A slightly different version of the following article by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was originally published yesterday at the Free Tommy website.

My friend Tommy
by ESW

I first met Tommy in February 2010, when I was invited by the EDL to speak at one of their rallies in Luton. At first I was apprehensive about the event, not because of Tommy or the EDL, and most certainly not because of the reputation that preceded the EDL and its charismatic leader. I am not fond of the masses, scared of them.

However, I was impressed by the organizational skills exhibited by the EDL on the ground. Despite the EDL’s reputation of being made up of thuggish and drunk football hooligans, I can vouch that they are not thuggish, but rather beer-drinking football fans who just happen to love their country, contrary to the real thugs: the likes of Abu Qatada and the grooming gangs who roam the streets instilling the Koranic terror into the infidels. I was treated in a friendly and respectful manner; I felt safe at all times.

Tommy rocked the event. He has a knack for telling things as they are. He is not rude, not at all, but he is harsh in his criticism of the authorities’ complicity in the ongoing downfall of the United Kingdom.

Tommy’s and my paths have crossed again in the time since. The last time I saw him was in Brussels last summer. We convened at the European Parliament for a conference on human rights, the universal ones. Tommy was a speaker, among others, and once again he roused the audience. I greatly admire his steadfastness despite the authorities’ crackdown on the EDL and its members’ assets. It is a disgrace to our ancestors who died for our freedoms, the freedoms now carelessly thrown under the bus.

Tommy is also known for his antics, which he also displayed while in Brussels. While he was shown around the building, he decided to pay a visit to his favorite MEP, leaving a note on his door. While the prank was cause for laughter, I did have to explain the implications to him and that these pranks were probably not wise for the leader of such a popular movement. He understood the point I made. He may not have a university degree but he has what most graduates lack: street smarts.

The last text message he sent me was from Florence. He was on his way home from a conference, where he’d received the “Oriana Fallaci Award” for his courage (well deserved too). He texted: “I didn’t drink at all. Are you proud of me?”

Yes Tommy, I am proud of you. We are all proud of you. Stay strong. And never give up, never give in. Never surrender!

May God keep you safe.

Update: an article about the Wandsworth demo was now been posted at the EDL website.

The “Free Tommy” movement is going strong in Western Europe. Demonstrations in support of the English Defence League leader took place last Saturday at the following locations:

• London — Wandsworth Prison
• Berlin — near the British Embassy and the Brandenburg Gate
• Hamburg
• Bielefeld
• Düsseldorf
• Paris — Winston Churchill statue
• Vienna — Outside the memorial to victims of the Gestapo

Interestingly enough, German Counterjihad activists are leading the charge. The new Free Tommy website already features a number of articles in its German-language section.

The new site was create in a hurry so that it could be ready for Tommy’s 30th birthday, which is tomorrow. If you haven’t sent him a card yet, you may address one to him here:

Stephen Lennon
A2084CG
HMP Wandsworth
Heathfield Road
Wandsworth
London
SW18 3HS
England

Even if it arrives a day or two late, I’m sure it will bring cheer to his cold cell in the dungeon of Wandsworth Prison.

Below are links to some of the coverage of Free Tommy Day at various European locations:

• Free Tommy Day
• We Are All Tommy Robinson: The Wandsworth Demo
• International Free Tommy Day
• “Free Tommy Day” — Bericht aus Hamburg
• Manifestation de soutien à Tommy Robinson Part 1 (video, at Churchill’s statue in Paris)
• Manifestation de soutien à Tommy Robinson Part 2 (video, speakers from the from the Identitaires)
• Manifestation de soutien à Tommy Robinson Part 3 (video, speakers from Riposte Laique and Résistance Républicaine)
• “We are all Tommy Robinson” — EDL protest at Wandsworth Prison
• Demonstration in Vienna (video, at the monument to the victims of the Gestapo)
• Berlin demo (video, near the Brandenburg Gate and the UK Embassy)
• Düsseldorf demo (video)
• Petition: Free Tommy Robinson!
• Tommy Robinson is still confined to a British jail while Muslim terrorists roam free in the streets of London
• EDL Protest at Wandsworth Prison on behalf of Tommy Robinson
• Free SIR Tommy Robinson
• The Right to Oppose Sharia: the Case of Stephen Lennon

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day One: The Descending Darkness

All you old-timers know by now that each quarter’s Fundraising Octave has a theme…of sorts. These themes usually suggest themselves as the deadline for the new bleg approaches. They kind of meander over to us and suggest, sotto voce, what we might want to consider.

Not this time. Nuh-uh. The 2012 Autumn Fundraiser came flying in through the open window where I was sitting in the kitchen. The arrow to which it was attached made a mighty “THWACK” as it embedded itself into the soft pine of the long refractory table right next to the potted ivy geranium I’d just dug up from its summer place in the garden. For a split second I thought, “Uh-oh; those Early Woodland Indians have come to reclaim their spot…”

After all, this land did belong to them once — something I can’t forget — they won’t let me. Every time I dig in the flowerbeds broken arrowheads or other half-worked pieces appear amongst the other rocky fragments in the clay soil. It’s difficult to come upon one of those broken bits and not wonder about the long-disappeared person who’d begun to make an implement with the piece I’m holding. Sometimes when the piece is larger than usual or more finely worked, there’s a sense of connection. It’s not a great leap from that consideration to panning out to a larger picture — from this individual “who” to the tribe to which he belonged, to perhaps other nearby kin groups… and then to their eventual disappearance.

Fade to black, and who knows why? We can only guess at their eventual replacement by other, later, unconnected tribes. Oh, and yes indeed, you certainly do learn to think these things whilst still continuing to dig up those weeds or make that hole for the new rose bush.

So… what gives with that arrow firmly embedded in my kitchen table? While the symbolism might be a tad aggressive, it certainly got my attention. The paper tied with twine is cut off the shaft, unfolded and brought to the window for reading. It has a simple though pointed message: This is the aftermath. We’re entering a dark time.

Well, duh. We’re not just “entering” the dark, we’re already there. But I’d be hard put to pinpoint the exact moment I realized the urgent need for candles and matches. Or when the sense of foreboding rose to the point of being a palpable, pervasive, and permanent presence. By “permanent” I mean it is now part of my consciousness, and will be a part of my being for the rest of my life. Whether or not my children will live long enough to see something new and worthwhile emerge from the turmoil they must needs endure for the immediate future is an open question.

Now just because there is no end in sight doesn’t mean The End doesn’t lie ’round the next bend. Nor is there any way to tell if this ‘end’ is a cul de sac or if it opens out into something so novel and benign that we can’t imagine it right now.

The general consensus isn’t betting on rainbows and fertile valleys, however. It won’t even wager on children, for crying out loud.

For each of us (individuals, families, localities, etc., in other words, something corporate entity small enough to get our hearts and minds around ) this descent into darkness, this sad assent to the fact that we’re in some strange new territory that feels unsafe and ugly and alien is likely to have occurred in stages. Just as it doesn’t go from noon to twilight in a moment, so it is with the recognition of the Aftermath in which we are forced to live, like it or not. For all of us the content may differ but the process is sadly the same: some collection of events we’d hoped to avoid — or the failure of our hopes that other compensatory events would transpire to ameliorate the evil — culminates in a moment that Arthur Koestler called “Darkness at Noon”.^[1]

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Below is my own list of occurrences that brought me to this understanding of the Dysphonic Present we’re all facing. No doubt I’ve left out many equally serious episodes; one can only encompass a finite amount of bad news. Eventually, we numb out.

For example, the recent news that Morsi had declared himself Egypt’s dictator rolled off my back. I shrugged my shoulders and kept walking. A few years ago that would have made my list of Evil Events. Not anymore. Maybe the powers that be are counting on this mental overflow for all of us, perhaps they’re hoping we will all become numbed to the reality they’re unrolling. The problem they face is knowing when the more robust among us will finally cave. I’m guessing that for some of us, that moment will not arrive. However, my glass is obscured: I’ve no idea what they plan to do about The Holdouts.

So to begin our Quarterly Fundraiser, I offer for your perusal Dymphna’s List of Evil Events. I’m guessing that the one I begin with was my own personal tipping point into the dark, but no one really knows herself well enough, or can gain enough distance from her own heart, to say this with certainty. All I know is that it’s the one which preoccupies me at the moment we begin our fundraiser; I plan to discuss it in more detail in another post in the coming week.

I jotted down a higgledy-piggledy list, off the top of my head — or my heart. So there’s no chronological order here. The outrage is in no particular order, except perhaps that each one would suggest another as I jotted them down. No chronological order, no ordering by the seriousness of the outrage. It’s simply not possible to do that: to decide how these violations of common decency or lapses in integrity could in ranked.

This is just a list. Each thing on it is insufficient by itself yet each is crucial for the moment when I reached for candle and matches. Bear in mind that this is the list of an American Anglophile woman. Your list will differ, and so it should. When did my darkness descend? When did the moment of realization that I was living in the Aftermath arrive?

• Was it when they put Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement without enough warm clothing to keep out the chill?
• Was it the gradual understanding of the extent of the hurricane damage to the tri-state area on the northeast coast and what that is going to do to the national economy for quite some time to come?
• Was it the escape by Obama of any blame for the incompetence of the aid rendered to the hurricane victims?
• Was it the horror of Benghazi?
• Even more, was it the horror of the mendacious cover-up of Benghazi?
• Was it not just the horror of the ending in Benghazi, but even more so, what our consul was doing there? Was he gun-running?
• Was it the appalling and obvious recognition that Obama and his Secretary of State have been shuffling like mad to cover the stink of Benghazi? And that the press is permitting them to do this while they watch in complicit silence?
• Was it the re-election of Barack Obama despite the obviously abject incompetence of his first term?
• Was it the sadness that accompanied my realization of how few people turned out to vote in the 2012 election?
• Was it the final recognition of my own despair and frustration about the hapless Republican Party? Do they deliberately field mediocre candidates who proceed to run campaigns so badly that the electorate can’t remember one catchphrase, one talking point from the GOP? Is this done to permit Democrats to stay in power in order to go along with the fiction we still have real elections?
• Was it the sense that General Petraeus stupidly let himself be used and blackmailed into waiting until after the election — at which point he was forced to fall on his sword and exit stage left as bloodlessly as possible?
• Was it the MSM’s almost total blackout of the sentencing of the “film producer” who purportedly ‘caused’ the Days of Rage in the Middle East? Was there ever a more transparently constructed fall-guy scenario?
• Was it watching the continued spectacle of our fawning bought-and-paid-for press? The sense that we live in a country whose free press and free speech are already leaving? Cuba, anyone?
• Was it the sadness I felt on seeing the numerous “respectful” petitions to secede from the Union posted on the government’s page? I could hear the hollow laughter of the D.C. bureaucrats from here.
• Was it the frenzied mobs of Consumerists, performing their dark arts on Black Friday, complete with the ritual smashing of one another in order to obtain some of the gilt they think they deserve?

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

It was all of these and more. The four years of Obama’s broken promises. His sullen, mean-spirited refusal to work with Congress. His hyper-race-baiting, as first truly revealed for all to see in his need to create “the Beer Summit” to cover his own deep, abiding and reflexive hatred of whitey. His stonewalling of the investigation of gun-running set up by his Department of “Justice” head, Eric Holder, and his ignoring the moral weight of those hundreds of deaths in Mexico that were the result of Holder’s bungling?

On another level of his repeated insensitivity in the face of tragedy, I will never forget my shock when he skipped the memorial for those killed on the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico so he could go to California to campaign for one of his politicos.

I saw a site recently that had a list of several hundred Obama atrocities and broken promises; I happened upon it while looking for something else. They were obviously keeping count — I envy such energy when in fact the enormity of his transgressions simply makes me tired.

I don’t care what he does anymore because it’s not him. It’s us. We’ll have to beg, borrow or steal some trenching tools and dig ourselves out of this hole.

America is fortunate: we have lots of Cassandras. So many of them, in fact, that they can’t be all shut up at once. And it may be that they will make themselves heard, that they will make a difference to how things turn out for this country and for the rest of the world. It may be…

In the coming week, I will be not be focusing exclusively on the evil, nor on the surrounding Darkness, nor on the misery-makers who slither through the halls of power sucking up to the cronies. Some of them do need exposure, but even more than that, we need to know about possible solutions.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH ANYMORE TO COMPLAIN. IT IS TIME TO LOOK FOR WAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, TO SLASH THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH AND FIND A PATH, TO RAISE OUR CANDLES HIGH ENOUGH TO MAKE A BRIGHTNESS ENOUGH TO BE ABLE ONCE MORE TO READ THE CONSTITUTION.

Needless to say, we need your help to stay in business. We need whatever you can afford to give to this team project. We don’t pretend that ours is a solitary effort — there are so many others out there pushing back against the darkness. But in order for Gates of Vienna to continue we need enough money to stay in business for another quarter. That’s the agreement we made with you some years ago, and obviously we’re all of us still honoring our covenant.

I’m looking forward to this week of recognition and re-commitment and connection.

The tip jar in the text above is just for decoration. To donate, click the tin cup on our sidebar, or the donate button. If you prefer a monthly subscription, click the “subscribe” button.

Note:

A suicide bomb attack at a church inside an army barracks in Nigeria killed at least eleven people, most of them members of the choir. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Abuja, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, called for talks between the government and the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. He says that there are no religious conflicts in Nigeria.

In other news, the Egyptian stock marked plunged in the wake of President Morsi’s recent assumption of near-dictatorial powers.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, Seneca III, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Prompted by the controversy over the foster children in Rotherham who were recently taken from their caregivers because the foster parents were members of UKIP, our English correspondent Seneca III weighs in with a few choice words for those who would destroy all meaningful communication with their anti-“racist” cant.

On Rotherham and Racism — Call me Racist if You Wish

by Seneca III

I am sick and tired of me and mine being beaten with the ‘Racist’ stick at every twist and turn of the way we choose to live our way of life. I am going to put the (non-)meaning of that word, Racism! into its proper perspective and damn the Thought Police. I have had enough.

Preamble

An inadequate or corrupted vocabulary can be pregnant with consequences.

Language ► noun 1 (mass noun) the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured or conventional way:
2 the system of communication used by a particular community or country. (OED)

Dialectic ► noun 1 (mass noun) the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions:
2 enquiry into metaphysical contradictions and their solutions. (OED)

The word ‘right’ (wing), and the scurrilous labelling so beloved of the media and the chattering classes such as ‘far right’, ‘fascist’ and ‘racist’, are essentially meaningless terms. The dichotomy between the socio-political left and the socio-political right, whilst widely accepted as a given, simply has no definition. Only the ideas and political morality of the ‘left’, and hence the use of that word, can be defined, for they can be traced back to those who originally sat on the left side of the French National Assembly, the bicameral parliament established in 1791 following the French Revolution — which gave birth to the ‘Committee for Public Safety’ under Robespierre and the subsequent ‘Reign of Terror’ during 1793-94.

The term ‘right’, however, has no traceable origins; it is essentially a chimera, a creation of the left for the purpose of describing those, the fallen, who are not of themselves, who do not in whole or in part share their world view, their vision of how human affairs should be conducted.

Nor, as it would at first appear, is this relationship a linear one where one grouping is on one side or the other. The reality is that in their unbending certitude the left have come, by either omission or commission, to position themselves in what could best be described as a state of moral and intellectual stasis, virtually a Ptolemaic, heliocentric view of the political universe whereby they are the Sun at the centre of everything and the rest of us exist in various shades of ideological darkness somewhere in the void beyond their warm, central fire.

The left maintain, defend and expand this position by the use and misuse of language in order to cripple dialectic and demonise those who do not share their enlightenment, those who differ from the self-anointed. We may be Free Market Libertarians, Monarchists, Judeo-Christians, Secularists, Islamophobes, Identitarians or Statists of any persuasion. Indeed, we may be any and all who have not taken Communion at their recidivist, totalitarian altar — we are the benighted.

My (Angry) Position

Racism is a behavioural trait that evolution has hard-wired into our genes for good reason — the preservation of the territorial imperative, the continuation of the cultural determinants of a given socio-ideological group and the ownership and use of the physical resources generated by that group. ‘Racism’ per se has no moral foundation or meaning, for it is purely a modern definition of an ancient survival mechanism, in application a single-word oxymoron.

Hence when any ethno-cultural group unilaterally — and I do emphasise unilaterally — foregoes the intrinsic benefits of this mechanism, it is axiomatic that that group will cease to exist at the hands of others who have not foregone it.

For multiculturalism to work, everyone would have to want it and work towards it. At the moment it appears to be that it is only one particular group to whom the full force of the law, incessant moral flagellation and the bureaucratic fist is being applied in order to make that group accept its own ethnic cleansing, all in the interests of the deconstructionists’ faux utopian dream, their destitute ideology — which, if it flowers into reality, will be but a return to barbarism.

Unilateral non-racism is a form of self-righteous suicide, and multiculturalism imposed from without and without consensus is tyranny. Freedom of association and gradual, spontaneous assimilation, if it happens naturally, is the only rational and safe way forward. If the Cultural Marxists and their fellow travellers — who, incidentally, are but drones on a mating flight they will not survive whatever the outcome — persist and prevail in the short term there can only be one inevitable result: blood and tears, the ultimate determinants. If we are not all racists now then we damn well better become so if we wish to make it through the long, dark night we have been herded into.

Finally, I am of a mind that it is the ultimate evil to destroy a mind, and that for those who work to take mine and use it for their own ends by introducing and enabling the spread and eventual triumph of a primitive, seventh-century theocratic political system based on slavery and atrocity into this once green and pleasant land there can be no mercy. Now or ever — none.

But, I say this to them, do feel free to call me racist if you wish. I no longer care; the word has become meaningless, and I really have had enough of it. I am going to beat my ploughshare into a sword and that sword has your name on it (metaphorically speaking, of course).

— Seneca III, November 2012.

P.S. Perhaps if enough of we the benighted raised our voices and our pens time after time after time loud and in cadence and declared “Do feel free to call me racist if you wish, I no longer care, the word has become meaningless and I really have had enough of it” we could put an end to this fatal deconstructionist farce. Likewise your ploughshares, or whatever (metaphorically speaking, again, of course). S III.

Previous posts by Seneca III:

This is the twelfth in a series of subtitled versions of a seminar given by Dr. Bill Warner in Tennessee several months ago.

Dr. Warner’s well-documented research on the history of Islam has sparked so much interest on both sides of the Atlantic that fourteen dedicated readers (so far) have stepped forward and volunteered to translate it into other languages.

The Turkish version of Dr. Warner’s talk is below, and Russian and Danish are in the pipeline.

Many thanks to Sananda (zEyNeL)® for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

(* = assigned but not yet received; † = received but not yet posted)

The English transcript is available here.

Turkish transcript:

Below are excerpts from a Swiss documentary about the current economic and social crisis that has enveloped most of Europe. The filmmaker visited interviewed Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Marine Le Pen of the Front National in France, as well as Greeks made desperate by their country’s debt crisis and culturally enriched residents of Marseille who live amidst criminality and lawlessness.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

A transcript of the excerpts is below the jump. The time stamps shown are from the original video, which may be viewed here.

As reported earlier, yesterday was “Free Tommy Day” all across Western Europe in support of Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned leader of the English Defence League.

Below is a video of the demonstration that was held in Düsseldorf by the German Defence League. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

A video of the Berlin demo is here.

Pat Condell on Hamas, Israel, and “peace” in the Middle East:

Hat tip: Steen.

As we reported last night, yesterday was “Free Tommy Day” all across Western Europe in solidarity with Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned leader of the English Defence League.

Below is a video of the demonstration mounted in Berlin by the German Defence League. Many thanks to Nick for taking this video footage, Vlad Tepes for uploading it:

Our Israeli correspondent MC sends the latest from the front lines in Sderot. In the aftermath of the November 21 ceasefire with Hamas, residents of Sderot have returned to waiting mode, knowing that they haven’t seen the last of rockets from Gaza.

MC includes this brief note with his report:

I wrote this fragment on the day of the ceasefire as we sat waiting for the violations. It was a strange time, rather surreal in fact; the psychological wind-down for us all was profound. It took about two days to stop listening for the incoming missiles etc.

We have had enough contributed now for our Hanukkah celebration to go ahead. We have done this for the last five years to keep a community profile; it also enables us to ensure that some of the local children get ‘supervised’ full bellies (even if it is hotdogs and doughnuts).

We have had quite a lot of media interest as a result of the extra publicity, plus some offers of fundraising. I assume this is a result of your efforts, so a BIG THANK-YOU for all your efforts.

Readers are reminded that the Sderot badge on our sidebar leads to a page where contributions may be made to “Hope for Sderot”. The site has been experiencing problems, so if it is down when you click the link, please keep trying.

So now we have a hudna
by MC

So now we have a hudna. It allows Hamas to lick its wounds and start restocking for the next time. Here in Sderot we are waiting for the ceasefire violations.

Whilst Hamas crows about its propaganda victories in the “baby-killing wars”, aided and abetted by the likes of the liberal media and the Vatican, we have to get on with life. This time the physical damage has not been huge, but the psychological and economic damage are significant.

We have all been suffering from fatigue induced by the constant bombardment. For some the stress has been intolerable, for although Iron Dome has taken out most of the missiles, a dozen or so have got through.

Perhaps the worst effect of this episode is still to come. For ten days the economic life of our city has been at a standstill, the factories and offices (what few are left) have been shut, and the small businesses have taken the double whammy of no customers and no deliveries. The follow-through on this being loss of wages and a further twist in the general economic downwards spiral.

To my knowledge, at least two families are now intent on leaving Sderot. Each family’s decision constitutes a real victory for Islamic violence.

This is the eleventh in a series of subtitled versions of the now-famous talk given last summer by Dr. Bill Warner in Tennessee.

Dr. Warner approached the history of Islam with an eye for the facts, refusing to repeat all the politically correct cant that passes for Western scholarship about Islam. The result was this carefully documented account of 1400 years of barbarism, murder, piracy, rape, and slavery.

The Norwegian version of Dr. Warner’s talk is below, and Russian and Turkish are in the pipeline.

Many thanks to Beach Bum for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

(* = assigned but not yet received; † = received but not yet posted)

The English transcript is available here.

Norwegian transcript:

The Egyptian judiciary are defying President Mohamed Morsi’s assumption of near-absolute power. Judges have called for a strike in protest of the Muslim Brotherhood leader’s edict that made his decisions immune to judicial review. Street clashes between protesters and Mr. Morsi’s supporters continued in Cairo.

In other news, politicians from across the political spectrum in Britain have expressed their dismay and outrage over the removal of foster children from the care of a couple who are members of UKIP.

Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat’s corpse will be exhumed in France next Tuesday as part of a murder investigation into the circumstances of his death.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, LN, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

We have posted previously on the dismissal of Chris Knowles from his position with the Leeds City Council (see the bottom of this post for links to earlier articles). The following article on his case was posted last week at the ICLA website.

Dangers of Star Chamber Justice at Leeds City Council: the Case of Chris Knowles

In August 2012 human rights activist Chris Knowles was dismissed from his post with Leeds City Council’s Governor Support Service. This took place without due process, without the presentation of evidence, and without the right to reply. Contrary to the most basic principles of justice he was not even given the right to appeal the decision.

Students of English history may recall that the court of Star Chamber ^[1] was used in a similar manner to silence dissenters and critics of arbitrary royal power. Star Chamber justice now seems to be the modus operandi of public sector agencies in the UK. Tyranny is now able to flourish in the dark areas of vague meaning, fine print, and contradictory policies. If institutions are effectively controlled by shadowy and unaccountable elites do they operate in the public interest or in the interests of hidden agendas?

Dissent is once again being silenced in modern politically correct Britain using methods just as arbitrary as those of the 17th century. If you disagree with the rulers then you risk losing your livelihood, being ostracized and socially marginalized, and even losing your liberty. The level of fear created by the application of arbitrary measures reminiscent of the Star Chamber has made free speech effectively impossible in the UK. Arbitrary justice exercised in secret is the tool of tyrants.

Communism failed in the Soviet Union because it was an ideology that pretended that the world worked in a way that it did not. Those who offered common sense reality-based solutions were branded enemies of that system. Consequently Soviet Communism collapsed due to its inherent arrogance.

Under the Cultural Marxist system of political correctness that now appears to predominate in the public sector a similar situation prevails. Dissenters are rigorously persecuted. When failure is institutionalized in this way, common sense policy making becomes impossible. This is not in the public interest and it is not the mark of good governance.

Mr Knowles’ former employer, Leeds City Council, previously employed 7/7 suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan. No wonder Sidique Khan was able to operate freely and openly in that environment, since anyone who confronted him would probably have been accused of not adhering to the organisation’s ‘values’.

An article in the Guardian about the 7/7 Inquest published on 14 February 2011 stated the following in relation to Sidique Khan’s work at Hillside Primary, a school within the Leeds City Council Local Education Authority (LEA):

“On one occasion, Khan had invited to the primary school an Islamic preacher whose “fervour” had alarmed teachers, Sparks said, though none had thought to query his position.” (emphasis added) ^[2]

Does the vindictive and politically motivated witch hunt carried out against Chris Knowles make it less likely that suspicious activity will be reported and catastrophe averted in the future? Will people be so fearful for their jobs that they will keep their mouths well and truly shut? Will they be terrorised into silence and abject acquiescence?

In a similar vein, is due diligence being carried out in the field of Child Protection in local authorities that follow the ideology of political correctness? After all, there have been a number of child ‘grooming’ scandals in northern mill towns that some people argue were ignored because they compromised the rosy vision of what David Cameron referred to as state multiculturalism ^[3]. In an article in the Daily Mail, it was reported that former Labour MP Ann Cryer had suggested that authorities had failed to act against a grooming gang for fear of being called racist. ^[4]

Does sacking someone for practicing free speech make children safer or does it put them in danger? Like in the Soviet Union, the practice of shooting the messenger damages society as a whole as well as the individuals within it.

Mr Knowles is an advocate of human rights and the principles of liberty. He is an opponent of sharia because sharia is a threat to such liberty. Does Leeds City Council believe in the principles outlined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Does it believe in the principles of the Human Rights Act? Are the philosophies that are central to these documents part of Leeds City Council’s system of ‘values’?

Decision makers at Leeds City Council seem to be making decisions without knowledge. They seem to decide not on the basis of fact but on their own preferences and prejudices. Have the decision makers who sacked Mr Knowles read the sharia law book Reliance of the Traveler by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri? Are the contents of that book consistent with equality of opportunity? If they ever get round to reading the book they will undoubtedly realize that Mr Knowles by opposing sharia has a greater commitment to equality of opportunity than they do.

Surely Star Chambers need to be confined to the history books rather resurrected in the practices of contemporary public bodies!

References:

Chris Knowles is a civil-liberties activist for the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA). He participated in the Brussels Conference on July 9, 2012, and assisted with the writing of the Brussels Declaration.

Previous posts about the dismissal of Chris Knowles: