PrintFebruary 13, 2008
Brits blast Bishop but not Brussels
There was a fine display of British outrage yesterday at the UK Telegraph website. Even the Queen herself has now "expressed concern" that the Archbishop embrace of Shari'a law in Britain has undermined the authority of the Church of England, and therefore her authority as well.
Most readers of the Telly blog by journalist Damian Thompson are blasting the Archbishop of Canterbury for openly justifying what a dozen years of Labour Party control has achieved. Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, medieval Shari'a law has been given free rein to conquer the Muslim ghettos in London and other cities. Honor killings, wife beating as specified by Shari'a law, women imprisoned in the home, you name it.
At the Telegraph website, for just one golden moment it looks as if common sense is breaking out in the UK.
Meanwhile, the Labour government is legally recognizing Shari'a marriages by giving official tax and welfare privileges to Muslim men with multiple wives. A Pakistani male in London therefore can command five votes for Labour's "Red Ken" Livingstone in the upcoming election for Mayor. All he has to do is tell his four wives how to vote. That's not counting any grown-up children, who are also obligated to obey the patriarch according to Shari'a law. Call it the "One Man, At Least Five Votes" rule.
It's obvious why Labour is happy to subsidize Shari'a marriages when they are so fruitful in multiplying its voters. It also explains why Britain has lost the knack of controlling hundreds of thousands of Muslims streaming from the terror-sprouting badlands of the world. They can't do it any more because they don't want to -- just as Bill Clinton's INS managed to grant citizenship to a million US immigrants just in time for the election of 1996 without any of the usual formalities.
All Leftist parties behave the same way when it comes to easy-to-buy votes, imported or not, legal or not, Muslim or not. After all, liberals are internationalists. They are "patriots" who just don't happen to believe in national borders. British Labour is just a few decades ahead of Hillary and Obama -- and maybe John McCain.
While the Archbishop's loving embrace of Shari'a law gets outrage in Britain, nobody seems to be noticing that the Ship of State is capsizing into the ocean. Parliament is debating the Treaty of Lisbon --- formerly known as the Constitution of the European Union. Yes, it was defeated in 2005 by the French and Dutch voters, but the ruling class decided to have it anyway. The Treaty is guaranteed to pass because the British political class is totally invested in it. Goodbye, Britain! Welcome, Brussels!
The Left is now creating yet another paradise on earth. All hopes for eternal peace and love and welfare are focused on Brussels rather than Moscow. But the rhetoric hasn't changed one little bit. Neither has the Leftist ruling class which really benefits from all those taxes. As long as the US is willing to sacrifice blood and treasure on behalf of half a billion Europeans, they will keep getting a free Euro-Disney ride forever and ever. That's why the Germans are giving us the finger over Afghanistan; they know it's our fight, NATO or no NATO. But they still expect us to come to their defense the next time they get in trouble with the Russians or the Iranians.
So the Brits are blasting the Archbishop but not Brussels. But the Archbishop's logic is the logic of Brussels. It's the old "peace in our time" reflex, plus welfare payoffs for all. Nobody takes responsibility in Europe. The whole continent has been infantilized, and the United States has indulged it.
One quick solution: Withdraw the US Navy from the Persian Gulf, and see if the European Union will survive without forty percent of their oil. We could do it in time for the next Fourth of July, and celebrate American independence for the 21st century.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
