The Barcelona Attacks

This is rather a long post but I feel very strongly about these issues.

There have been two terrorist attacks using vehicles that have dominated the news this week but the reactions to each event from the hyper-moralists in Britain’s Establishment have been very different. The hysterical comments after the death of a protester in Charlottesville and the condemnation of President Trump’s foolish remarks about what happened have shown that those who claim the moral high ground in the British media absolutely love to condemn racism and bigotry, so long as it is a particular kind of racism and bigotry. The reaction to events in Barcelona – 14 killed and dozens injured – has been far more muted, with the usual calls for unity and against hatred. The Guardian has run several opinion pieces about Charlottesville highlighting the alleged “racism” of Trump’s America but choose to publish an attack on Sarah Champion and “Islamophobia” the day after Barcelona instead of condemning the violence, racism and general misanthropy of Islamism. Here’s some thoughts on these events…1/ A strange obsession with skin colour

The knuckle-dragging white supremacists demonstrating in Charlottesville share a bizarre obsession with the apostles of identity politics – they simply cannot get past the colour of another human being’s skin. Whilst white supremacists think the colour of their skin makes them somehow superior, the identity-obsessives think it makes you either a victim or a perpetrator of historical injustices. I am reminded of the Star Trek episode “Let That be Your Last Battlefield” where the crew of the Enterprise encounter the last two members of an alien society who have destroyed their planet in a race war caused by the fact that one half of the planet are black on the left and white on the right and the other half is white on the left and black on the right. We need to get past the 19th century nonsense about the various “races” of humanity. There is far more difference between a Great Dane and a Chihuahua but we are content to call them both dogs.

2/ Is racial bigotry worse than religious bigotry?

Racial bigotry certainly gets the media more upset than religious bigotry. And you’re got to feel sorry for Jewish folks. In the early to mid 20th century, racial hatred was all the rage and the Jews suffered the worst from the Nazis’ “scientific” racism. Not too many people (outside the aforementioned knuckle-draggers in Charlottesville) claim to be a “master race” these days but Jewish folks are still getting the worst of the hostility from what could be termed the “master religion.”

3/ Racism is racism

Racism is always wrong. Unfortunately, the bizarre creed of “intersectionality” means that far too many people hold people of colour to lower standards of behaviour than white people (previous post – What is White Supremacism”?). And there does appear to be a nasty racial edge in some of the sex cases that have come to light in recent years and in the fascist beliefs of the Islamists. One of the people convicted of sexually abusing girls in Newcastle is said to have commented…

“All white women are only good for one thing. For men like me to fuck and use like trash. That’s all women like you are worth.”

Sounds like racism doesn’t it? And there does seem some Arab racial supremacism in Islamism. Search “racist hadiths” if you don’t believe me. (FYI, a hadith is one of the collected sayings of the semi-historical Muhammad who allegedly “revealed” the Koran. Think of the parables ascribed to the magic carpenter in Christian mythology but with violence and hatred thrown in for good measure). These hadiths demonstrate…

Arab supremacism – “Arabs are the most noble of people in lineage, the most prominent, and the best in deeds”

intra-Arab racism – “The Arabs of the desert are the worst in Unbelief and hypocrisy, and most fitted to be in ignorance of the command which Allah hath sent down to His Messenger”

and a quite shocking contempt for black Africans – “Ham [Africans] begat all those who are black and curly-haired, while Japheth [Turks] begat all those who are full-faced with small eyes, and Shem [Arabs] begat everyone who is handsome of face with beautiful hair. Noah prayed that the hair of Ham’s descendants would not grow beyond their ears, and that whenever his descendants met Shem’s, the latter would enslave them.”

4/ Far Right is Far Right

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Leanne Wood, tweeted in response to the attack in Barcelona…

“Ofnadwy/terrible. Is this more far right terrorism? My thoughts are with all those affected.”

She has been criticised for trying to link Barcelona to the idiots in Charlottesville but, in fact, she is right. Islamists are “Far Right.” In fact, Islamism is by far the most right-wing ideology in the world today and far more dangerous that universally-reviled white supremacists.

5/ Rape Culture is Rape Culture

I mentioned in my introduction that the Guardian choose the day after Barcelona to mount a vicious ad hominem attack on the Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion. Champion dared to write an opinion piece in The Sun that suggested some people of Pakistani- heritage have a less than enlightened view of women. For this heresy, Champion was kicked out of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and arraigned for the thoughtcrime of “Islamophobia.” No-one with more than half a brain (I am discounting any white supremacists out there) believes all Muslim men are child-rapists or even all men of Pakistani-heritage are child-rapists. However, there is a toxic mixture of religion, culture and misogyny that leads SOME (NOT ALL) Pakistani-heritage men to believe that they can sexually abuse white girls with impunity.

I have noticed that some of the people who are loudest in condemning Sarah Champion and others in suggesting that there may be a cultural aspect to the actions of some abusers were loudest in attacking a “campus rape culture” in American universities.

6/ We need to find a way to disagree

I dislike all religions, as I have said repeatedly on this blog from my very first post. But, at this particular point in time, it appears that conservative Islam and its fascist political offshoot Islamism are the biggest threats to the values of free speech and free thought I support. I do not believe that everyone of South Asian or Middle Eastern heritage should be labelled “Muslim” as though it is an ethnicity. Islamism must be defeated with words as well as with security. Islamists must have their repugnant views aired and repudiated not protected by false accusations of “racism.”

I think Donald Trump is unfit to be President of the United States and I think that he demeans the office once held by people such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. But some elements of media are so blinded by their hatred of Trump that they always put the worst possible spin on anything he says. If Trump said “I like cookies” at least one media outlet would run the story “Trump supports childhood obesity.”

I think Brexit is an error but I acknowledge the democratic rights of the majority of those voted in the referendum. I do not think the majority of those who vote “Leave” did so out of malice or racism.

I reject the bizarre ideology of “intersectionality” that treats people of colour as somehow less responsible for their actions than white people. I believe some of the apostles of identity politics are so blinded by ideology that they have become the racists of our time.

As far as I am aware it was not a white supremacist that barred Richard Dawkins from speaking at a university in California.

We have to find some way to disagree with one another. We must stop looking for ways to divide ourselves. We need to stop thinking up ways to label our opponents and to attempt to find common ground. Shrieking insults at people is guaranteed to get their backs up. I have no doubt that some people voted for Trump or for Brexit as a giant “f*** you” to the Establishment that hates them.