A PC introduction to the most un-PC of topics
In a Telegraph piece misleadingly titled “How Cromwell gave us Joan Collins and other luminaries,” Charles Moore raises perhaps the most forbidden topic in the PC world of the EU. There is a lot of flowery talk and useful history in the piece, but the gist of the matter takes place in the first and last paragraphs:
Exactly 350 years ago, we began to be a multi-racial society. 1656 marked the return of Jews to England. They had been driven out by an edict of Edward I in 1290. In the intervening centuries - known as the Middle Period - Jews quite often came to this country on business, but they were not permitted to reside here or practise their religion. Their status, in fact, was that of Christians (and Jews) in Saudi Arabia today. In 1656, Cromwell let 300 of them return, and Jews have been here ever since….
In the past half-century, Muslims have come where the Jews came earlier, and in much larger numbers. Like such Jews, they have sometimes experienced the unhappiness that comes when one’s religion is misunderstood or derided. Unlike the Jews, too many of their leaders tend to teach them that such slights must be avenged, that existence as a minority is just a temporary misfortune, not a state to be lived with, and that the law of England is virtually no law at all. If that attitude continues, society is reduced to a conflict about who will swallow whom alive. To avoid that is a huge and urgent task.
“Who will swallow whom”? It doesn’t get much clearer than that. The fact that such questions are now being raised in the MSM marks, as we have said, a new understanding of the conflict we are in, which is all to the good. As the Austrialian Islamist said the other day: “The simple matter of fact is there is no middle ground.” It’s nice when we can all agree on certain ground-rules and sets of facts.
UPDATE
Um, speaking of un-PC, check out this lively piece by Lee Smith in the Weekly Standard at the beliefs of various Islamic sects (especially page two), and the rather robust response it inspired in a young lady called the Rightwing Lesbian Megan by Ace. This will conlcude our visit into the world of un-PC for this weekend.