It’s often assumed and frequently stated that the biggest threat to British society these days comes from cultures which are alien and inimical to ours. Yet our way of life has for decades faced an equally formidable threat – from forces which emanate from within. A well-meaning, self-abasing and cowardly coterie of white liberals have sought to dilute our culture in the dread names of multiculturalism, diversity and inclusivity.
Sometimes diversity isn’t our strength. Often, encouraging difference doesn’t increase mutual respect. Frequently, pleasant gestures aren’t reciprocated
In spite of last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, an event which laid bare the dangerously fragmented state of the nation along ethnic and religious lines, this left-liberal sect is blithely carrying on, unaware or unconcerned as to the havoc it has wreaked over the years with its thoughtless interventions.
This demographic has always been prominent and influential in local government and educational sectors. So it’s no surprise to learn that guidance issued by Labour councils in northern England has advised teachers that children’s drawings could be considered blasphemous under Islamic law.
The advice, designed to help staff adapt to religious sensitivities, warns that images made by pupils in art lessons may been seen as ‘idolatrous’ by some Muslims. It also counsels that music and dance classes could be contrary to the teachings of Islam. Entitled ‘Sharing the Journey,’ the subject-by-subject guide advises that ‘three-dimensional figurative imagery of humans is considered idolatrous by some Muslims.’ To clarify matters: ‘Some Muslim pupils may not wish to draw the human figure.’
So much for the exhortation in the latest government social cohesion plan, ‘Protecting What Matters’, that integration should be a ‘two-way’ process. This new guidance will give succour to the long-held perception, and experience of many, that multiculturalism and integration has never been a two-way street, that it has always entailed far more give than take.
This process of appeasement and cultural cringe, rather than abating, is getting worse. We have seen it elsewhere this week with the new government ruse to rebrand ‘Islamophobia’ as ‘anti-Muslim hostility’. Many rightly regard this as yet another sop to a section of society the Labour establishment fears.
Spinelessness and fear are not the only explanation for the craven behaviour of the liberals who have run the civil service, the judiciary, local government and education in our lifetimes. Their actions are also driven by a naive belief in the innate goodness of people and one of the most dangerous motives known to mankind: good intentions. They sweetly think that if you are kind to other people, they in turn, overwhelmed and humbled by your benevolence and compassion, with necessarily reciprocate.
Hence wording found elsewhere in the ‘Sharing the Journey’ report, a title oozing inane sentimentality, which reminds its readers that diversity in the classroom can be ‘a great source of strength’, and that schools ‘will want to be flexible in catering for religious difference.’
Yet sometimes diversity isn’t our strength. Often, encouraging difference doesn’t increase mutual respect. Frequently, pleasant gestures aren’t reciprocated. Tolerance can be abused and ultimately used against those who bequeath it, thrown back in their faces by those who don’t want to tolerate them or anyone else.
This will add insult to injury for many people in the north of England, in places such as Leeds, Oldham, Wakefield, Tameside and Kirklees, where this guidance, which has since been reissued, was created and shared. They have witnessed first-hand what happens when a tolerant culture comes face-to-face with one that isn’t. It was at Batley Grammar School, in the Kirklees authority area, that a teacher was suspended and then forced into hiding after showing an image of the Prophet Mohammed in a class. The staff member remains in hiding. Two years later, also following protests from local activists, four students in Kettlethorpe High School in West Yorkshire were suspended for ‘desecrating’ the Koran, after the copy of the holy book fell to the ground and was scuffed.
Many people throughout the country are deeply concerned about this insidious and relentless process of surrender. The most frightening thing now is that the means through which we can legitimately express dissent continue to narrow. Since new proposed measures on anti-Muslim prejudice include the nebulous definition ‘hostility’ and the even more dangerously subjective word ‘perceived’, anyone who dares complain faces being silenced, or even worse, silencing themselves.
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