This is a guest post from The Rambling Infidel
“No idea is above scrutiny
and no people are beneath dignity” – Maajid Nawaz
We live in turbulent and scary times.
The forces of Jihadism are running riot all around the world, spreading murder and mayhem in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Indonesia, Nigeria and France. This coinciding with the recent, but worrying trend of endemic sexual violence all across Europe commited by migrants/refugees coming into Europe mostly from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
This has made the tragedy of the refugee crisis and dealing with the issues that come with unprecedented levels of international migration even more diffcult, because if you don’t engage in denialism, you are apparently a “Proto-Fascist” or an “Orientalist”. While, if you don’t buy into the hysterical, bigoted narratives of the anti-immigrant right then you are labelled a “regressive”, “far left”, “Islamophile” etc. As I’ve argued previously, Denialism and Bigotry are not the only choices.
The response of the political class has been abysmal. The left engages in apologia and withdrawal, refusing to accept facts that shatter the ideological windshield. Far-right nationalists cynically capitalise on this by playing on people’s understandable fears and worries to dictate the general terms of the debate.
With this in mind, we should all be disturbed by the recent rise in anti Muslim bigotry, specifically its increasing intrusion into mainstream discourse. A growing number of ‘pundits’ (In reality, they are disingenous disinformants) willfully blurr the line between Islamism and Islam and the line between Islam and Muslims. The result of this could, if we are not careful, have devastating consequences, particularly in Europe.
Do read the rest of this post here
