Thursday, October 22, 2009

Oliver Kamm knocks some sense into Gary Younge

Oliver Kamm swats some nonsense from Gary Younge (also, in passing, Kamm dismisses as equal drivel Islamic conspiracy theories indulged in by Phillips, Steyn and Pipes, all of whose articles feature regularly on this site).

""Jack Straw started it all"

In The Guardian Gary Younge blames Jack Straw for the BNP. How so?

"New Labour's race-baiting rhetoric gave the state's imprimatur to the notion that Britain's racial problems were not caused by racism but the existence of non-white, non-Christian and non-British people."

What race-baiting rhetoric would that be?

"Three years ago this month Jack Straw argued his case for urging Muslim women who attend his MP's surgery to remove their niqab."

Where do you start with this risible piece of demagoguery? I'm pro-immigration; the claims of such figures as Geert Wilders about a Muslim takeover of Europe, or "Eurabia", are unadulterated alarmism and inflammatory nonsense. But the notion that Straw's request (not "urging") to Muslim women is the soft end of "race-baiting" is no less ignorant. To request, or even (as I would) to insist, that religious symbols play no part in public life is a constitutional principle, not a racist act."


Link here

2 comments:

JP said...

Where's an example of him having a go at Islamic conspiracy theories?

Andy said...

JP:"Where's an example of him having a go at Islamic conspiracy theories?"

Oliver Kamm: "I'm pro-immigration; the claims of such figures as Geert Wilders about a Muslim takeover of Europe, or "Eurabia", are unadulterated alarmism and inflammatory nonsense."

Also I can't find the quotes, but Kamm derides Steyn's argument that people are afraid to talk about immigration. Kamm thinks that writers of Steyn's ilk are guilty of scaremongering when they write about rising Muslim demographics in Europe. [For the record I agree with Kamm]