of no-go zones in Britain, saying, "I'm not sure where these no-go areas are, I don't recognize that description." (Muslims call for 'no-go' CoE bishop to resign, By Caroline Gammell, Telegraph, January 7, 2008)

No-go zones are part of the diversity paradise promised by multiculturalists in actual practice. There are no-go areas in France also, where Muslims attack outsiders, including police and firemen. Daniel Pipes notes that these places are called Sensitive Urban Zones: so polite.

Clearly, no instance of truth-telling about Islam can be allowed to stand in the sharia-friendly British Isles.

And so it goes. There are so many examples of British appeasement that Melanie Phillips wrote a book titled Londonistan to enumerate the ways that immigration has transformed Britain for the worse. Policies designed to mollify Muslims have not turned them into loyal British: 40 percent of Muslims surveyed in 2006 want to live under Sharia Islamic law in Britain.

However, polling of British people revealed that they are not happy with their diversified homeland. More than four-fifths of the public believe that immigration should be reduced substantially. Another indication of unhappiness is how many Brits are voting with their feet: 4,000 per week are trying to leave.

Is it already too late to organize and fight back? The anger is there, but where is the British version of the Minutemen?

Perhaps WWII's Home Guard could be revived in some form as a volunteers' group. It is indeed depressing to see a fellow member of western civilization PC itself to death.

In any event: thank you, Britain! For providing a vivid example of what happens when a people surrender to hostile, invading immigrants regardless of legal status. The extent of possible social breakdown would be difficult to imagine without seeing the nightmare made real.

Mark Steyn wrote a book in 2006 called America Alone, based on the idea that Europe has already created its own destruction through the relentless demographics of immigrants with high fertility.

The lesson to be learned here is, first and foremost, don't welcome likely enemies as immigrants. That is, admitting persons from cultures with values antithetical to our own—Somalis and Saudis, for example—is a guarantee of trouble.

And yet, the national security dimension of immigration has been little discussed by Presidential candidates, even those hoping to use the border issue to their advantage.

Europe, and Britain in particular, should be a glaring illustration of what not to do with immigration.

Can America learn from their disastrous course and not repeat the same insanity? Let us hope so, as we work for a better result.

Brenda Walker (email her) lives in Northern California and publishes two websites, LimitsToGrowth.org and ImmigrationsHumanCost.org. She believes that not all diversity is equal.