This lot are not exactly ‘seeking the peace of the city’ are they?
The quotation, in English and Hebrew, in the title is from Exodus 22:21 which tells of the need to look after the needy stranger, because the ancient Israelites were once strangers in the Land of Egypt prior to the Exodus, and therefore had experienced oppression under the rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Looking after the stranger is a commandment common to both Christians and Jews but sometimes expressed in different ways. However, it does raise for me the question about what to do with the threatening stranger?
We have all been strangers somewhere and at some time. We may be strangers to a new job, a new town, a new religion, a new political view or a new country. In that situation most people would like to be guided and told what are the established rules and mores for this new and strange situation. If you were a reasonable person who was a stranger in an alien environment then you would also obey that society’s conventions and laws in order to fit in and advance. You would also respect those that had given you shelter from oppression, if that was your reason for being a stranger, and not work to undermine the society that took you in.
The biblical commandment to ‘love the stranger’ is ethically linked to the Golden Rule of not doing things to others which would be hateful if done to yourself. If you were suddenly expelled from your country or were displaced by a natural disaster, wouldn’t you want someone to give you a helping hand?
But what should we do if we are faced with a person or an ideology that is not only strange or alien, but is carrying a big stick and is threatening to use it? Should we help them and ignore the threats and the stick, or should we tell them that such behaviour is not acceptable and inform the violent stranger that if such a warning is ignored then punishment or expulsion will be the result?
Many people would view it as prudent and sensible that those strangers to our country both individuals and groups, who do things, or hold to ideologies that are incompatible with modern free societies, are told firmly that their views and actions are not acceptable. If the stranger ignores these instructions and warnings and continues to promulgate ideologies and actions that are incompatible with democracy and freedom, then they will have shown themselves to be an enemy of democracy, and should therefore be treated accordingly.
Those who both individually and as part of certain groups, who come from outside and refuse to accept our laws and our culture, or who make unwarranted demands on society or physically attack us, should not be seen as strangers in need of assistance, but instead should be treated as the enemy that they have plainly shown themselves to be.
In Britain we have a history riddled with religious wars and conflict and because of this we as a nation have developed a pragmatic attitude regarding religious belief that works for us, or did until Islam arrived. This policy is based around the idea that a person can quietly believe what they want, unless such beliefs are damaging to society.
However there are some ideologies such as Islam, that far too often lead their adherents to behave in ways that are damaging to our society and which do promulgate violent hatred of other groups, both religious and secular. Because of this Islam should not be seen as yet another strange personal belief, but instead be seen like a burglar who has invaded our home and is carrying a big stick and also threatening us with it.
If a burglar entered your home in the middle of the night and threatened you with a stick and then you in your fear and desire to protect your home, battered the burglar with your cricket bat, then hardly anyone (apart from a few extremist ‘human rights’ weasels) would say that you were morally wrong to defend yourself and your home.
Now I’m not calling for people to go battering random Muslims with cricket bats, that way madness lies, and is not something I would condone or encourage, as the burglar analogy is just that, an analogy. However, it is about time that the organs of the state such as the police and others, stepped up to the plate, did the jobs we pay them handsomely for and took the threatening stick away from our Islamic strangers.
There needs to be an end to the state pandering to Islam, an end to the Islamic oppression and mutilation of women being swept under the carpet and an end to the folly of accepting at face value the honeyed words that come out the mouths of Britain’s Islamic apologists. Accepting such words without question must stop, for it doesn’t take into account that there will always be those who will lie in order to advance their cause, and some of us have seen plenty of lies excreted from the lips of Islamic apologists.
The British Muslim community needs to be told to pick a side and told quite plainly what will happen, what the state and the collective of society will do, if they pick the wrong one. Britain, worried by fears of disloyalty from its citizens of German extraction during WW1 and WW2, expected them to be loyal to the UK ‘or else’.
Therefore I see no moral problem in giving Britain’s Islamic community the same option and the same warning, coupled with severe punishment for those who swear false oaths of loyalty to the UK. British followers of Islam need to be told to decide whether they will shape up or ship out. There should be no place in our society for religious fascism, Islamic or otherwise. By all means believe in different gods, or have an alternative political view or wish to live near your co-religionists, but undermining society with violence or threats of violence and attempts to impose Shariah Law in certain areas which we see far too often coming from Islamic groups, should be seen as completely unacceptable.
It may seem to some counter-intuitive to crack down on a particular politico-religious ideology in the name of freedom, but some ideologies are a threat to peace. This threat to peace is not coming from Methodists or followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but from those who’s ideas about what constitutes the perfect society are rooted somewhere in the 7th Century, and who have often proved that they will resort to violence to get their own way.
Freedom is not served by surrender to bullies. The cost of not fighting for freedom by speaking out against Islam and its dark side, is eternal servitude under a cruel master. If you don’t believe me then look at what happened to the indigenous population of Egypt, The Copts, who now live every moment of their lives in fear of the descendents of the Islamic armies to took over their country many centuries ago.
We would not hesitate to confront and denounce a person carrying a copy of Mein Kampf and a big stick, we should likewise confront and denounce as unwanted and dangerous, those who carry a big stick and a copy of the Qu’ran.
