Tuesday, November 04, 2014

British Left Begins to See the Light . . .

Kurdish Defender Against Islamic State
Photo: Fabio Bucciarelli/Getty
The Spectator

The Left has been very conspicuously silent about Islamism for many years now, but some Leftists appear to be waking up to the danger, now that the Islamic State has made Islamism's genocidal, misogynistic, theocratic imperialism all but impossible to ignore. Still, one can't but be surprised to hear this critique from the Left.

Nick Cohen's headline in The Spectator says it all: "Solidarity for the Kurds from - er - the British left. This is is not a misprint" (November 1, 2014).

Cohen then quotes Gary Kent - of the Labour Friends of Iraq - who simply admits:
The Labour movement has been behind the curve in getting behind the Kurds and our grassroots plea for practical action now aims to galvanise solidarity to avert further genocide and horrific crimes against women by Isis.
The Labour Friends of Iraq then get down to nitty-gritty:
We, non-Kurdish members of the British Labour Party and Trade Unions, are calling for an urgent and significant increase in the support from Britain and other countries to the people defending the world against the onslaught of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). The Kurds of Kobani, Rojava and the Kurdistan Region, including Yezidis, Christians and other minorities, are on the front line of a global battle against the vilest fascism of our age. We must help them, we must call on the world to help them, and this help must be given by whatever means necessary. The Labour movement is an internationalist movement which understands deeply the plight of those who suffer under tyranny. We must now stand united in our efforts to secure changes to current UK government policy in this conflict.

The images of grandmothers and grandfathers fighting, and often dying, alongside their younger families is something almost impossible for us in Britain to comprehend. The tales of beheadings, the abandoned dead bodies of women with their breasts cut off, men with their eyes gouged out, sex slavery, genocides and mass executions, and reports of the burning skin of possible acid attacks are too horrific for the British Left to give a half hearted response, or worse.

We in Britain are privileged to live in a peaceful, liberal, secular and democratic society, and we must never forgot that such a society had to be fought for, won and defended. It did not happen through some passive progressive evolution, but was won and preserved through progressive politics, through agitation, and most recently through war against Nazism. Now, a powerful horror is being unleashed into the world by ISIS, who believe they are carrying out divine work. They will not give up, they will not stop. They have to be taken on, and defeated, and this has to be done intellectually, spiritually, and practically. The Labour Party does not turn away from those in need. We help. And we must do so with great urgency now.
Maybe the British Left will also learn to look at the Islamists at home in Britain and realize that critics of radical Islam are not suffering from some illness called "Islamophobia." If the Left now is going to support the fight against Islamism abroad, they'll also need to take the fight to the homefront. Too often, the Muslim leaders they talk to and listen to are not genuine moderates, but Islamists posing as moderates. The Left needs to listen to what these 'moderates' say in their own languages, for they often turn out to immoderates . . .

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4 Comments:

At 9:53 AM, Blogger John from Daejeon said...

60 Minutes did a great piece on these brainwashed religious cult fanatics.

I can only imagine what would happen if these murderous thugs tried stopping drinking alcohol in the U.S. like they are doing in the U.K.

 
At 10:42 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Thanks for the link. Now if I can just find sixty minutes to spare . . .

As for the thugs, you mean the sharia patrols? Britain needs to decide whether or not its secular law trumps sharia.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 11:26 AM, Blogger John from Daejeon said...

Grand total of the entire piece, including the 60 Minutes Overtime clip, "Face to face with an extemeist," is around 20 minutes, but you can read most of the transcript as it was pretty much printed word for word in the accompanying article.

Yeah, those muslim patrols are definitely thugs, but you have to acknowledge that these extremist lowlifes are pretty adept at twitting and other social media as well as intimidating so-called uncouth women on their walkabouts. It must have really bothered their buffoonish leader to have to deal with a western woman as his interviewer and her adept way of interrupting his vile message.

 
At 11:57 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Thanks again. I might be able to use some of this next semester.

Jeffery Hodges

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