Plain stupid – or scared?
Plain stupid – or scared?
In an article in The Daily Mail last week, Shadow Lord Chancellor Robert Jenrick was reported as saying, ‘The fight against Islamism is the fight of our generation. It’s a battle for the soul of the country. It begins by telling the truth.’ His comments came in the wake of revelations that the banning of Israeli football fans from attending a match at Villa Park in Birmingham in November last year, far from being a response (as claimed) to fears of violent disorder on the part of Israeli fans, were actually a response to pressure from anti-Semitic groups trying to deny them entry to the country. To put it another way, the threatened violence was not from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at all, but from Muslim groups not prepared to allow their participation.
This is disgraceful. For all their claims to acknowledge Christ as a prophet, Islam is a religion that is actively hostile to both Judaism and Christianity, worshipping a god named Allah, who demands total submission. Thus, the Koran contains 123 so-called ‘war texts’, calling for the killing of anyone who does not agree with the statement, ‘There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ In the light of which, Jews and Christians are specifically regarded as infidels.
It is this worldview that we are complicit in promoting, when, either from fear or stupidity, the powers that be give way to Muslim demands and intimidation. Now West Midlands Police chief constable Craig Guildford has apologised to MPs for giving false evidence on the true nature of the threat posed by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, but at the same time he has disclaimed responsibility by blaming the threat assessment on AI.
‘Yes, it happened … but not me, guv!’
Really? One cannot help but feel it would have been more honest to say that fear of violent reaction on the part of Islamist thugs and agitators, if and when their demands to ban Israeli supporters were challenged, constrained the police from upholding justice and taking proper action.
The sad truth is, we are a country running scared, with those holding authority determinedly looking the other way in face of Muslim expansionism – while allowing an unremittingly false narrative of colonial exploitation and abuse to grow, our national identity to be besmirched, and discrimination against Christians and associated religious groups to intensify.
The growing contempt for our national identity was well illustrated last year by the National Trust’s refusal to allow Christian film maker Christian Holden to use the famous site of St Cuthbert’s Cave in Northumbria to make a documentary about the saint’s life. The plan was to follow a US college professor and his students as they followed the ancient pilgrim walk that starts at Melrose Abbey, where the saint began his monastic life, and ends at the cave, near Lindisfarne, where tradition has it he was temporarily laid to rest in 875 AD. It was and is the type of documentary loved by many, who enjoy both the beautiful scenery and the insight into history. In this instance, however, permission was denied on the somewhat ambiguously worded grounds of ‘religious affiliation’. Whether that referred to the religious affiliation of the documentary, of the film maker (a self-confessed Roman Catholic) or of the deceased was never made clear, but whatever, and despite complaints, the prohibition stood.
The refusal appears not just shameful, but less than honest. In recent years the Trust, ostensibly committed to preserving the nation’s heritage, has become increasingly dominated by what has been labelled by critics as a neo-Marxist agenda, prioritising LGBTQ+ and BAME policies over everything else. In 2017, for instance, it came under fire for attempting to make all staff and volunteers wear LGBTQ+ lanyards, leading many members to cancel their membership. But in 2023, it progressed even further down the Woke trajectory, dropping the Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter from its ‘inclusivity and wellbeing’ calendar, and replacing them instead with dates for the Hindu festival of Diwali and the Muslim festivals of Eid and Ramadan. And let it be noted that, while refusing Christian film makers permission to use Trust property, it has apparently been more than happy to support overtly religious Muslim projects. One video formerly uploaded to the NT’s YouTube channel in 2023, for instance, followed a Ramadan walk and retreat at Trust property Ilam Park, in Derbyshire, including footage showing attendees kneeling to pray in the park’s grounds. Strangely, however, since our complaint this seems to have been removed.
As stated by Robert Jenrick, we are truly in a battle for the soul of our nation, and it is time to stand up to and face the threat posed by Islamist extremists, who, without doubt, are working to extend their influence. Multi-culturalism must not mean that we welcome every culture except our own!
To finish on a note of encouragement, however, the finished film, ‘The Way of St Cuthbert’ is due to be broadcast on EWTN this weekend (Saturday 17th January) at 9:30 p.m.. Footage from St Cuthbert’s cave is of course missing, but the film nevertheless tracks the small group of Benedictine College students and their Professor as they walk the 65-mile ‘Way of St Cuthbert’. Throughout the journey, the Press Release says, the group considers the life of St Cuthbert, the history of the area, and the saint’s influence on the life of the Church during the 7th century and beyond. And, as added bonus, of course, we get to see the spectacular scenery of Northumbria!
Well worth watching, VfJUK feels, and, following the film’s broadcast on Saturday night, it will be available for download/streaming from the St Anthony Communications website.