We are all aware of the barbaric acts of ISIS, al Qaeda and the others flying the Black Flag. Sadly their violence continues to kill innocents around the world and here at home. They fight in the cause of Jihad to impose their totalitarian religion on all people. But they are not the only ones working toward that goal. There are other Islamist groups who seem much less dangerous on the surface, but actually represent an even more insidious threat to free western society. They seek to use our very freedoms as weapons against us.
London’s likely next mayor is Sadiq Khan, a man who has described moderate Muslims as “Uncle Toms.” The language is borrowed from the American racial debate, where it is used as a pejorative for blacks who accept a subservient position in society. Khan’s use intends to chide those Muslims who are moderate in their criticisms of Britain. He has shown his preference through action, sharing a platform on nine occasions with radical imam Suliman Ghani, and with outspoken Hamas supporter Azzam Tamimi. Tamimi also has Muslim Brotherhood ties.
Tamimi denies the most explosive comments attributed to him, but has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. He does not deny having done so. He is a public associate of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. He has worked with Hamas on its charter. Sadiq Khan’s association with such a man seems like a legitimate criticism of him as a political candidate, especially given the revelation that Khan looks down on Muslims who aren’t as outspoken.
Nevertheless, when members of the Tory party have raised these criticisms, they have been accused of racism. His opponent in particular is being accused of running a “dog-whistle” campaign simply because he has pointed these associations out. Such a campaign is one in which coded language is used that is meant to convey a racist message to those who know how to ‘hear’ the coded language in the right way, just as dog-whistles operate on a range of hearing that people do not have but that dogs do. A UK politics site describes the campaign:
Yet allegations of racist dog-whistling have not stayed Goldsmith’s hand. Over the weekend, an article by Goldsmith about Khan appeared in the Mail on Sunday with the headline: “On Thursday, are we really going to hand the world’s greatest city to a Labour party that thinks terrorists are its friends?”. It was accompanied by a picture of the London bus blown up by Islamic terrorists in 2005. Goldsmith’s campaign have denied any role in the photo choice but refused to criticise it…
In the UK there is a racial undertone to the debate over Islam because most of the Muslim population is also of one ‘race,’ being chiefly from India or Pakistan. Nevertheless, that very fact makes it strange to raise racism as a charge given that the terrorists being invoked are not of that ‘race’ at all. Hamas are not Pakistani but Palestinian. Tamimi is also Palestinian.
Khan claims he is going to take the fight to extremism if elected. Instead, he is setting up a shield for them by trying to silence critics with charges of racism. In the process, Islamic radicals will be protected from the criticism that we need to be able to level if there is to be any hope of integration at all. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali said at CPAC this year, her government failed to integrate Muslims just because it set up taboos against criticizing Islam. Islam is a set of ideas. Hamas is not a race, but a terrorist group with a charter that calls for the elimination of Israel. Criticizing these ideas and groups is fair. It is necessary. And it is not racist.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Obama administration have joined in endorsing a heckler’s veto on freedom of speech in violation of America’s most deeply-held political principles.
In sharia, the word translated as “slander” is the Arabic word ghiba. It means to say anything about someone that they do not like, even though it is true.
Ambassador Ron Dermer said that the Southern Poverty Law Center claims to defend tolerance for those who "look different," but works to suppress those who "think different."