It’s not every day that Islamophobia Watch has cause to quote Polly Toynbee favourably, but her piece in today’s Guardian features an effective polemic against right-wing myths about the Muslim attack on “our” Christian culture:
“In a daft parliamentary debate this month on something called Christianophobia, Mark Pritchard MP accused the politically correct of banning religion from Christmas cards and advent calendars: ‘Many shoppers find it increasingly difficult to purchase greetings cards that refer to Jesus.’ … Evangelicals started a new myth this year that postage stamps with the Madonna and child are only sold under the counter: you have to ask for them, for fear of offending Muslims and Jews. Stuff and nonsense, retorted the Post Office. But you can bet this one will run and run – along with last year’s myth that 70% of offices banned Christmas decorations for multicultural reasons….
“All this would just be seasonal silliness if it were not cover for a more sinister drumbeat. The right has taken to flying the ‘Christian’ flag in ways that suggest none too subtly that foreigners – Muslims – are stealing our culture and traditions. ‘They’ are stopping ‘us’ celebrating Christmas and teaching Christian stories to our children. When Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, appeared on GMTV this week, although as usual he denied any atheist plot against Christmas, the theme in about 3,000 emails afterwards was: ‘We are not Muslims, our culture must not be silenced to avoid offending them.’
“The BNP has been quick to cash in. In the Christianophobia debate in parliament, the reported case of a BNP Christmas card was raised, ‘which portrays the holy family on the cover and inside are the words “Heritage, Tradition and Culture”.’ Pritchard warned television firms: ‘The fear of violence from a particular faith group should not be grounds for hand-selecting or targeting other faith groups who may choose to protest peacefully.’ Fear of Muslim violence is killing off peaceful Christianity, he implies.”
Two New South Wales Members of Parliament have called for the scrapping of a 1,200-student Islamic school in Sydney’s southwest.
“The report is fundamentally flawed. Policy Exchange seeks to name and shame institutions, not on the basis of evidence, but purely on the basis of their religious denomination or organisational affiliation. Further, there is a distinct difference between those institutions where receipts were genuine – these were largely apolitical, literalist and ultra-conservative Salafist or Deobandi ones – and those where the receipts have come under suspicion: institutions that were pragmatic and tolerant in their interpretation of Islam but according to the report were connected to the MCB. In my view, the evidence was cherry-picked to create a pre-determined conclusion designed to support an extreme ideology at odds with our national interests.”