Monday, June 22, 2015

Voices from the echo chamber


I see that my favourite unelected, ex-Conservative political cry-baby Baroness Warsi has been in the news again. This time she's criticising David Cameron for stating the bleeding obvious in a recent speech, i.e. that Muslims who quietly condone the prejudices of Islamic extremists like ISIS help to add weight to a narrative that may in turn lead to the radicalisation of weak minded and vulnerable people. This seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable and logical thing to assert, we all know that indoctrination with irrational dogma (religious or otherwise) and peer pressure combined with a feeling of cultural isolation does indeed create some rather odd responses; much like the flight to war-torn Syria of three Bradford sisters and their nine children within the last few weeks.

Warsi seems to confirm every stereotype we are advised not to parody. When politicians like Cameron draw obvious conclusions she claims it's an "attack" on all UK Muslims. That's like listening to a police spokesperson asking people not to turn a blind eye to drink driving and then accusing them of "attacking" everyone who's ever had a pint in a pub. Why such over-reaction? It seems to me that people like Warsi are part of the problem rather than part of the solution, she clearly shares a very undesirable characteristic with the fundamentalists, i.e. she will not listen to or properly engage with arguments against her position, debate = "attack" in her mind, for me this exposes a very worrying alignment with the medieval theocratic attitudes running riot in the Middle East right now; ironically the exact point the PM was making in his speech.

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