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Demonizing the Wrong 'Savage'

Will the U.K. Surrender the Culture War to 'Londonistan?'

Benjamin Kafferlin

July 28, 2010

British Prime Minister Churchill once said, "The Muslims are the greatest retrograde in the world." Now, the modern Prime Minister(s) seem bent on appeasing retrograde Muslims extremistism. If Sir Winston Churchill were alive today, he would probably be screaming "déjà vu." The United Kingdom's action (and inaction) in dealing with the Islamofascism of today is reminiscent of Great Britain's initial mishandling of threats leading up to World War II like that of Bolshevism, Nazism, Communism, and Socialism. Churchill summarizes his book The Gathering Storm, saying it is a history of "How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm." Those words are becoming eerily more applicable as the U.K. continues to appease radical Islamists to the detriment of global security. Newsflash: Radical Islamic infiltration is one of the U.K.'s real and serious enemies.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown singled-out popular American conservative talk-show host Michael Savage as a threat to Britain's security, and with weak provocation put him on the "Least Wanted" watch list, which forbids his entrance to the U.K. and slaps a target on his back - just because of a presupposition that Muslims may find Savage's remarks offensive. Now, the new "Conservative" Prime Minister David Cameron refused to remove Savage from the threat list, so Savage remains as much as a supposed threat to the U.K.'s security as many Islamic extremists and Hamas supporters - yet another strike against Prime Minister Cameron, who really seems no different from his left wing predecessor. Jeffery Kuhner summarizes the ‘Savage' situation best:

The ban represents a fundamental assault on freedom of speech. In Britain's brave new world, the words of a talk-show host are akin to suicide bombers and gangsters. Ideas must be outlawed... This was not about protecting Britain; rather, it was about assuaging the sensitivities of the country's growing - and increasingly assertive - Islamic community. Mr. Savage has been sacrificed on the altar of liberal multiculturalism...

This ‘savage' situation is not complicated at all. There is not a shred of evidence that Savage's remarks were terroristic or should ever be equated to the level of terrorists. He simply asserts that liberals are certifiable nut cases, and frankly, after witnessing this situation, he seems to be right. Who will they ban next? How about columnists like Charles Krauthammer and Caroline Glick, or other talk-show hosts like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity who have spoken and written equally "threatening" comments? What about political figures like Rick Santorum and Dick Cheney who have publically stood up as elected officials of the United States and staunchly opposed the creeping radical Islamic influence upon the West? Unable to win the battle with ideas, logic, facts, and evidence, liberals (and British "conservatives," apparently) simply shut-up their opponents by smearing their names and making the other side out to be intolerant hellions. Nevertheless, the immediate fundamental problem has less to do with Michael Savage and a lot to do with flabbergasting appeasement to radical Islam.

Where the U.S. recently fails to properly identify the enemy, the U.K. just gets it wrong. There was public outcry to protect the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir back in 2005 when former Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to ban the so-called "Party of Liberation" from the United Kingdom, following the example of other countries banning the organization including Germany, Russia, the former Soviet bloc states, most Muslim countries even including Pakistan, and many others. The radical group remains at large in Britain, a country quickly becoming the leading European springboard for global terrorism. However, "It is no surprise that most of those convicted of Islamic terrorism offences are British citizens," commented Andrea Minichiello Williams. "Radical Islam is only too willing to fill the void left in a broken society where the Christian moral framework and family values have been eroded so dramatically in the last fifty years."

It is almost incomprehensible that the U.K. allows radical Islamic factions like Hizb ut-Tahrir to spawn in the U.K. According to a U.S. State Department official, the U.K. "has the greatest concentration of active al Qaeda supporters [in the West]," posing a threat to Britain and "the rest of the world." Brigitte Gabriel of American Congress for Truth (ACT) said, "The Islamic Party of Liberation focuses on recruiting boys between the ages of 8 and 18 years old to become suicide bombers and Jihadists to advance Islam throughout-the world." The main objective of the organization seems to be the institution of Sharia law worldwide.

It is hard to believe that Cameron is coddling to this radical organization, and refusing to recognize terrorists for what they are-has he forgotten about the home-grown Islamic extremist groups who carried out the terrorist attack on Britain just five short years ago? Admittedly, Hizb ut-Tahrir was not the July 2005 bombers' organization, however, as one British Muslim said, "The 7/7 bombers and the people I knew at Hizb ut-Tahrir were two sides of the same coin. Hizb ut-Tahrir says it does not believe in violence, but the violence was never condemned; they just didn't think it would achieve anything." Yet still the British government refuses to recognize Hizb ut-Tahrir as a serious threat.

It is time for Britain to ‘clean house,' especially since most U.K terrorists are homebred. Douglas Murray said, "[Our CSC] report proves how great a threat violent Islamism poses to the world - and the fact that Britain is at the centre of this global struggle." Robin Simcox, co-author of the report, said, "There are clear trends emerging with those involving themselves in terrorist activity in the UK. It is crucial that this is recognized and then acted upon by the relevant authorities." Will America learn from the missteps of her mother country?

 

Benjamin Kafferlin is a Student Scholar and Intern Alumnus with the EPPC's Program to Promote and Protect America's Freedom.  He is an undergraduate and an Ashbrook Scholar at Ashland Unversity.