A Tale of Two Censors
JK Rowling, being a multi-millionaire can afford to dare Hamza Yousaf’s thought police challenging them to arrest her over her views about trans folks and their ideology. An average citizen of Scotland or an English or Welsh person visiting the land of William Wallace cannot take the risk of holding even a private conversation with family, friends, colleagues, or a stranger in a bar, fearing they might get snitched over to the Scottish police with allegations of hate crimes of sorts.
Such is the evolving wokeism and degradation of freedom of thought and expression in supposedly modern-day Scotland under the first indirectly elected Muslim First Minister of the nation. Sadly, the implications of holding, and worse, expressing unapproved and unpalatable views as determined by the hard left, do not stop at the Hadrian’s Wall. The threat might not be that of potential arrest by the Police, not yet at least, but there certainly are severe repercussions awaiting culprits having committed free-thinking, within England and Wales as well.
From frowning looks to ostracization by friends and family to intimidation and abuse on social media by strangers and the potential loss of employment is the spectrum of threats that people face in 2024 AD when they do not conform to the new, oppressive norms of society.
Had it been only confined to views about the biologically or ideologically determined status of the genders of inmates at Belmarsh or celebrities in Belgrave, that grey area might have been invoked, where freedom to hold personal thoughts and infringement of the rights of individuals to lead their lives could have been the subject of debates. The bastions once holding the front line for free speech and expression are today vehemently arguing for the imposition of censorship and justifying de-platforming students, academics and politicians based on hurt feelings alone. However, the imposition of Orwellian censorship extends to other areas more profoundly and with far too severe consequences for those daring to cross the deep red line.
That line is criticism of aspects of one religion alone regardless of it being based on the actions of some of its adherents. That religion is Islam and the criticism routinely and primarily towards the political interpretation of the very faith.
From 9/11 to 7/7, from the Madrid bombings to the slaughter of children at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester and the fact that the organized grooming gangs operating out of minicab and takeaway trades in the northern smaller towns of England comprised mainly Muslims of various dual nationalities, all fingers point towards twisted interpretations of the Islamic faith.
And yet, the mere association of the faith with terrorist and extremist activities is sufficient grounds to hound the so-called perpetrators stating the obvious.
Political correctness has proverbially gagged individuals, preventing them from discussing and openly sharing their opinions about the Islamic faith and the actions of its adherents in workplaces, social settings and certainly on social media.
Creating hatred against Muslims on the grounds of them being Muslims is one thing and that also is a repugnant action. At the same time, calling out Islamism, based on the abundant reported news items showcasing the horrors inflicted by criminal-minded and extremist Muslims doesn’t imply hatred for all the 2 billion Muslims worldwide. On the contrary, it serves to separate the Islamists from the rest of the Muslims, especially in the West, who live law-abiding, non-extremist albeit socially conservative lives.
Take for example pointing out the hypocrisy of central London’s most famous Borough of Westminster, where festive lights celebrating the Islamic month of Ramadhan, (Ramzan, the non-Islamised word used by the majority of South Asians) were switched on covering a main thoroughfare at Piccadilly Circus by none other than the Muslim Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. However, come Easter, the Council had to be reminded by a Councillor that they also owed an obligation to the often-forgotten Christians of the country. Henceforth, at 5 pm the day before Good Friday, a nondescript table was hastily set up next to one of the nondescript council office entrances, with an assortment of Easter Eggs and some other paraphernalia associated with the religious event revered by Christians. It should not be forgotten that the festive time of the year is equally enjoyed by millions of others especially due to the commercial trimmings that come with it – including some decent sales in stores in the area bringing back vital revenue to the area.
Anyone pointing out the double standards applied to the faiths of Islam and Christianity would be labelled as Islamophobic, racist and of course, a far-right supporter. Such is the practice of mislabelling also supported by the Mayor of London who insisted people opposing his hated extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone into areas of London not experiencing bad air quality as do the people in inner London, were bigoted, far-right extremists. The street crime-ridden London saw an allocation to the Hate Crime Unit where online alleged crimes were to be investigated whilst daylight robberies, gang-related warfare and other crime statistics rose. The main thrust of the Unit’s abysmal activities is based on people reporting others having been suspected of committing a hate crime. Perhaps the Councillor complaining about the lack of Easter celebratory bunnies and buntings would have fallen foul of the hate crime threshold and would have been visited by the Met Police, the same who don’t bother turning up at scenes of burglaries or car thefts.
Perhaps FM Yousuf has taken a leaf out of the London Mayor’s manual of silencing his critics that he introduced his own hate crime bill. It should come as no surprise that within 24 hours there had been a deluge of snitches by the people of Scotland who felt it was their civic duty to report anyone holding views not conforming to the woke leftist standards of our time. We have yet to see how Hamza’s intended blasphemy laws are faring for the people of Scotland.
Life in London under the Labour Mayor has reached such a low, that Police officers take to explaining the “context” and relevance of Nazi Swastikas paraded on the streets of London by some pro-Palestinian protestors, to those complaining about the presence of this vile symbol. Wouldn’t it be wonderful that the officer had instead called his buddies in the Hate Crime Unit to apprehend the Swastika-bearing folks, at least helping them to justify their salaries?
Rounding back to Scotland, the new bill aimed at silencing those who oppose Yousaf’s Thought Policing Law, the target population potentially most likely to get hauled before the courts would be those conservative-minded Muslims who hold strong views against the presence of LGBT rights and women’s equal status in society as well as those harbouring anti-Zionist feelings verging on and sometimes crossing antisemitic thresholds.
What possibly could be the reaction of the Scottish government and the Police services when the reported hate crimes are alleged to have been committed by members of the Muslim communities or other ethnic minorities, having expressed socially conservative views? In most likelihood, such complaints against these community members would be brushed off citing ignorance about their diverse culture and the complainants themselves investigated for having perpetuated a hate crime by even considering such a complaint in the first instance.
The criminalization of thought and expression is reaching such absurd levels that the people of Britain are now facing a choice between abandoning the traditional two or three main political parties and opting for new entrants like Reform as a means to register their disgust at the direction of travel this nation is being forced to adapt. It should be remembered by a potential incoming Labour government later this year, that they will be required to work with European counterparts that are increasingly being led by right-wing and so-called far-right components of their coalition set-ups. Something the likes of hard-left Labour ministers will find hard to digest. At the same time, they will also need to come to terms with a possible Trump-in-White-House-again administration taking power across the pond.
Bearing in mind the evolving situation in Britain that fought the book-burning Nazis, with people’s livelihoods being threatened by fire over their views, the segment of society that is being squashed down the middle is the chunk of moderate Muslims who remain practicing yet value secularism and are certainly not extremist minded. The left and the Islamists hate it that some Muslims do not conform to their view of the world which is either that all Muslims are perpetual victims of so-called Islamophobia and racism, or that there is simply no allowance in Islam to be a moderate Muslim.
Be that Khan’s London or Yousuf’s Scotland, spaces for public discourse are being squeezed rapidly for this set of communities at an alarming rate with no hope in sight for them to get rescued.