In this episode, we look at Shamima Begum and what’s wrong with the Western world; virtue-signalling gesture politics; and whether we live in a mechanistic universe.
Or available on the podcast!
Tag: islam
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Justice must be justice for all
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
Proverbs 29:7I’ve just watched this Triggernometry interview with Dr Ella Hill. She is a medical doctor and a grooming gang survivor. I think it’s a hugely important interview and I wish everyone would watch it, or at least the first part of it.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Black Lives Matter and consistency, and in that post I mentioned the victims of these grooming gangs. In the video here they make the very same point: why is it that most of the ‘woke’ social media crowd are up in arms about systemic racism in society, pulling down statues etc, and yet are doing precious little about the 500,000 victims of grooming gangs in the UK?
As Ella Hill pointed out in the video, the crimes committed against her were racially and religiously motivated. Her abusers constantly made reference to her whiteness. Grooming gangs function because they see white women as easy prey and justify what they do because these women do not have moral standards (‘if they are not covered head-to-toe they are asking to be raped’).
Why is it that people will ‘take the knee’ publicly in support of BLM, even the Archbishop of Canterbury (plus many other bishops and clergy) will talk about the need for deep repentance when it comes to racism (or rather, a particular kind of racism), but when it comes to these girls who have been raped – nothing?
Justice should be justice for all
This seems to me a matter of basic justice. It shouldn’t be a matter of identity politics. Where are the people in power standing up for those who have been abused? Where are the cries for justice for them?
In a similar vein, when a Islamist man killed three people at a park in Reading last month, where was the public outcry? Why is it that it’s only certain kinds of terror attacks that get the Twitter crowd going – when it’s the ‘right’ kind of perpetrator?
This, at the heart, is my problem with ‘woke’-ness and this kind of identity politics. They may claim to be “social justice warriors” but they don’t really care about justice – or at least, they don’t care about it enough. Justice, if it is to be proper justice, is to be justice for all. Justice for some is not justice. It reminds me of the famous quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Equality, fairness, and justice must mean treating all people equally.
Of course, we can’t fight every battle, and I wouldn’t expect everyone to. But our society at the moment – even the church – will consistently fight particular battles but not others. Our bishops will queue up to criticise Dominic Cummings for breaking Lockdown rules (for example), but will make absolutely no noise when an amendment is tabled to the domestic abuse bill to relax controls on abortion.
Stephen Cottrell, my former diocesan bishop (recently made Archbishop of York), recently said Jesus was black. He talks about racial inequality – and I’m sure certain sections of the media will applaud him for saying it – but he doesn’t talk about this particular inequality.
Christianity and Justice
It seems clear to me: we should stand up for truth and justice wherever they need to be stood for. even if it’s not ‘politically correct’ or convenient. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about righteousness and justice, I quoted it at the start: “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” (Proverbs 29:7).
If we only care about justice for people who it’s fashionable to care about (e.g. BLM), then we don’t really care about justice. There’s a slogan which is popular among certain crowds at the moment: “Silence is violence”. I think there is a grain of truth in it. If we don’t speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves, who will? As the Bible says:
The Lord works righteousness
Psalm 103:6
and justice for all the oppressed.ALL the oppressed. Not just the ones it’s fashionable to show your support for.
Overcoming evil with good
What impressed me about the interview was Ella’s Christian faith. She quoted Jesus “Love your enemies” (strangely enough, also quoted by Laurence Fox in his Triggernometry Interview) and said she loved those who had abused her.
Earlier on today I happened across this verse from Romans 12: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And this is the solution, the only solution, to the problem.
The government seems to think that telling the truth will lead to an outbreak in anti-Muslim hate crimes. I think that’s why this is being hushed up, apparently a report is due which was supposed to be published but wasn’t. It seems to me that the reality is that hushing the truth up only feeds the far-right. There are those whose response will be hate – but hushing things up will not help, and in fact the ones who want to hate already do.
By contrast, what we need to do is expose the truth. Justice, as we have seen already, must be done! But, at the end of the day, as Christians we have weapons which work at a far deeper level than the ‘woke’, who can only point, accuse, and ‘cancel’. We must never overcome evil with evil; rather, we must overcome evil with love.
That’s the only thing which will actually work. More and more I come back to this when I see the terrible injustices happening in our society. The only thing which ultimately will make a difference and heal us – both as individuals but as a society as well – is the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
At the cross, we see justice done: Christ died on the cross for our sins. The wrath of God was satisfied, the price was paid. And yet, we also see mercy: Christ dying in place of sinners. Stuart Townend’s song “How Deep the Father’s Love” puts it like this:
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart –
His wounds have paid my ransom.There is a hope for our society, there is a hope for justice, and it ultimately it is found on an ancient hill outside Jerusalem.
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Thoughts on 'The Strange Death of Europe'
I’ve just finished reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray. It’s not an easy read – it deals with an issue which we as a Western society do not want to talk about (immigration) – but I think it’s important to deal with these issues.
If you want to listen to him talking about the book and its main ideas, you can find a few interviews on YouTube such as this one.
I don’t want to review the book as such – please read it for yourself – but off the back of it I wanted to mention a couple of thoughts I had while reading it.
The main thing is: what gives a society a sense of identity? I think this is a hugely important question which is often overlooked in the UK. You have a group of people living together in a town. How can they get on with each other? You could list a few things: common language, jobs, values, etc. Values are important – we have to value certain things in order to get on with each other.
The government recognised this when it created “British Values” (which are, for the record: democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and respect for and tolerance of those of different faiths and those without faith). Those are all apparently British values which all children are being indoctrinated in – sorry – educated about at school.
The thing is, being taught about British Values at school doesn’t really give us a sense of identity, does it? It’s just “the way we do things round here” – without a coherent system of thought to back it up, they’re meaningless. This brings me to the question of religious identity.
In the past, this country has largely been held together by a broadly Christian worldview. It has permeated the monarchy, our government, our laws, our national institutions (such as the BBC), and of course an established church. Now this is all rapidly being demolished for a new secularist world where there is no place for religious belief. The best the government can come up with is some rather vague and not particularly convincing “British Values”.
Then Islam enters into the picture. The secular world simply has no idea how to respond to Islam. For most secularists, religious is an irrelevance. They seem to think most religions are more or less the same – they believe in a different ‘sky fairy’ but they’re pretty much the same (I talk about that more here). The problem is, religions are not all the same. British Values have nothing to say to someone who is a convinced Muslim.
Tom Holland did a documentary recently for Channel 4 called Isis: The Origins of Violence (at the time of writing you can still watch it on 4oD). In it he interviewed a Muslim (can’t remember who it was but it was someone important) who said that Western laws were not good because they did not come from God. He sincerely believed that Islamic laws were best because they were given by God and not man. (This is also the man who was somewhat evasive about condemning violence.)
How do you convince someone that our laws are good in those circumstances?
It seems to me the only way is to actually demonstrate that our laws actually do come from God – from the Christian God, ‘the God who is there’ as Schaeffer put it. Secularism simply has no answer to orthodox Islam, it is impotent in the face of it.
What’s interesting about Douglas Murray’s book is that he identifies the problem (the decline of Christianity in the West) – but at the same time he believes that it is impossible to believe in Christianity now due to 19th century higher criticism (much of which has now been discredited).
I believe that the only ultimate solution to the problems we face – both personally and as a society – is the Christian faith. This is the social glue that helps to bind us together. This is the foundation of our society, the foundation of our morality and laws. This is the only way Western society can survive. My prayer is that God might send another revival as in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, or the Great Awakening in America. It has happened before, it can happened again. Lord, have mercy.
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Islam, extremism and political correctness
I’ve had a growing sense of frustration over the last few weeks and months. A lot of airtime has been devoted to the “so-called Islamic State” (as the BBC always says) and the many acts of terrorism which have been so much in the news.
My frustration stems from the fact that so often politicians and the media want to carefully avoid mentioning anything which might actually suggest the problem lies within Islam itself – so much so that it’s become almost obsessive. Not so long ago, whenever an act of terrorism happened you’d see an orderly queue of politicians lining up to say how it was “nothing to do with Islam”. The general picture to emerge is that Islam is basically a peaceful religion the world over, much like Christianity, and there are only a tiny fringe group of extremists who aren’t “real” Muslims causing the problems. And, of course, anyone who dares to challenge the status quo is branded Islamophobic, or racist, or a bigot, etc.
But even the press has got in on the act. Just yesterday Archbishop Cranmer posted a good example of the way newspapers are avoiding the issue:
https://twitter.com/His_Grace/status/769908084487626752
(Check the source link. A newspaper – well, alright, the Mirror – reported a terrorist incident without mentioning Islam. This seems to be a running theme recently – newspapers will refuse to mention anything to do with Islam in connection with terrorism).
It seems that our situation at the moment is just … well, it’s silly. We need to be free to discuss religion and extremism. And if there is a problem, we need to name it, rather than pretending there is no problem and sticking our fingers in our ears whenever more evidence is presented.
Anyway, I felt compelled to write something to try and present an alternative perspective, even if it’s not one everyone will agree with. Stifling discussion will not help, nor will assuming the conclusion before we’ve even begun.
Coping with complexity
I think one of the issues we have at the moment in the UK (and much of Western society) is that we can’t deal with complexity in public life. Certainly when it comes to religion, anyway. This is partly a problem with our education system – when I was at school, the religious education I had was pretty awful: I think I learnt a bit about the pillars of Islam but didn’t really learn much about its history or how different people interpret the Qu’ran. The teaching I had on Christianity was even worse.
I think the problem is most Western people think they know something about Christianity, and then assume that every religion must be something like that. People know that Christianity has an authoritative text (the Bible), basically one creed which is believed throughout the world, and they know its followers generally try to do good and avoid violence. Because this is the case for Christianity, it then becomes the case for all religions: Islam, therefore, has one authoritative text (the Qu’ran), basically one creed, and its followers generally try to do good and avoid violence. The problem with this is that it’s massively oversimplifying. I think the media and politicians are often to blame (how often do you hear about ‘religion’ as if all religion is the same?) And politicians lately have been talking about “extremism” as if the problem is one which cuts across every religion – as if every religion has an extremist problem.
The snag is, you can’t lump all religions in together. Islam is not Christianity, which is not Buddhism, which is not Hinduism, etc. Western society has decided that the problem is extremism, and as long as we can stamp that out we’ll be OK. Even if that means sending in Ofsted to inspect your Sunday school (and I’m not even joking – it’s crazy that the government would consider such things, even if they’ve now changed their mind).
Islam and terrorism
One of the most helpful people I’ve heard on Islamic extremism is Colin Chapman, who spent many years living and working in the Middle East and is an expert on Islam. A few years ago now he wrote an article: Christian Responses to Islam, Islamism and Islamic Terrorism. It’s not a short read but the whole thing is worth reading, as I think it is very fair and balanced.
I think one or two points are worth drawing out though. Firstly, as he points out, it is patronising and wrong for Westerners to be saying “there is a correct interpretation of Islam, and we know what it is…” Muslims must be allowed to define their own religion. But, here’s the rub, for that exact reason I think it is patronising nonsense for secular Westerners to be saying that Islam is clearly a peace-loving religion and anyone doing violence is not a real Muslim.
As the article says:
There are significant numbers of British Muslims, however, who would not actively support the use of violence, but would not openly condemn it. And many would argue that if violence cannot be justified in the British context, it can be justified in certain other contexts like Afghanistan, Iraq or Israel/Palestine. Neat categories with clear labels do not fit this debate, and even among Islamists there is a wide spectrum of approaches from moderates (in sympathy, for example, with the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain) to extremists
Neat categories do not fit this debate – so the attempt by politicians and the media to foist their particular interpretation of religion onto us is as patronising as it is damaging.
Secondly, this is as much a problem within Islam as it is outside. There are verses in the Qu’ran which are quite sympathetic towards Christians, and there are others which are more hostile. There are interpretive principles which govern how the Qu’ran is understood. However, the matter of who is right on interpretation is perhaps not as settled as Western politicians and media would have us believe. As the article says:
The really obvious gulf is not so much between traditionalist, orthodox Muslims and politically involved Islamists, as between Muslims who practise and approve of violence and those who do not. So, for example, Ziauddin Sardar, a British Muslim, writes: ‘We must acknowledge that the terrorists…are products of Islamic history. Only by recognising this brutal fact would we realise that the fight against terrorism is also an internal Muslim struggle within Islam itself. Indeed, it is a struggle for the very soul of Islam.’
We must face up to facts and understand that we can’t simply make something true by repeating it ad nauseam. If there is a problem within Islam, then it helps no-one to pretend that it doesn’t exist and that the problem is instead generic ‘extremism’.
There are apparently 1.6 billion Muslims, there is a huge variety within Islam (some Islamic countries are quite friendly to Christians, for example; in others converting to Christianity could get you killed or arrested). To admit that there is a violence problem within Islam is not to tar everyone with the same brush. It’s not demonising a whole religion. But we have to face facts. And the facts are there for those who aren’t too politically correct to find them.
Those who want to look more into the history might enjoy reading Tom Holland’s book, In the Shadow of the Sword, which I talk a little bit about here.
Or you could simply have a look at what’s going on around the world today. Open Doors, a Christian charity which serves persecuted Christians worldwide, sends out a prayer email which I subscribe to. Very often the persecution is being done by Islamic extremists. On their news page as I write this, for example: Nigeria: Blasphemy rumour leads to eight dead – Islamists burnt down a house in Northern Nigeria on 22nd August. The Sudanese Pastors who have been imprisoned for months in an explicitly Islamic regime. Hawa, a believer from a Muslim background who was rejected by her family. The list goes on. (And, I could add, occasionally things have happened in the UK too – e.g. a man who was battered with a pickaxe in Bradford for converting from Islam to Christianity.)
The secular worldview
A large part of the problem is the way our society currently thinks about moral issues. We think that our liberal Western democracy basically fell out of the sky – we still believe the lie that our morals and values are simply common to everyone and that all roads do in fact lead to the Rome of liberal Western secularism.
But, of course, our culture – particularly in the UK – largely depends on Christianity. As Tom Holland pointed out a while back, even a liberal secular democracy would not exist without Christianity. We in the UK hold certain views about violence, respect, tolerance, etc. These are not ‘obvious’ or ‘secular’ values – I think they are Christian.
And this is what frustrates me most about the politicians / media presentation. All religions are seen as being equally problematic, and ‘extremism’ seen as a problem for all of them. Whereas the reality is completely different: religions are not all the same, and our society owes a huge debt to the Christian faith. The values our secular society now holds dear only arose because the Christian faith gave them in the first place.
It’s sad to see such cultural blindness even in our leaders, but I think it’s worse when we’re not allowed to raise this as an issue and have a grown-up discussion. If there’s anything we desperately need right now as a country is to be able to talk about the truth – not a nice, sanitised falsehood which doesn’t offend anyone. And if we can face facts and and deal with the actual issues we might just find we make some progress.