Lord Pearson of Rannoch has been accused of committing a hate crime by asking in the House of Lords the question: “May we please talk about Islam?” he has also been warned that, if he asks his question again, he will be in serious trouble. Not for his making a defamatory remark or for hurling insults around but merely for asking a polite question in the mother of parliaments wherein, of all places, there is supposed to be freedom of speech. The very word “parliament” connotes speaking.
By what convolutions of twisted logic or perversions of social morality could Lord Pearson’s action in asking that question be considered a crime? A statement may amount to a crime if, for instance, it is a false accusation: call an honest man a liar and a thief and you have committed an offence. But a question is not a statement, because it does not report a fact or even an alleged fact. Lord Pearson committed no crime – not even one puzzlingly described as a hate crime.
Where might we go to observe the perpetration of a hate crime? Try this…
Yesterday thousands gathered in the streets of Lahore and Rawalpindi to demand the death penalty for Asia Bibi, a fruit-picker accused of blasphemy. The accused has been in custody for the last nine years. Appeals from first Pope Benedict and then Pope Francis for her to be freed have been refused. This is the story…
In 2009 Bibi was working in the fields alongside other Muslim women. She went to a well to get a drink. One of her companions called out, “Don’t drink that – it’s haram!” Which means forbidden. She did take a drink and the other women called her “a filthy Christian,” then claimed that, by drinking the banned water from their cup, Bibi had made the cup unclean.
They demanded that she convert to Islam. Bibi replied: “I’m not going to convert. I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?”
Interesting to see that, like Lord Pearson, Bibi made no statement and issued no accusations: she merely asked two questions. For her having asked these questions, the many thousands organised by Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) – the Pakistan blasphemy party – screamed for Bibi’s death. How quaint of them to maintain a blasphemy party in Pakistan! Ours retired when the Spanish Inquisition packed up
Now, I dare say Bibi’s response to the Muslim women was fairly robust, but was it so terrible that she should be put to death?
Of course not. But then in the biased jurisprudence of the so called hate crime, she is deserving of condemnation. If there has been any crime in this matter it was committed by the thousands baying for Bibi’s death. Don’t be absurd, Mullen! You should know that in the world according to political correctness – the world in which we are now obliged to live – it is impossible for a Muslim to commit a hate crime against a Christian. Only the followers of Allah and his Prophet have the statutory right to be offended.
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Well you should just roll out the red carpet for your new over-lords.
With any revolution, the agile and those flexible of principle will get plum positions in the new order of things or at least they won’t get their heads chopped off. See french revolution.
“…whereas before I was condemned to wear jeans and a tee-shirt with my trainers and grey socks.”
Not bad, Corny. I get it. But real gentlemen used to be equipped with bowlers (or fedoras at least) brollies, suits, black socks and oxfords. We still are.
What’s wrong with you all? The vibrancy Islam brought to our boringly peaceful cities and towns couldn’t come soon enough for me…I’m now able to wear pyjamas as my preferred daytime wear, whereas before I was condemned to wear jeans and a tee-shirt with my trainers and grey socks. Why can’t you conservatives embrace postmodern culture and the TRUE FREEDOM the variety of its forms offers? Ps. Just off to the town square…
I wonder if certain Lords spiritual and temporal – namely, useful idiots ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers – were among the hecklers…
Sheilagh: You can bet they were, loudly expressing their virtue in dhimmitude.
I posted on another thread that, as children, we promised to “do our duty to God and The Queen”.
It is pity that God, in the person of these crows, and The Queen, didn’t do their duty to us.
There are two underlying motivations here; fear and greed.
There is fear because these Lords and Ladies know very well that islam is the strong horse, it is the force that will resort, very quickly, to extreme violence in order to further its agenda.
The worthies in the Houses of parliament also fear for their privilege, it is after all, the best club in the world.
The greed factor is important because London is the world center of both legitimate trade financing, and money laundering by shady and outright criminal organizations. Islamic countries are at the front of this trade. They have been allowed to hold the world ransom while they charge outrageous prices for their oil. Much of the profit, and skim off, is processed through the City and its satellites.
There are some Members who have volunteered to become dhimmi, they pander to the islamic horde, humiliate and debase themselves (PM May is one of these) in the pathetic hope that they can, by grovelling, earn some respect.
What happened to my reply, and two others? I was going to add the further comment that the House of Lords has 109 Lib Dems but only 8 members in the Commons. How fatuous is that? I also praised Mana’s reply which seems to have been modded out.
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Asia Bibi’s words blaze out like fire in a world of moral darkness.
In my view, the case of Asia Bibi in Pakistan is sufficient grounds for picketing Pakistan and issuing sanctions against it by concerned countries including the US, the UK and other Western countries. This is the same country that beheaded Daniel Pearl and got away scot-free.
The case of Jamal Khashoggi and the call for sanctions against Saudi Arabia pales in comparison. The latter was a powerful journalist causing ruffles in the Saudi Kingdom. The other was a hapless fruit picker going to quench her thirst. The slaying of Asia Bibi will be a harder slap to western ideas of liberty than anything that may have happened to J Khashoggi.
In the once proud and progressive (in the true sense) West our leaders have become hopelessly squeamish and feminised. They are fearful of appearing to be aggressors, trapped as they are by a widespread pacifist morality.
Self-condemnation and confession have become prime virtues for a political class terrified of the media and the “twitter mob”. It is now routine for a public figure to be pressed to issue a retraction or apology for a politically incorrect statement. Do these people, so ready to publically confess their alleged sins, have no conception of the damage their cowardice is doing? Do they have no backbone? Perhaps they just tell themselves that they have come round to “doing the right thing”.
Today I read a report that a bunch of well-meaning idiot plane passengers prevented the deportation of a Somali criminal guilty of gang rape. I guess these dopes imagined they were making a brave stand for freedom and justice. Without even bothering to find out why the man was being deported they just assumed the authorities must, by their very nature, be in the wrong and the man, because he was black, must be a victim of racist injustice. Moral shallowness does not begin to describe this kind of idiocy.
Our left leaning educational establishment and popular media have captured the minds of a whole generation (and maybe more). For many people, conservative views are now all but taboo. These are the kind of people who will put a repressive Corbynite goverment into power, congratulating themselves on their virtue while doing so. The worst is yet to come.
Well said! The House of Lords once again demonstrates the utter fatuity of its contribution to government. Reform it now!
“Reform it now!”??
Not a denizen of Fair Albion, but my understanding was that it was already reformed by Cherie and Tony Blair, your co-prime ministers in the 1990s.
Perhaps you’re advocating a return to the days of the Chinless Wonders like the Earl of Blandings when he was entitled to park his bum there by right of birth?
The House of lords certainly needs reform. Perhaps a model can be found in the original US Constitution.
Every County in Britain, there are approximately 65, shall have two Senators, appointed by the Lords-Lieutenant of each County in agreement with the municipal authorities of each County. They shall serve in Westminster as the representatives of the interests of each County and shall have veto power over Acts of the Commons.
Legislation shall be approved and presented to the Monarch after a procedure of agreement between Senate and Commons.
One of the the worst thing that the US ever did was to pass the 17th amendment, that made Senators elected representatives, they thereafter became the prisoners of party, unable to represent their home States, as had been the intention in the original Constitution.
Another thing, you absolutely need to get rid of FPTP, it is completely undemocratic.