Sorry!

I?M sorry but yesterday?S excuses for failing to spot family abuse which had been allowed to continue under the noses of more than 100 officials for a quarter of a century sounded too hollow for me. What hope can there be for victims when they put their lives on the line to report abuse only to be ignored by the very people who are supposed to protect them?

This sorry state is symptomatic of a society which is obsessed with targets and box ticking. The easy option often gains rewards leaving weightier matters ignored with figures fiddled where necessary to obtain the required shine.

When things go drastically wrong there is the customary hand wringing statement of apology with the promise to learn lessons. They seldom do if recent experiences are anything to go on.

Postscript

With the ink still wet on the above post we read of yet another tragedy in the death of a long suffering disabled person whom it appears the police were unable to protect despite terbaru surveillance techniques. We defeated Hitler, we hope to defeat terrorism yet we appear unable to defeat the affliction that most are more likely to encounter. Something wrong somewhere?

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Israel's response to Vatican pleas

Pope Benedict XVI has held a mass at Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the close of the two-week special synod of bishops on the Middle East. In his homily he said that conflicts, wars, violence and terrorism have gone on for too long in the Middle East and one must never resign oneself to the lack of peace. Peace is possible, it is urgent and it is the indispensable condition for a life worthy of the human person and of society. Israel's initial response to pleas to "put an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories" have not been encouraging.

Pope Benedict called on Islamic countries in the Middle East to guarantee freedom of worship to non-Muslims and said peace in the region was the best remedy for a worrying exodus of Christians.

Postscript

Now read this.

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"Christianity, Islam, and Atheism"

Three potential bombers have been sentenced today with another eight members of the terror gang awaiting sentence. The ring leader was born and educated in this country! In Canada another suspected terrorist accused of plotting to derail a New York City-to-Toronto train declared during a court appearance in Toronto that Canada’s criminal codes were "just written by a set of creations and the creations are not perfect because only the creator is perfect”, a belief with which the 'Boston bombers' would no doubt share great sympathy. The common thread? The belief in a higher authority than the state and man-made laws.

From Frontpage Mag (see also an earlier CNA reviewhere):

"Now that the Boston bombers have turned out, contrary to the fervent hope of the left, to be not Tea Partiers but Muslims, the media are spinning the terrorists’ motive away from jihad and shrugging, helplessly mystified, about the “senseless” attacks. And so our willful blindness about Islam continues. ... William “Kirk” Kilpatrick’s new book Christianity, Islam, and Atheism opens with a section titled “The Islamic Threat,” in which Kilpatrick describes the rise of supremacist Islam and our correspondingly tepid defense of Western values. Our collapse in the face of Islam, he says, is due in large part to our abandonment of Christianity, which has led to “a population vacuum and a spiritual vacuum” that Islam has rushed to fill. “A secular society… can’t fight a spiritual war,” Kilpatrick writes. Contrary to the multiculturalist fantasy dominant in the West today, “cultures aren’t the same because religions aren’t the same. Some religions are more rational, more compassionate, more forgiving, and more peaceful than others.” This is heresy in today’s morally relativistic world, but it’s a critical point because “as Christianity goes, so goes the culture.”

Kilpatrick notes that Christians today have lost all cultural confidence and are suffering a “crisis of masculinity”, thanks to the feminizing influences of multiculturalism and feminism. He devotes significant space to encouraging Christians to, well, grow a pair, to put it indelicately, in order to confront Islam, the “most hypermasculine religion in history”:

On the one hand, you have a growing population of Muslim believers brimming with masculine self-confidence and assertiveness about their faith, and on the other hand, you have a dwindling population of Christians who are long on nurturance and sensitivity but short on manpower. Who seems more likely to prevail?

Kilpatrick devotes a chapter to “The Comparison” between Islam and Christianity, in which he points out that Christians who buy into the concept of interfaith unity with Muslims would do well to look more closely at our irreconcilable differences instead of our limited common ground; he demonstrates, for example, that the imitation of Christ and the imitation of Muhammad lead a believer in radically different directions. ... What are his recommendations for mounting a defense of our values against the aggressive spread of Islamic ones? Reviving the commitment to our own Judeo-Christian values for starters, and then, “instead of a constant yielding to Islamic sensitivities, it may be time for some containment. Sharia… should not be allowed to spread through Western societies.” He touches on immigration, noting that it’s a problematic issue but suggesting that it’s reasonable to question the motives and agendas of immigrant groups. The message we must send? “Islam will not prevail. The West will not yield. You must accommodate to our values and way of life if you choose to live among us.” "

The family of the "Boston bombers" said that they watched the breaking news of the murderous scheme in disbelief that their family could be involved in such an outrage. The boys' parents continue to be in denial. Much closer to home, the recently convicted Muslim convert Richard Dart who was said to have come from a 'wonderful family' of 'very nice people' refused to stand for sentencing saying: "I don't wish to stand up, I believe ruling and judging is only for Allah.'' A film broadcast on BBC Three in 2011 featured Dart having close contact with hate preacher Anjem Choudary and declaring that he backed sharia law to eradicate evil in UK society. In the broadcast he is also seen preaching in Weymouth town centre and complaining that British culture was becoming 'more homosexual' with 'men dressing like women'. He also bemoaned the fact that people are walking around 'half naked'. Back in London, he is seen telling another white Muslim who has just come to Britain that there are ''many misconceptions'' about al Qaeda. Dart says: ''The worst of the Muslims is better than the best of the kuffar (non-believers), that's a fact. ''That's why the kuffar will be in hell fire for eternity.''

This attitude serves to highlight the problem of recognising authority in different cultures. To their credit someone in the Muslim community in Canada tipped off the authorities emphasising the fact that not all Muslims are bad but that is too often used as an excuse for inertia or even impotence in defending Christianity against militant Islam (see previous entry and postscript). If Christianity is to survive we abdicate responsibility at our peril.

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Make believe

Based on past atrocities, which of these three exclamations is most likely to be heard if a suicide bomber decides to 'martyr' himself or herself, killing and maiming as many people as possible ?

Whether in a shopping mall, restaurant, concert hall, hotel lobby, tube train, on a London bus or on an idyllic beach, most will recall with horror 'Allahu Akbar' being shouted in triumph as the innocent are slaughtered and disfigured.

The recentterrorism training exercise involving a simulated suicide bomb attack at Trafford Centre was hailed a 'great success' but a Police Chief was laterforced to apologise for using fake Muslim shouts of 'Allahu Akbar'. One observer rightly pointed out that a terrorist could be anyone but if, for example, the Salvation Army were to be implicated a tea wagon would have been more appropriate than a suicide belt!

Can we learn nothing fromRochdale, Rotherham, Derby and Oxford where gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani Muslim heritage, lured white girls as young as 10 into a nightmare of sexual abuse with political correctness helping them get away with it for fear of accusations of racism and Islamophobia?

In Germany violence by Muslims against Christians in refugee homes is being played down or ignored for the same reasons. Many other examples could be quoted.

In June, to coincide with the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims traditionally fast and give to charity, buses in London, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham and Bradford are to be used to carry posters whichpraise Allah.

The Director of the Muslim charity Islamic Relief said: 'There is a lot of negativity around Muslims. We want to change the perception of Islam. The campaign is about breaking down barriers and challenging misconceptions. The posters would help to raise funds for victims of war and disasters in countries such as Syria, and portray Islam in a positive light'.

That is fine but Muslims must accept that if the rest of us are to be held up to scrutiny Islam can not be exempt if they want to be seen in a positive light. We can not live in a 'make believe' world when the reality is totally different.

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The lesson from Orlando and Magnanville, confront the Islamic ideology

Within a few days of the Orlando massacre the world has had to come to terms with an awkward reality.

Questions were asked immediately after the mass killings in the Orlando gay club and many made up their minds on the basis of incomplete evidence. Was the shooting a terrorist attack? Was it a hate crime against the LGBT community? Many opted for the latter before it was revealed that the perpetrator was himself gay and had been a regular visitor to the club. So what had Islam to do with the tragedy? That is the question that those in authority refuse to address.

After Orlando there wasMagnanville. Two loners with a common cause. The link? Islam. Both killers thought they were doing the work of Allah. So why the reticence? Is it fear, stupidity or apathy?

The man who killed a French police couple at their home near Paris was acting on an order from so-called Islamic State (IS) to "kill infidels". The Orlando killer pledged allegiance to the Islamic State which then claimed responsibility. Does it matter one iota to the slain whether the IS claim was true? The father of the Orlando killer illustrated Islam's attitude to gays when he broadcast a statement that it was for God to punish homosexuals, presumably ignorant of the fact that his son was gay.

Claims and counter claims abounded. In New Zealand their Prime Minister John Key was taken to task because he would not "admit the Orlando attack was a homophobic hate crimedanquot;. At home gay columnist Owen Jones walked out of a TV debate for a similar reason. His assertion that LGBT people will prevail over Islam is little short of farcical. Of course there are gay Muslims but the penalty for homosexuality in Islam is DEATH.

Continuing their LGBT guilt trip, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a joint statement calling for solidarity with LGBTI people after the attack in Orlando while the Church in Wales offered a prayer composed by the liberal Dean of Southwark.

Only last month the Archbishop of Canterbury told believers not to talk about their faith unless they are asked but clearly there are exceptions. Meanwhile Muslims continue their acts of violence taking authority from the Quran.

One of the most reasoned analysis I have heard so far came from the Rev Peter Ould on Anglican Unscripted in 'Politically Correct Suicide' when he spoke [@7.50] of "not being willing to critically engage with different paradigms, with different philosophies. This unwillingness to say your belief is wrong."

One of the interviewees after the Orlando attack trotted out the usual "Islam is a religion of peace" when clearly it is not based on all the evidence to the contrary. Adding credence to Islamic ideology through silence is not the answer, it must be challenged. A gay Muslim film maker admitted that the Orlando shooting "shows that Islam is 'No Religion of Peace'. Tolerant Muslim leaders say tentacles of Wahhabism have made the claim of peace a joke".

A prominent gay journalist Milo Yiannopoulos wrote in Breitbart: "Remember, the shooter in Orlando was working at G4S and said he wanted to kill all black people. He didn?T get fired. Why? Because he?S Muslim. One was scared. Do they want a world in which Muslims get to do and say whatever they want and these tragedies become common place?" Shades of Rotherham, Rochdale, etc, etc.

If others can see it why can't our spiritual and political leaders? The majority of Muslims are peace loving but their ideology is not. We owe it to them to share the Good News.

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