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October 12, 2005
Free Piglet!
Pub Philosopher has an interesting series of posts on the proposed Religious Hatred Bill currently being debated in the British House of Lords. Although the bill's Labor Party backers insist it will not prevent "criticism, commentary or ridicule of faiths", opponents have little faith in these assurances. "Anti-hate" measures in Canada and Australia and on the Continent have led to numerous prosecutions. In Britain itself recent attempts to ban such "offensive" items as toy pigs (HT The Adventuress via Laban Tall) and the St. George's Cross (HT Lost Budgie) show the insane limits to which some will go in order to placate the most aggressive elements within Muslim community.
As Mark Steyn points out on the Piglet affair, the standards for what is intolerant and hateful are hardly objective. Rather, they reflect the power and assertiveness on one group and the weakness of the other:
Alas, the United Kingdom's descent into dhimmitude is beyond parody. Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (Tory-controlled) has now announced that, following a complaint by a Muslim employee, all work pictures and knick-knacks of novelty pigs and "pig-related items" will be banned. Among the verboten items is one employee's box of tissues, because it features a representation of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet...
So these little news items that pop up every week now are significant mostly as a gauge of the progressive liberal's urge to self-abase and Western Muslims' ever greater boldness in flexing their political muscle.
After all, how daffy does a Muslim's willingness to take offence have to be to get rejected out of court? Only the other day, Burger King withdrew its ice-cream cones from its British restaurants because Mr Rashad Akhtar of High Wycombe, after a trip to the Park Royal branch, complained that the creamy swirl on the lid resembled the word "Allah" in Arabic script.
...Forty years ago, Britain's Islamic minority didn't have the numbers to ban Piglet and change the Burger King menu. Now they do. What will be deemed "unacceptable" in the interests of "tolerance" in 20 or even five years' time?
It has been clear since July 7 that the state has no real idea what to do to reconcile the more disaffected elements of its fastest-growing demographic. But at some point Britons have to ask themselves - while they're still permitted to discuss the question more or less freely - how much of their country they're willing to lose. The Hundred-Acre Wood is not the terrain on which one would choose to make one's stand, but from here on in it is only going to become more difficult.
As the Labor Party seeks to curry favor with the UK's Muslim minority via the Religious Hatred Bill there is every reason to believe that, if passed, the law will be applied as broadly as possible - at least where critics of Islam are concerned. Like the Pub Philosopher says, its's time for you Brits to get out in the streets and do something to stop it.
Click here for the full text of the Religious Hatred Bill.
Posted by John at October 12, 2005 12:17 PM
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Comments
Thanks for this John. I'm trying to get as many people as possible to sign the online petition, write letters and get onto the streets to protest.
If this becomes law, I might as well stop blogging.
Posted by: Steve at October 13, 2005 11:35 AM