For the first time, I am grateful to Zack Polanski. For, in branding Keir Starmer ‘Islamophobic’ simply for criticising Mothin Ali, he has shown just how slippery and despotic that word is. He has confirmed what most decent folk have long suspected – that accusations of ‘Islamophobia’ are a cynical ruse to shut down entirely legitimate public discussion.
Starmer said not one bigoted word about Ali, the deputy leader of the Green party. Or about Islam. He didn’t diss the Koran or crack a gag about Muhammad. (All of which he should be at liberty to do, of course.) All he said is that he was ‘shocked’ to see Ali at a pro-Tehran gathering in London on Saturday.
Polanski slammed Starmer’s ‘blatant Islamophobia’. What gibberish. What a lowlife attempt to shame a man for expressing a perfectly normal view. Starmer merely criticised a politician. And rightly, too. That demo was a disgrace. All good people were ‘shocked’ to see such an orgy of bigotry and tyrant brown-nosing on the streets of London – and to see the deputy leader of a mainstream party in attendance.
We are browbeaten into turning a blind eye to theocratic sycophancy on our streets
In demonising Sir Keir as ‘phobic’ simply for criticising a public figure, Polanski is playing a sinister game. He has witlessly betrayed the authoritarian instincts behind his hippyish facade. He has exposed the iron fist of intolerance that lurks within the velvet glove of ‘tackling Islamophobia’. No one can deny it now: the slur of Islamophobia has sweet nothing to do with fighting ‘racism’ – it is solely about silencing views that certain leftists and Muslims don’t like.
Ali is at it, too. He says the criticism of him is ‘inherently racist’ (he says he is ‘proudly anti-war’ and not a supporter of the Iranian government). It just doesn’t work anymore, does it? Normal Brits are watching this stuff and laughing. They long ago clocked the censorious impulse behind the promiscuous use of the term ‘racist’. They know the real bigots are not the people criticising Ali but the people he rubbed shoulders with on Saturday. Imagine hanging out with cranks who dream of death for the world’s only Jewish state and then calling others racist. Do me a favour.
Perhaps Sir Keir will now rethink his obsession with penning a new definition of Islamophobia. For the slandering of Starmer confirms that the ‘Islamophobia’ industry is not only about crushing blasphemous thoughts about the religion of Islam but also about ringfencing political discussion itself from the free criticism of everyday people.
It is not ‘phobic’ to call out Islamist ideas and the apologists for such mediaeval thinking. In the two-and-a-half years since the pogrom of 7 October, our streets have been overrun with sympathy for Hamas and Hezbollah and creepy fanboying over the Ayatollah (peace be upon him). It is gaslighting of the most demented kind to say it is ‘racist’ to call this stuff out. The racism belongs to those cheering on the Islamofascist destruction of the Jewish nation, not those of us who think such behaviour is disgusting and unwelcome in our country.
The truth is we have a serious problem with Islamic extremism. The Al Quds march is coming around again. It’s due to take place in London on 15 March. This annual gathering forms part of the international day of celebrations instituted by the Iranian theocracy after the 1979 revolution. Every year in London, crowds of black-clad Muslims gather to intone the praises of the Islamic Republic and spew invective against the Jewish State.
Will I be called ‘Islamophobic’ if I say this is a backward, bigoted gathering that shames our city? If I say it is nauseating that at past Al Quds marches people have waved the Hezbollah flag, that army of anti-Semites devoted to destroying Israel? If I express concern for my Jewish compatriots, who no doubt feel threatened by this annual trudge of Israelophobic animus?
This is the logic of ‘Islamophobia’ – that everything associated with Islam must be shielded from the sacrilegious thoughts of plebs like me. Not just the religion itself but also its extreme manifestations. We are browbeaten into turning a blind eye to theocratic sycophancy on our streets, to the threat of Islamism, even to the scourge of those rape gangs. In every case we’re told: ‘Shush. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Don’t be phobic.’
Labour MPs and peers are calling for the Al Quds march to be banned, given everything that’s going on in the world. I understand their concerns but I don’t think banning marches is the solution. We need more freedom, not less. In particular, we need the full, unfettered liberty to speak, the inalienable right to call out the pox of radical Islam. Sir Keir, ditch your ‘Islamophobia’ plans so that the rest of us might be as free as you to talk about the problems in our society.
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