Ignorance Won’t Help.

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4od, America, American Liberty, BBC, BBC Bias, bbc question time, C4, Civilisation, Counter-Jihad, counter-radicalisation, Counterjihad, david dimbleby, Defend the modern world, Facebook, iplayer, Islam in British schools, Multiculturalism, No to Turkey in the EU, politics, question time, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Universities BBC

On last night’s edition of BBC Question Time (a long-running British political discussion show), the panel was asked to discuss counter-radicalisation efforts in British schools. This then prompted a young woman in the audience to describe the policies already in effect at her college.

At her place of study, the girl reported, library computers automatically turn off when a student clicks on a website including the words ‘ISIS’, ‘Jihad’, ‘Islamism’ and similar terms. She added that this is also the case when the website in question is unaffiliated with Islam, such as the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and, presumably, this blog.

The host of the programme David Dimbleby reacted by calling the measure ‘extraordinary’… To that I would add the terms ‘counterproductive’ and ‘illogical’.

The very last thing we need is for a generation of British students to spend their (psychologically) formative years in the shade of political ignorance. Since it is fair to guess that the fallout from Islamisation will be the chief concern to these youngsters in the future, it is surely preferable that they be forewarned from as early an age as possible.

Indeed, ignorance of Islam, as well as being a failure of duty on the part of British educators, will also risk creating more Islam.

As Muslims increase as a percentage of Britain’s youth population, non-Muslim students will increasingly find themselves (especially in inner-city areas) in shared learning environments with believers. If the non-believers in this situation are never taught the downsides of Islam, the institutions will quickly lose their diversity entirely and become simply Muslim. After all, how can young White and non-Muslim BME kids be expected to resist aggressive conversion if even our roughest criminals in prison cannot?

That isn’t a risk worth taking in my opinion. Children should be given as much information about Jihadism as they are given about HIV and Gonorrhoea.

As to counter-radicalisation in general, I don’t believe any effort by government will be successful. Since the ministers charged with overseeing a multi-cultural society will never speak frankly about the deficiencies of one particular part of it, no measure getting to the root of the issue will ever be attempted.

Islamist terrorism is not the result of a misunderstanding of Islam, but of an unusually profound understanding of it. How can this be legislated against without legislating against Islam itself?

D, LDN.

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When a Muslim Sits Next to You on the Subway…

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7/7, Alexander Armstrong, BBC, BBC Iplayer, Bomb scare underground, Etiquette, HIGNFY, Ian Hislop, iplayer, Islam, Justin Bieber, Muslims sitting next you on the tube, Notting Hill Gate, Paul Merton, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Underground

Last week on the popular satirical news quiz ‘Have I got news for you”, the guest host Alexander Armstrong quipped that to have ‘quiet crisis of liberal conscience’ was the ‘standard procedure’ for when a Muslim sits next to you on the tube. The joke received what it deserved; a pattering of knowing, nervous giggles.

What do you do when this happens? If you’re a Londoner – or, for that matter, New Yorker, Muscovite, Parisian, Roman or Berliner – this situation and your reaction to it is really no laughing matter. Choose wrongly and you may lose the use of your legs or even perish altogether.

Where I live (in Putney) I have the luxury of using the District Line, a relatively Muslim-light part of the capital’s network. I’m aware of the crisis Armstrong alludes to, but whenever I’ve used the Islamised lines of East-London, mine has a different content. It isn’t a crisis of ‘conscience’, but rather of etiquette. The question isn’t ‘How might I suppress/conquer my own bigotry?’, but ‘Will my fellows think me cowardly or rude if I switch carriage at the next stop?’.

I should clarify before going forward that we are talking here of devout Muslims; that is, bearded, religiously dressed men, or completely veiled women. I don’t feel any anxiety sitting next to a brown person. It should also be clarified that I mean here situations in which one will be seated for a long time.

With that out of the way, I’ll confess to what I’ve done in the past – not always, but on occasion. If a devout Muslim has chosen a neighbouring seat, I will often wait until the train is at the following station, head calmly out like that is my stop and then hop back into the neighbouring car instead. On most of the these occasions, it has been because the Muslim in question is embellished with a backpack or bulky satchel (those with memories of 7/7 will appreciate why this matters). I’ve never felt a whiff of bad conscience for doing this. My legs, my arms and my life mean infinitely more to me than my sense of political correctness.

I also think that if Muslims should ever dare to repeat an enrichment of the 7/7 kind, we could make good use of this gesture as a means of protest. Though I still make cover for myself when switching carriages, in the event that Muslims once again bomb our infrastructure, we could make standing up when a Muslim sits next to us a very emphatic display of moral resistance.

In dignity and silence, this public motion would make known our willingness to put our safety before the bullying demands of established politics.

D, LDN.