Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

SORTING OUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "THE "UNITED KINGDOM," "GREAT BRITAIN," AND "ENGLAND"

I found this VIDEO helpful.

 

BRITAIN'S LOST FREEDOMS

Dale Hurd reports for CBN News:

 

LONDON - America owes much of its freedom to its British heritage. But today, Britain is losing its freedom.

Many Americans were stunned when British authorities arrested Liberty Great Britain party leader Paul Weston in April for publicly reciting Winston Churchill's criticism of Islam.

The calendar might say it's 2014, but in Britain it's starting to feel like George Orwell's "1984" because "Big Brother" has decided that certain things can no longer be said. 

Arrested over Churchill

Weston quoted from Winston Churchill's book, The River War, in which he wrote:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia (rabies) in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith."

As a young officer, Churchill fought Muslim jihadists in Sudan and believed Islam was a dangerous religion.

Weston chose to publicly quote Churchill because he thought that in today's politically correct Britain, comparing Islam to rabies--as Churchill did--would likely get him reported to police and arrested.

It did.

"I wanted to make the point that, if it's really become so bad in this country that you can no longer quote the words of the greatest living Englishman, then we really need to look seriously at what we can still say in this country," Weston said.

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO LIVE IN A SOCIALIST STATE?

The following will be eye opening to many.  A British friend now living in America, Maureen Fuller, describes her experience living in England:

What is it like to live in a socialist state? As a British immigrant to the USA and having just recently lived and worked again in the UK for seven years, here are some views I would like you to ponder.

Health care

The national health care system is 'free'. You can always see a primary care doctor,  but if you need a specialist you may be referred and wait many months.  If over 65, you may not see a specialist, or even be able to have some operations. End of life care is without proper caring and dignity in a hospital, unlike the caring we expect here. If you are admitted to a hospital, you will be  in a ward together with 6 or more patients who may be mixed gender. If you need an X-ray you will have to wait, as doctors do not have X-ray machines or scanners in their offices, so you are sent to a hospital.  Hospitals are not clean and have a high infection rate. Because of the lack of specialists you will not likely be referred to one easily. If you do get an appointment, you may see his assistant instead. Doctors will not talk to you in hospitals. Amazing as this may seem, I found you can be standing next to a specialist and his nurse but you have to talk to the nurse, who in turn relays it to the doctor, as if translating for you, but you are all speaking English. You are not expected to ask the doctor about your condition;  you are just the patient.  It is all very impersonal. Doctors were very surprised when I asked questions. Many doctors are from other countries and lack good training. Very high taxes pay for this inadequate system. There are few malpractice law suits, as you are taking on the government, which would be a huge expense. Remember, all medical personnel are employed by the government. 

If you buy expensive private health insurance, you will see a specialist fairly quickly.  These are the same specialists you would have seen on the National Health Service (NHS)  however, now if needed, they can order tests and medicines not available on the NHS.  Diagnostic testing is a low priority on the NHS. Ordering tests is very limited and people are not offered preventative care, such as a yearly check up.  Mammograms are offered up to age 65. I would like everyone in this country to have health care but please, not under an invasive system such as Obama care, which is based on the UK system.

Running a business

It is hard to run a small business, as Health and Safety can shut it down anytime. They are a government force that have absolute authority.  Our family business closed because of a new ruling that required  construction of scaffolding, for anything  previously done with a ladder, therefore, costing too much to do business.  Why would the government do this and who would take over? Large Government contractors.

Housing

A new home developer has to provide over 25 to 80 percent of their homes as government (social) housing. The percentage is decided by each town housing authority, so differs by area. Housing is therefore very expensive.  Social housing is ultimately paid for by the home buyer. I was in new home sales and can attest to the fact, that much anger is directed to this sad state of affairs. Google;  'percentage of social housing on new developments' to read more. I am sure most of us would be happy with the aged, infirm and disabled being helped in this way.  I am talking about the healthy people who want a government hand out.  Local housing authorities can also take over older houses and apartments. Suppose you are living in a nice house and the Housing Authority takes over an apartment next door. A young girl with a baby and her boy friend move in and create noise and mess. Your house is then burglarized twice by her unsavory boy friend.  You have no recourse. This true story is my own experience and goes on all the time. Teenaged girls who have a baby, have to be given free housing and support.  They are not required to work. If they deny knowledge of who the father is, they can claim  more benefits. Their boy friends are not supposed to live with them, but naturally they do.

There is a tax on buying a new or resale home. It is a percentage of the purchase price. Taking a sale price of 300,000 GBP  ( approximately 460,000 USD) the tax would be 13,800 USD (3 per cent). This tax is on a sliding scale starting at 1 percent for a home over 180,000 USD to 7 percent for over 3,000,000 USD. Paying 300,000 GBP  (460,000 USD) is not much for a small 3 bed house in the UK.  Google;  'Stamp duty Land Tax Rates' for more information and to see what is likely to happen here in due course, especially to pay for our massive debt.

Secularism - salvation through government

God is rarely mentioned in the media or socially. The state has taken over, so why do you need Him? I believe one of the reasons that a socialist government works at minimizing God, is to make the people look to them as benefactor instead. As things begin to crumble under such an unsustainable system, there is again an interest in God in the UK .

Privacy

Video cameras are everywhere in public.  It is estimated that you are photographed 300 times every day, while going about your business. The police don't need to pull you over on the roads, as the cameras pick up your bad driving. Cameras are on most main roads, bridges, traffic lights and many buildings.  You get used to it, but I always felt I was being watched, and noticed I had a feeling of freedom when I returned to the USA. The only upside is that it can help, if a crime has been committed.

Concluding comments

Prices of goods and gas are high, due to the taxes needed to support this system. When our  president talks about spreading the wealth this is what will happen. Government takes the wealth and distributes it how they see fit.  Our freedoms will be compromised and business will be stuck with what is unimaginable to American business and public. Am I for programs  to help all people to lead a better life? Of course, but surely we Americans can find a better way, than to let the government micro organize our lives. This is not freedom.  A socialist government wants people to think it is a good benefactor, so they give a few gifts here and there. Every winter you receive a small check to help you pay for heating. Ever get that warm  fuzzy feeling? At Christmas you get something like 15 USD from the government.  Merry Christmas!  When you reach 60 years of age you can apply for a free bus pass.  People think this is really great.  It is like a rite of passage into old age.  I wonder how much that free pass really cost the taxpayer?

America

From a foreign perspective, America  is looked upon as a nation with Christian principles, despite our President declaring otherwise. People look to Americans for help in troubled times and to help them to be free. America is there for all disasters and gives billions in support, even to our enemies.  I am thankful that America helped to save Europe in World War II. Yes, mistakes are made, but we must remain strong for ourselves and others.  Consider the alternative. I know which country and system of government I prefer to live in.

Please vote.  Many have given their lives to give us this precious freedom.

PAUL GIGOT INTERVIEWS CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL - "REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE"

Below is a video interview conducted by Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal with Christopher Caldwell, the author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West.  (HT: The Astute Bloggers)   I learned several things from this interview.  It's six minutes long and worth watching. As well, click through to read this comprehensive review of the book.

Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan (whom I have blogged about previously here and here) discusses Islam in Britain - especially the role of universities and government in fostering immigration and political correctness. 

How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within - Part 1

Part 2 -

John O'Sullivan on the Unique Bond Between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

I found this article fascinating.

Better Not Leave Islam for Christianity in Britain if You Want to Live

The  Daily Mirror has the story:

The daughter of a British imam is living under police protection after receiving death threats from her father for converting to Christianity.

The 31-year-old, whose father is the leader of a mosque in Lancashire, has moved house an astonishing 45 times after relatives pledged to hunt her down and kill her.

The British-born university graduate, who uses the pseudonym Hannah for her own safety, said she renounced the Muslim faith to escape being forced into an arranged marriage when she was 16.

She has been in hiding for more than a decade but called in police only a few months ago after receiving a text message from her brother.

In it, he said he would not be held responsible for his actions if she failed to return to Islam.

Also from the article:

A study this year found that 36 per cent of British Muslims between 16 and 24 believe those who convert to another religion should be punished by death.   (more)

(HT: Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner)

What Kind of Country is Sudan? And How Should Britain Have Reacted to Mrs. Gillian Gibbon's Imprisonment? Melanie Phillips Responds. UPDATE: NRO Commentators Also Respond

Melanie Phillips pulls no punches.  She says:

The case of Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed in Sudan after her pupils named their class teddy-bear Mohammed, has shown up once again the spinelessness of the Foreign Office which has turned Britain into an international laughing stock.

Her freedom has been left to depend on the ostensibly freelance efforts by two Muslim peers, Lord Ahmed and Lady Warsi, who have been in Khartoum lobbying for her release. .

Mr Miliband should have thrown the ambassador and every Sudanese diplomat out of the country, cancelled all visas and stopped British aid to Sudan.

And he should also have denounced the religious precepts which produced such a barbaric response to a preposterously imagined slight.

Moreover, the only reason Mrs Gibbons was placed in this predicament at all was: because, for more than two decades, the British Government has kow-towed to the Islamist rogue regime in Sudan.    (More  . . - Melanie Phillips proceeds to chronicle the history and nature of the Sudanese government and the situation in Britain)

Update - National Review asked a number of distinguished observers to offer their thoughts.  These included Bay Yeor, Jonathan Foreman,Tawfik Hamid, Victor Davis Hanson, Paul Marshall,

HATRED OF JEWS AND AMERICANS IN GREAT BRITAIN

Carol Gould writes on the situation in the Great Britain and concludes her article saying:

The American and British authorities need to get real about the threat from Britain and Europe and stop concentrating all of their attentions on the madrassahs of Pakistan. The elderly white Highlander and war hero who gave me a lift from the train station to my Scottish holiday hotel spent the entire trip berating me about the evils the Jews, Yanks and Zionists have inflicted on the world. If he is so full of rage, what is the Muslim population feeling, when they know his ilk will give them succour?

What has happened in Britain in this turbulent year did not surprise me. Those of us who live there, in the ‘coming Caliphate,’ know that the threat is huge, is massively supported and may never be extinguished. I am not hopeful.

BRITISH JEWS NOW IMMIGRATING TO ISRAEL IN RECORD NUMBERS

A report in the Jerusalem Post opens with this sentence on new arrivals coming to Israel: "Anti-Semitic attitudes in the UK are a leading factor in encouraging aliya for British Jews" 

I believe there is no future for Jews outside Israel," said Yossi Vardakis, 19, while en route from London to Israel, where he plans to study rather than face hostility at a British university. "You don't feel really welcomed being Jewish [in England]. You're attacked for supporting Israel... You see this hatred coming out."

. . . Shachar Navon of the Jewish Agency's London branch said the influx of immigrants would contribute to an expected 550 British olim in 2006, the highest number in the last decade and a continuation of a trend which has seen about a 50 percent rise in British newcomers in the last few years.

She attributed that increase largely to antagonism felt by British Jews: "They say they are not fully secure here in the UK and that there are anti-Semitic acts all the time. They say they want to live in a place that welcomes them instead of looking at them as strangers."

Surely this is fascinating:  Jews leaving Europe for an embattled nation whose existence now has itself become so uncertain and fragile.  What does this say about Europe (and England?!)  What does it say, further, about Israel as a magnet for the regathering of Jewish people from around the world?  Can the United States resist the tide of anti-Semitism sweeping the globe?  I think so, but I predict the Left will more and more agitate against the support of Israel.  Already it is increasingly difficult for Jews on American university campuses.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

James Glassman wandered around Edinburgh during the world's largest arts festival and was shocked by what he heard.   A quote from his article:

But what is going on in Edinburgh now is no satire.  For me, Hughes represents a growing trend among left-thinking people in this country and around the world to accept as dogma that those on the Left should hate Bush, Blair, American imperialism, Israel and, while we’re at it, the Jews.  It is a cultural trend that I’ve found increasingly evident but never before has the Jew-hating element been so overt.  This week has confirmed that my Jewish paranoia is not entirely unfounded.  As the old saying goes: “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.”

MULTICULTURALISM VS. HISTORIC BRITISH VALUES: A PAKISTANI-BORN ANGLICAN BISHOP OFFERS OBSERVATIONS

Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester (UK) offers excellent observations and advice  in his Telegraph opinion piece, "Multiculturalism is to blame for perverting young Muslims."  Nazir-Ali, an Anglican Bishop from Pakistan, is author of several books, including his widely read Islam: A Christian Perspective and his latest, Conviction and Conflict: Islam, Christianity and World Order.  Here's a sample quote from his article.

It is clear, therefore, that the multiculturalism beloved of our political and civic bureaucracies has not only failed to deliver peace, but is the partial cause of the present alienation of so many Muslim young people from the society in which they were born, where they have been educated and where they have lived most of their lives.

ENGLAND AND ITS TERRORISTS

Today the United Kingdom reflects on 7/7.     Diana West has a must read column which opens with these paragraphs.

Just in time for the one-year anniversary of 7/7, a poll conducted for The Times of London indicates that 13 percent of British Muslims believe that the four Islamic suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London last July should be regarded as "martyrs."

With a Muslim population in Britain estimated at 1.6 million, this means that some 208,000 British Muslims regard these killers with what can only be described as a worshipful attitude, which is despicable. But Mother England, it seems, is home to an awful lot of despicable people.

One of them, surely, is Anjem Choudary, who made related news this week. Mr. Choudary is a former leader of al-Mujahiroun, a defunct, jihad-inciting group, whose venomous pronouncements on Islamic supremacy have earned him a strange prominence in the British media. He refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Muslims shouldn't help police combat jihad terror and advocates sharia (Islamic law) for Britain. During a BBC "Newsnight" appearance this year, the host asked Mr. Choudary why he didn't simply move to a sharia state like Iran.

"Who says you own Britain, anyway?" Mr. Choudary replied. "Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah ... If I go to the jungle, I'm not going to live like the animals, I'm going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life."   (HT: Michelle Malkin)

Back on May 14th, I posted material on Melanie Phillip's book Londonistan.   Steve Emerson subsequently conducted an interview with Melanie Phillips which contains the following exchange:

Emerson:   Do any authentically moderate Islamic organizations or leaders exist?
Phillips: No. There ARE truly moderate British Muslims, but they are a frightened and powerless minority within a minority, and to date they have no representative institutions.

Update: Daniel Pipes (7/12/06) has yet more extensive coverage on British polls related to Muslim sentiment, Sharia law, Jews, etc.    Concluding sentence:

In sum, over half of British Muslims want Islamic law and 5 percent endorse violence to achieve that end. These results demonstrate that Britain's potential terrorists live in a highly nurturing community.

IMPORTANT INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE PHILLIPS, AUTHOR OF "LONDONISTAN"

Jamie Glasov of Frontpagemag.com has a short, but powerful interview with Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan.    This interview needs to be read in its entirely.  It is not long.  The following quote does not do full justice to the interview.

The British establishment, as I have said, has a historic proclivity towards appeasement.  It takes the cynical view that there is no group in the world whom it cannot buy off one way or another.   In addition, it has an absolute blind spot about religious fanaticism.   It refuses to acknowledge the religious nature of Islamic fascism -- maybe because to do so would mean facing up to horrendous challenges, or maybe because the British elite simply cannot take seriously something that sounds to its super-sophisticated ears so absurd as the restoration of the medieval Caliphate and the Islamisation of the world. . .

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America says this about the book:  

In contrast to the overwhelming majority of her British compatriots, who prefer to avert their eyes from the radical Islamic horror growing in their midst, Melanie Phillips has compiled a unique record that fearlessly, brilliantly and wittily exposes this problem.  Londonistan builds on and goes beyond her prior work by showing the role of what she calls the British ‘spiral of decadence’ in permitting Islamist ideas and demands to ride roughshod over the UK’s traditional ways. Phillips rightly warns Americans of the acute dangers for them, too, from Britain’s being a source of Richard Reid–like terrorists to the ending of the two countries’ special relationship.

Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us  says this:

"Londonistan" is one of the most compelling books you will ever read on the ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism, violence and intimidation in the West. Melanie Phillips exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil. This book will both enlighten and enrage. Although its story is focused on the United Kingdom, it could be applied to any European capital or to the United States.