This kind of article is artfully constructed. It is designed to make people ashamed to be concerned about jihad, Sharia, and Islamization in Britain, and to stigmatize all such concerns as a form of bigotry. The actual aggressive, violent, expansionist and supremacist teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah are not mentioned, or their existence even acknowledged. Peter Oborne tries to give the impression that the only reason why anyone would be concerned about Islam is because he or she is a far-right racist bigot.
This is a common tactic that goes back years. Leftists keep using it because it works, intimidating the ignorant and easily cowed into silence and acceptance of what is happening.
“Tories have failed to act on Islamophobia. Time for Equalities Commission to investigate,” by Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, July 25, 2023:
The British Conservative party has mutated over the last two decades.
At the start of the century, it could reasonably claim to represent decent middle-England voters. Today, it’s turned into something much nastier.
The party has become too close for comfort to Viktor Orban’s Fidesz of Hungry, the German far-right party AFD, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud of Israel or Narendra Modi’s BJP of India.
Contemptuous of the rule of law. Populist. Flirting with the far right. Often contemptuous of minorities and, in particular, deeply hostile to Muslims.
In short, it is a party of bigots.
A poll published in 2020 by the anti-racist group Hope Not Hate showed that more than half of the Conservative Party members thought Islam was “generally a threat to the British way of life”.
The party membership embraced sinister conspiracy theories. A 2019 YouGov poll unveiled the chilling finding that two-thirds of Tory members believed parts of Britain operated under sharia law.
Almost half believed in the myth of no-go zones where “non-Muslims are not able to enter”. These attitudes were exploited by senior Tories, with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson especially notorious for his bigoted language against Muslims.
Disgusting statements
There was also a massive problem with Islamophobic bigotry among the Tory grassroots, as the Muslim Council of Britain proved beyond doubt in 2020 when it provided a list of more than 100 cases involving party members, councillors and officials.They had made disgusting statements about Muslims, calling for them to leave the country, making provocative insults about the Prophet Muhammad, and peddling malicious lies.
Three years ago, pressure began to mount for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to investigate Islamophobia inside the Conservative Party.
In what looked like an attempt to head it off, the Conservatives responded by commissioning a supposedly independent report into Islamophobia (and other forms of discrimination) within its ranks, conducted by Professor Swaran Singh of the University of Warwick.
This was a very odd announcement. The term Islamophobia appeared in quotation marks in the Tory party inquiry’s terms of reference – strongly suggesting that the Tories are flirting with the idea, popular even in respectable Conservative circles, that Islamophobia doesn’t exist.
It was no surprise, therefore, when the Singh report appeared two years ago, that it largely steered clear of issues of institutional racism and, in particular, Islamophobia, as Zainab Gulamali pointed out in Middle East Eye at the time….
MS says
I ask you not to misuse the word phobia or phobic because it is a very important medical diagnostic term. To use these words inappropriately is to miss-appropriate a vital medical term for those who have phobias.
Throughout history medical diagnostic terms like lunatic and spastic have been stolen and used as disparaging words. To use an important identifier of people with phobia is to depreciate and sideline the same. Have a heart for those who live with medically diagnosed phobias and please do not misuse that word anymore.
gravenimage says
MS, it is Peter Osborne misusing this term, *not* Robert Spencer. Note that the word is in quotes, and that Spencer doesn’t consider this a valid term.
Jayell1 says
Worse still, using the term ‘phobia’ implies an inability to form rational opinions, usually either because the ‘phobic’ person lacks the knowledge because the information isn’t available or they haven’t bothered finding it (they’re lazy), or lacks the intellectual equipment to acquire/retain/use the knowledge (i.e., they’re stupid). So it’s basically an insult, and an insult borne out of the arrogance of a presumed superiority that assumes opposing opinions, and the people that hold them, to be worthless – which just about sums up the general attitudes of islam and muslims.
gravenimage says
So true, Jayell. It also implies that having any concerns about Islam is irrational and bigoted.
Steve says
A phobia is an irrational fear. There is nothing irrational about fearing Islam. Islam is here to conquer – never to assimilate. These are not my words. They are so arrogant, that they publicly make no secret of their intentions. Even so, there are still endless morons within our society, who still can’t see what is happening. Islam is also not a religion. It is a CULT that masquerades as a religion. This, by default is an achilles heel for civilised society, where all the stupid in our society, just accepts this nonsense without question. Our society is doomed for future generations.
Frederick Middleton says
IF ONLY the Tories were like AfD or Fidesz!
crown says
To sum up Osborne’s attitude: any desperate attempt to salvage one’s own native culture and civilization in Europe is by definition racist and “Islamophobic”.
The race towards civilizational suicide is accelerating.
Bexarkat says
Probably true, since the most current version of Islamophobia is even the lightest and mildest criticism.
Eva says
The british government doesn’t do anything to deter moslems from anything. Including invading this country and raping its white non-moslem children.
If I were in control, they’d really have something to whine about, but they’d be doing it from their 7th century cesspools, not from this country.
As for Victor Orban, he is keeping the moslems out and his country’s people safe.
Can’t fault him for that.
tim gallagher says
What a braindead fool this Osborne must be not to have woken up to the nature of islam and its malevolent followers by now. Either that or he is being paid by Muslims to support the enemy Muslim cause. If more people, including members of the Conservatives in the UK, have finally woken up to the vicious nature of islam and woken up to the fact that it is the enemy of all our western values, then that is a great thing, and about bloody time. The more “islamophobia” the better. It means that, at last, people are waking up to the threat and it should have happened ages ago.
Wellington says
Strongly seconded, tg. Damn, useful idiots abound nowadays in the West and the Islamic sphere of mankind must be so delighted by this. Hey, why wage jihad when not even necessary?
tim gallagher says
Thanks, Wellington. Yes, it is amazing how moronically stupid some people in our societies are when it comes to islam’s nature. The Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs and the Slovakians seem to have well and truly woken up. Also the Burmese who threw out their Muslims some time back. I do think that more and more people will wake up though, even the slowest of learners, must get the message about islam’s malicious nature eventually. As you say, the ignorance about islam’s nature is making the task of this enemy of all our values far too easy.
gravenimage says
+1
P. Copson says
Oborne is a regular propagandist and apologist for Islam. He was interviewed on the BBC a few years back where he blubbed about near non-existent “persecution of muslim minorities worldwide”.
tgusa says
Opposing bigoted sexist islamic ideology is racist and bigoted says Peter Oborne /aka/ Lord Fatwa. He is not only a cheerleader for bigotry and sexism he is also a racist towards traditional British people. Evidently he doesn’t have a problem with muslims raping young British girls as well. The universal left all read from the same tired playbook and have so for as long as I can remember. The all around pos is basically a suicide bomber of a different stripe, a snake in the garden, a rat in the grain silo. He should be treated in accordance with who he is, an arch enemy of the historically traditional British people.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The only thing that he could cite in his article was the Tory government’s chumminess towards the govts in Hungary, Israel and India. But none of those governments are anti-islamic – not even Hungary. As has been noted, Israel continues to indulge its own muslims, & backs Azerbaijan against Armenia. In India, the idea that the BJP is a pro-Hindu party is all but dead: there are a lot of govt funded schemes that only muslims enjoy: forget Hindus, even Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis don’t enjoy them. Also, the Tories are more of the CDU type, not AfD. The only British party that’s anything like AfD is Anne-Marie Watter’s “For Britain” party
Anyway, the way things are going in Britain, the Labour Party there will one day meet the same end as the Labour Party in Israel. But the window of opportunities for people/parties like AfD, Eric Zemmour, “For Britain”, Geert Wilders, et al is fast shrinking, before muslims become majorities in every country & it’s too late for the locals
Hudders. says
Osborne can pontificate, prevaricate and point his finger at whom he wishes,
Yet the simple truth is, that the people of the United Kingdom ARE starting to wake up to the terrible evil, damage & danger that islam brings.
For when ordinary people have seen with their own eyes, the truth about islam and the retrogade influence it brings to British culture and secuity; no amount of Osborn’s pernicious poisonous peddling, can blind them any more.
Islamaphobia is not a crime, nor is it a sickness.
In fact is a reasonable reaction, to the truth.
For a small example: young girls and women are no longer safe in certain areas of towns and cities.
Proper established and council encouraged enclaves & no go areas exist, where even police are loath/fearful to go.
Sharia has a grip in many of those areas & with it all the horror, despair and backwards medieval madness associated.
Plus the public also have seen and had enough of the constant powers that be, pandering to the muslim lobby.
Osborne’s obsfucation is failing!
Keep going Osborne you foolish, devisive dung beetle you.
You are helping to tip the scales of truth in the opposite direction, to that which your devilish brain devised.
Shalom says
Excellent retort.
Andy Paul says
Given Islam’s intolerance, it’s sanctified contempt for non-Muslims and its supremacist drive, the question should be “why would any thoughtful person not be hostile to Islam?
Michael Copeland says
“I am opposed to Islam because Islam is opposed to me” — Pat Condell
Deodata says
Of course, we should be Islamophobic Islam is nowhere near compatible with western culture, they are flooding the country, they have better health care than the average Brit. Mosques are a hotbed of weapons cache and jihad training and recruiting. Now they are here, they presume to they own the country, and we should bend over backwards to placate and accommodate their every demand. We are supposed to embrace the change of culture when they won’t integrate, protests, rape, crime, murder and honour killings. Finally, even though they are illegal, we give them money.
Devasur says
Leftists for the sake of staying in power would support any cult. At this point, they are pure evil.
Walter Sieruk says
It’s not “Islamophobia” but Islam-o- tralism. This is because that term is keeping within the bounds of reality for the violent and vicious jihadists are following the instructions found in the Quran for jihad -minded devout Muslims. For the Quran instructs “”Strike terror [into the heart ‘of the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” Surah 8:60.
James Lincoln says
Leftist journalists will never “get” islam – as it goes against the islam-o-philic mainstream media narrative.
Walter Sieruk says
For it’s a strange but common phenomena in the United Kingdom and America’s modern politically correct culture that when it comes to Islamic terrorism there are many people who are afraid to call it what it is. That’s odd because no one is afraid to call a person who engages in violence for anarchy and “anarchist terrorist”. Nor are people afraid to call a Marxist who engages in violence for the ideology of communism a “Communist terrorist.”
Likewise, a person who commits violence for Environmentalism an “Environmentalist terrorists. “Nevertheless, when it comes to a Muslim terrorist who engages in deadly violence because of the theology and ideology of Islam, many people fear to call that person a “Islamic terrorist.” or a “Muslim terrorist.”
Walter Sieruk says
Let’s face reality, Muslim terrorist inspired into violence by his religion of Islam with its bloody and deadly jihad.
Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with calling a dangerous jihadist a “Muslim terrorist.” In spite of what some politically correct people say. This is because that term is keeping within the bounds of reality with the instructions found in the Quran for jihad -minded devout Muslims. For the Quran instructs “”Strike terror [into the heart ‘of the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” Surah 8:60.