British Authorities In A “State Of Denial” About Radical Islam
A state in denial needs reality checks
By Alasdair Palmer - (TeleUK)
It’s a failure easier to recognise in other people than in yourself – but everyone, if honest, will accept that they have occasionally fallen into a “state of denial”, that well-attested psychological phenomenon that consists in refusing to recognise the truth of a piece of information because it suggests that your own views are wrong.
That the failing is common does not justify it. It simply makes it all the more important that procedures for making decisions, especially by authorities, should carefully guard against it: people in a state of denial make irrational, stupid and oppressive choices.
The most charitable interpretation of the reaction of Anil Patani, the Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, to the Channel 4 documentary Undercover Mosque is that he was in a state of deep denial.
The programme recorded preachers at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham making remarks that were not only bigoted and full of hate but also bordered on incitement to murder. Abu Usamah, one of the main preachers, was shown saying: “Osama Bin Laden, he’s better than a thousand Tony Blairs, because he’s a Muslim”; “Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a PhD, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete”; and advocating that homosexuals should be “thrown off” mountains. Mr Patani’s reaction? To refer the programme makers to the Crown Prosecution Service for inciting racial hatred.
He also referred the programme to Ofcom, the TV regulator, sending out a press release as he did so. Mr Patani’s press release claimed that “those featured in the programme had been misrepresented” and that it had “undermined community cohesion”. Those claims were blatantly false, as the Ofcom investigation itself made crystal clear. But why on earth did Mr Patani make them?
He had no authority to censor the media, nor to assess whether it had done its job properly. Channel 4 had shown Abu Usamah the relevant parts of the programme before it was broadcast: he did not deny what he had said, nor did he try to get the programme prosecuted for being “misleading”. It was only Mr Patani who took that step. It is difficult to understand how Mr Patani could have persuaded himself that the programme makers were the problem – difficult until you recognise the power of the state of denial that he was in.
No context could make Abu Usamah’s remarks anything other than bigoted and hateful, something that should have been particularly obvious to Mr Patani, who had seen all 53 hours of film that had been shot in the making of Undercover Mosque. Now he and his force have been made to grovel, as well as pay out £100,000 to settle the libel suit that Channel 4 discovered was the only way to get West Midlands Police to stop claiming Undercover Mosque had distorted the views of innocent, peace-loving preachers. But then Mr Patani is by no means the only person in authority to suffer from denial on this topic.
His denial is very widely shared – which is why Mr Patani remains in his job, and why he won’t even be disciplined. The alarming truth is that much of Government policy towards radical Islam is based on Mr Patani’s delusion: if we pretend that radical Islamic preachers do not exist but are rather a creation of Islamophobic journalists, they will just go away. That sort of denial is extremely dangerous.
But since the procedures of Government decision-making fail to guard against it, our only defence against denial is programmes such as Undercover Mosque. Without that kind of check, denial would take over Government policy completely. And it is not difficult to imagine what a catastrophe that would be.
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I got this in an email today. I loved it. You all will especially enjoy the quote by Tony Blair at the end:
Letter from one ‘Angry Woman’
I don’t know who wrote it but she should have signed it. Some powerful words.
This woman should run for president.
Written by a housewife from New Jersey!
This is one ticked off lady.
‘Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol
And in a field in Pennsylvania ?
Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible,
Burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they?
And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was ‘desecrated’ when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?..Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all.
I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents
For incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .
I’ll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I’ll care when the cowardly so-called ‘insurgents’ in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the
United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don’t care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don’t care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed ’special’ food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being ‘mishandled,’ you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don’t care.
And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled ‘Koran’ and other times ‘Quran.’ Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and -you guessed it- I don’t care!!
If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends. Sooner or later, it’ll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!
If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:
‘Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don’t have that problem’ — Ronald Reagan
I have another quote that I would like to add AND….I hope you forward all this.
‘If we ever forget that we’re One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’ Also by.. Ronald Reagan
One last thought for the day:
In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the Anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England’s Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America, he said: ‘A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in…and how many want out.’
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM. AMEN
May 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pmOh, the supreme irony of it! The muzzies exploit the greatest Achilles Heel of the West–our sensitivity to past social offenses like racism, slavery, etc.–and then come onto our shores and engage in the lowest, most bilious acts of hate speech and anti-Semitism known since the Holocaust, and the libs lap it up like chocolate sauce.
If these muzzies were street gangs or biker thugs, the cops would be all over them. But it’s a “religion,” they say, and we can’t let ourselves act like Nazis out to persecute a religion, can we?
What a preposterous charade.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:44 pmForget street gangs or bikers - if they were Christian, they would be putting the screws to them big time.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pmWhy the fuck couldn’t the Crusaders have finished them off? I mean a good incentive for them was you get into heaven by killing a Muslim. I swear to God, if our ancestors actually did the job while they had the chance, the unity, and the will to do it we wouldn’t have to be doing it with less manpower, disunity, and a very hazy motive. I mean hell as it is we can only shoot or prosecute one of them AFTER they’ve blown themselves up.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:26 pmIf this were the US, I would be inclined to agree. Christians here seem to be the target du jour. But England has a very close-knit Christian presence. Just being Christian won’t earn you much animosity in England (unless you surround yourself with muzzies).
Still and all, point taken.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pmThe tards in English government should learn from the current Indian experience with jihadis. Here’s a look-see into the mindset of the jihadi pond scum:
“Citing from the Koran and the Hadith, or traditions of the Prophet, the Indian Mujahideen argues its actions have theological legitimacy. Scriptural calls for forgiveness relied on by the Deoband clerics, it says, are only relevant after a decisive military victory. Dialogue, it continues, is futile: “there is no existence of compromise between a believer and a non-believer.”
Got that Westerners? Got that Nancy “dipshit” Pelosi, Barack Insane Obama? Hairy Weed? Western media?
Nuf said.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pmwe need a modern “Knights Templar”…
The Thames has been renamed De Nile. Wake up England
May 19th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Rob
May 19th, 2008 at 11:09 amThere was no way the Crusaders could have eliminated Islam from the world militarily. The two sides were too closely matched. It was, however, in real decline in the face of the modern West until the oil boom. A better question might be why did we allow the largest transfer of wealth in the world’s history to resuscitate such a malignant force? We certainly should have more vigorously opposed the nationalization of the oil companies operating in the ME (see http://www.iranchamber.com/history/oil_nationalization/oil_nationalization.php for some history), but given the “accident” of geology that made the realm of Islam so rich in a resource so vital to modern industrial society, the ultimate transfer of wealth to the region was/is only only a matter of degree.