Britain: The Bad News Then The Good

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Hat tip to Mark Steyn

Christian Britain is fading into history:

From The Church of England Newspaper:

If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this....

At all levels of national life Islam has gained state funding, protection from any criticism, and the insertion of advisors and experts in government departs national and local. A Muslim Home Office adviser, for example, was responsible for Baroness Scotland’s aborting of the legislation against honour killings, arguing that informal methods would be better. In the police we hear of girls under police protection having the addresses of their safe houses disclosed to their parents by Muslim officers who think they are doing their religious duty.

While men-only gentlemen’s clubs are now being dubbed unlawful, we hear of municipal swimming baths encouraging ‘Muslim women only’ sessions and in Dewsbury Hospitals staff waste time by turning beds to face Mecca five times a day — a Monty Pythonesque scenario of lunacy, but astonishingly true...

The point is that Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as demography is showing very high birthrates...

Today the Christian story is fading from public imagination, while Islam grows apace.

But do not despair; the red squirrels will remain to carry the standard high:

MINISTERS are planning to build a £100,000 wildlife bridge over a new road to protect Scotland's dwindling red squirrel population.

The 375ft Kingcausie Wildlife Overbridge will span a section of the new Aberdeen bypass, near the ancient Cleanill Wood.

It will allow squirrels and other wildlife to safely scamper above the road.

Environment minister Mike Russell has approved the bridge building as part of the £390million road scheme.

There are around 120,000 red squirrels in Scotland.

Buttle's World notes

Aye, Matey - UK Says Pirates Welcome

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From Britain comes news of its continuing mad dash to oblivion as reported by this story:

THE Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.

Warships patrolling pirate-infested waters, such as those off Somalia, have been warned that there is also a risk that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain.

What makes this story particularly interesting is the reasons for this new concern for the civil rights of these scurvy dogs:

The Foreign Office has advised that pirates sent back to Somalia could have their human rights breached because, under Islamic law, they face beheading for murder or having a hand chopped off for theft.

Before commenting further it is important to point out that piracy isn't really indulged in by such charming folks as Johhny Depp's Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. In reality they tend to be a bit less whimsical:

In 2005 there were almost 40 attacks by pirates and 16 vessels were hijacked and held for ransom. Employing high-tech weaponry, they kill, steal and hold ships’ crews to ransom. This year alone pirates killed three people near the Philippines.

So the Brits are fearful of letting these vicious murderers get tried by Islamic courts because the possible punishment is so severe. What makes this more than a little ironic is the fact the Britain has, of late, shown some degree of receptivity to the idea of allowing Islamic Sharia' law gain a foothold in Britain, in some cases supplanting British law (as reported in this post). The apparent thinking here is that Islamic law is too terrible to subject sea-faring, often foreign criminals to but British citizens on terra firma should be accepting enough of multiculturalism and diversity that that same Sharia' law should be acceptable to them.

Following last year's humiliating capture of 15 Royal Navy sailors by Iran, this is just the latest example of the Navy's participation in the Long Sundown of the British Empire. Hail Britannia, indeed.

The Long Sundown - The Archbishop And The Eschaton

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Rowan Williams, the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion has of late gotten himself into a bit of trouble. In a recent radio interview the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Mr. Williams said that he believed that it "seemed unavoidable" that Islamic sharia law would at some point find some sort of accommodation within Great Britain. There then followed quite an amazing reaction with screams of outrage coming from many quarters, indeed: the public, leaders of other religions and even the British Prime Minister who felt the need to make rhetorically clear that "British law must be based on British values". Well!

In truth one has to wonder what all the fuss is about. One would almost think that Britain still retained something of a spine, still had some sort of pride in its national identity, wasn't in a demographic and cultural death spiral. In fact Britain today is in the midst (along with most of its European brethren) of one history's most remarkable acts of national suicide and from the reaction that the Archbishop's comments have engendered it would almost appear that the British people are somehow not aware of this fact. More likely it is just one of the last remaining vestiges of British cultural reflex; it is simply not proper to say certain things out loud...such as the reality of the ongoing British surrender to Islamic culture. How veddy veddy un-British.

Some have said that the end of the British Empire began just as soon as it was noticed that "the sun never sets on" said Empire. Well the Empire rose and the Empire fell, contracting into itself until its colonies shed themselves of their foreign patron leaving Britain, the island nation, alone with its memories of glory and its traditions and the hope of finding its way into a future it had largely set in motion.

For a nation that had throughout history shown such pride-filled vigor it is somewhat surprising that that vigor is now turned to self delusion and self-destruction. The home of world terrorist activity isn't any place in the Arab world it is London, or Londonistan, as French counter-terrorism agents dubbed it in the 1990's as it became the destination of choice for Islamic extremists who were so readily welcomed into “that sceptred isle”. Instead of becoming alarmed at the arrival of such a vast number of shady characters of dubious intentions Britain found itself caught up in the multicultural moment, wherein it was declared gauche to find fault with any culture other than one's own. Taking this sensibility to mad extremes Mother England has gone supine, as members of an alien and hostile culture move in and have started to set up housekeeping, screaming at any imposition of British tradition and now increasingly, law.

Self-loathing has become the new national past-time. Christianity is now only honored in the breach. British history and literature are now only taught in the most superficial of ways. Islamic traditions and customs, many of which are at odds with Western values - the Islamic treatment of women as chattel, the Muslim deprivation of freedom of speech – are increasingly held in higher esteem than those native Western values.

Rowan Williams’s recent comments are hardly the first time he has given voice to ideas that strike out at the heart at what had once been Western culture. At one point he found a moral equivalence between US fighter pilots and Islamic suicide bombers. On another occasion he found those who defend themselves to be no different from those who attack them. On yet another occasion he apologized for Britain bringing Christianity to the rest of the world; an odd sentiment for one who supposedly believes that the belief in Jesus Christ is the road to human salvation.

Rowan Williams is but one member of a nation that has not only seen that the sun has set on the British Empire but is ensuring that sundown is coming to Britain itself. Soon the light that is now flickering will die. The darkness will be cold.