Grantler

I think about this a lot.

So wie der Islam nicht zu Deutschland gehört, gehört auch der Ramadan oder das Kopftuch nicht zu Deutschland. Selbstverständlich kann Ramadan abgehalten oder das Kopftuch privat getragen werden. Doch gehört das nicht in den Deutschen Bundestag, nicht in öffentliche Einrichtungen, nicht in Kitas oder Schulen. Eine gesunde Mischkost hingegen, die auch Schweinefleisch enthält, gehört als Angebot in jedes Kita-oder Schulessen und in jede Kantine. Kinder können essen und trinken, wann sie wollen und Weihnachtsfeste, Ostern, Christi Himmelfahrt und Pfingsten gehörten zu unserer jüdisch-christlich geprägten Kultur. Doch mit jeder Ramadan-Beleuchtung in deutschen Städten, mit Weihnachtsfesten, die zu „Jahresendfesten“ umgestaltet werden, mit unbedingt schweinefleischloser Kost und dem Kopftuch in öffentlichen Einrichtungen oder mit Geschlechtertrennung bei Veranstaltungen geben wir unsere jüdisch-christliche, westlich geprägte Kultur schrittweise auf und nennen das Vielfalt und Toleranz. Dabei ist das doch nur Unterwerfung. Und der politische Islam wird in seinem Machtanspruch mit jeden noch so vermeintlich unbedeutenden und toleranten Zugeständnis immer stärker und fordernder.

Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are wrong. Small groups of people, of whatever religion, praying in public places is fine. And as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square. What we don't want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions. What happens in our national spaces is not neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make a point about the kind of country they want us to be. The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we are - not as individuals (many or most of us don't identify as Christians at all) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the ground of the Bible and our most solemn communal moments, from coronations to funerals, mediated through the liturgies of the Church. A mass Adhan held there, or in any town square, is making a different point: that Britain is not a Christian country, and that - inshallah - one day it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our constitution. As ever with these debates, the issue is partly one of kind and partly one of degree. There is an issue with Islam itself as a religion which in most interpretations does not admit of pluralism or freedom of conscience, and therefore is inherently aggrandising, including over territory. But with a bit of confidence and a bit of toleration we could handle that - if it were not for the issue of degree. It is the scale of Islam in Britain, and the ambition of its leaders for greater scale, that makes the problem. The numbers of people who assembled for the adhan in Trafalgar Square, clearly and openly claiming the territory for a faith with no connection (indeed, with strong doctrinal disagreement) with the model of Western liberal democracy that Britain has developed and exported to the world - that is the problem. The numbers, whether everyone there understood it this way or not (and I suspect many did), convey an explicit threat to the foundations of our country. Being relaxed about other people's religion is a good thing, a very British thing. I don't mind modern druids dancing around Stonehenge in my constituency (arguably, though the historicity is tenuous, they have a claim to the place). I don't mind small groups of Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims demonstrating the reality of Britain's religious toleration by worshiping in Trafalgar Square. But let's not kid ourselves about this adhan, or pretend that we're just seeing another harmless expression of Britain's religious diversity. We are seeing an abuse of liberalism, led by people who are not themselves liberal; or - let us imagine they are acting in good faith - who are themselves deceived about what they are doing. It should not happen again. And it would be good to hear the Church of England say so.

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.

A hugely underrated aspect of the Dune universe's appeal is how Frank Herbert built a world where people zip around the galaxy in spaceships but then fight each other with swords and knives. It makes everything 50 percent cooler than a world of ray guns and robots.

my conspiracy theory officially, less than 1% of women wanted this. it passed after 46 minutes of commons debate, without public consultation or evidence sessions, it was tagged onto a crime and policing bill while being the biggest change to abortion law since 1967 this is the same country that spent a decade covering up industrial scale raping gangs because they were afraid of "community relations" women getting pregnant from rapes nobody would prosecute, unable to legally terminate, ending up in courts that force questions nobody in government wants to answer so what do you do. you can't face the gangs issue because that means facing the corruption and the coverups. you can't arrest the girls because that leads back to the gangs again. so you make the abortions legal and stop talking about the rapes