Not a bad idea at all
June 12, 2008
So about those Muslim-only no-go areas we keep hearing about?
This Brit suggests a simple enough solution: go there.
Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Abraham have fired the first shots in the counter-jihad: they are demanding a full and unreserved written apology from West Midlands Police, and have given notice that they regard this incident as a breach of their convention rights under the 1998 Human Rights Act. They are supported by the Christian Institute pressure group, and by Christian Voice, which plans to leaflet the area this weekend.
Outside this immediate battle, how do we fight the territorial expansion of Islam? My answer is simply not to accept that there are “no-go areas”: just go there. Libby Purves, writing recently in the London Times on the dangers of walking around London late at night, makes points that apply to all “no-go areas,” Muslim or not:
I am not foolhardy; I stay away from alleys and don’t flash jewelery. But I know parts of London in particular to be increasingly dangerous, and with growing caution comes growing rage. I will not be kept cringing indoors, not by day or night; nor should any man or woman in a free country.
It was another woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said: “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.” So we, men and women, should not grant that permission, and should not pander to the assumed superiority of those who would intimidate us, whether thugs or Muslims or both.
Turning to “Muslim no-go areas”, here is my advice: just go there. Look those niqab-clad women in the eye — it is all you can look them in — and raise a quizzical eyebrow at their alien garb.
Look with contempt at their “masters” swaggering along in jeans two steps in front of them.
Above all, just go there.
To this, I might add: while you’re at it, take your dog for a walk, and have a stopover at your favourite place to purchase liquor. And don’t forget to pick up that rasher of bacon on the way, too!
