Leigh,

I am not deceived about the nature of Islam. I consider contemporary Islam to be the Nazism of the 21st century.

But neither am I deceived by the BNP.

To me the conflict between the BNP and Islam is simply a clash between two different flavours of Fascism. There is no question in my mind that a BNP governed Britain would be as bad as a Muslim governed Britain.

And yes I agree that the Poms have been restricting free speech in order to appease Muslims; just as Bracks did in Victoria with the so-called "racial and religious tolerance act".

That is why I keep returning to the need to defend free speech.

Zilka lists several answers to her question "How did a party with an overtly nationalist policy platform make its way into the European Parliament?". Of course, she didn't include the obvious that many Europeans are concerned about immigration and fear losing sovereignty to a totalitarian superstate. By denying these grievances, Zilka is galvanising support for radical parties. Even more so, when she hints at subverting democracy with "a voting system that needs to be reformed". Denial and suppression, yep that fixes everything.

Melanie Phillips: "No, the rot in our culture that has let in the BNP goes far, far deeper than that. It is because it has turned attachment to national identity itself into a crime. Anyone who objects to multi-culturalism is called a bigot; anyone who wants to curb immigration is called a racist; anyone who objects to the Islamisation of Britain is called an Islamophobe; anyone who wants to leave the EU and regain the power of national self-government is called a xenophobe; anyone, in short, who wants to retain Britain's national identity rooted in the shared particulars of religion, law, history, traditions and culture and its powers as a self-governing nation finds themselves ostracised as a pariah... If the shocked MPs now address those issues properly, the BNP will shrivel and die."
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/013401.html

Ed West: "This is not diversity or cosmopolitanism any more, it is a sweeping demographic change unseen in British history, and a utopian experiment as radical and reckless as Communism. And yet not one of these anti-BNP campaigns dares address this fact. Not once did any politician acknowledge that the reason the BNP have risen from a bunch of cranks and lunatics who could fit in a pub, into a nasty but electable party is because they are the only people even "having a debate", to use the political parlance, about immigration and demographics. By all means point out their political heritage and their lies and personality disorders, but address the issue as well."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/edwest/blog/2009/06/08/the_only_way_to_beat_the_bnp_is_an_open_debate_about_immigration

Mark Steyn: "... in the room where they cook up European conventional wisdom, they could easily pin a sign on the door saying: “This Political Machine Creates Fascists.” ... politics evolved to the point where almost any issue worth talking about was ruled beyond the bounds of polite society... if the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain issues, then the electorate will turn to unrespectable ones.

... Canada surely doesn’t need one more delicate flower shrieking “Racism!” at every affront to the multiculti pieties. That hypersensitivity is what’s helped deliver more and more of the European vote to “fringe” parties. You want to talk about immigration? Whoa, racist! Crime? Racist! Welfare? Racist! Islam? Racistracistdoubleracist! Nya-nya, can’t hear you with my two anti-racist thumbs in my ears! ...

What makes the Labour Party “mainstream” with 15 per cent of the vote and UKIP the “fringe” with 17 per cent? Nothing, other than the blinkers of the politico-media class. But if you want to drive the electorate toward the wilder shores in ever greater numbers, keep crying “Racist!” at every opportunity...

Things are not going to get any prettier in the next European electoral cycle... there is now talk of shutting down these parties by using the legal system (as was done in Belgium) or by denying them the public funding to which their share of the vote entitles them. Subverting democracy to suppress neo-nationalism doesn’t seem a smart move. But then if the political class were that smart it wouldn’t be in this situation. The problem in Europe is not a lunatic fringe but a lunatic mainstream ever more estranged from its voters."
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/18/why-the-fascists-are-winning-in-europe/2/

James Delingpole: "The people who voted BNP are on the front line... In some areas of towns in the north--Bradford, for example--white people are made to feel that they don't belong any more... Unchecked--and almost worse--unassimilated immigration is a threat to all Western countries. And it's not "racist" to want to discuss this issue... It just means that you think."
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/013394.html

I think Pericles has nailed it here, yet again.

Our Leigh has become quite the Islamophobe lately, hasn't he?

Ditto with Glorfindel, who seems to be doing a fair bit of "yap-yapping" (to use his expression) on the subject himself lately.

While Australians of their ilk are capable of electing BNP-type idiots (e.g. Hanson), they tend to be temporary seat-warmers in Aussie parliaments. Mind you, as the GFC, Peak Oil and climate change mitigation measures start to bite, I wouldn't be at all surprised if another bigoted twat crawls out from under their rock to explot the dumb anger of Australia's racist underbelly.

CJ Morgan:

Pauline Hanson, a dead 'prophet', was a nuisance. She had little idea about workable solutions, and did herself no good by using apparently racist language to cover what was in reality more a frustration at how ruling elites have disregarded "little" people.

People with a high level of education and transferable skills - like you and me, CJ - are not as affected as the class she represents, by unemployment arising from structural change, and by withdrawal of services from regional areas. (I'm in Brisbane, previously Canberra.) Of course we ALL get the universal rapacity of the banks and the irritation of overseas call centres and cascading computer voice menus when we try and contact a large institution.

Pauline Hanson had no credible solutions to the nation's problems, but she did give voice to the discomfort felt by "battlers" who feel powerless in the face of economic and social change and angry at governing parties for ignoring them.

"As the GFC, Peak Oil and climate change mitigation measures start to bite", we'll see more than "bigoted racist twats" sounding off. There's plenty of right wing journalists and industry organization spokesmen and politicians of the Right *already* squawking about the end of civilization as we know it if we have the temerity to take any action at all that is precautionary about the future.

It’ll be interesting to see how our political process copes with this over the next few years. Personally, I hope to see some more Own Goals by the Libs. Will any more Dobby look-alikes come out of the woodwork?

I'm always delighted to cop abuse from the likes of Leigh and Glorfindel. It is confirmation that I haven't backslid into the fear and desperation of those with an instinctive fear of people "not like them"...

>>Pericles... represents all that is miserably politically correct and hypocritical, nihilist when it comes to identifying and defending values that are really important<<

By "really important", of course, Glorfindel means "my own brand of suburban white-bread Christianity".

It can't be a coincidence that the most vocal fearmongers are those who have been brought up to believe that their brand of piety is better than anyone else's brand of piety. As stevenlmeyer so astutely points out, this attitude is completely indistinguishable from the religious bigotry they purport to oppose.

And this is a familiar refrain, Leigh.

>>I have only contempt for you and, quite frankly, I hope I’m around long enough to see people like you cop what’s coming to them from your Islamist friends.<<

Extraordinary. You actually hope that you are proved right, just so that you can say "told you so" to people who don't share your fears. How sad is that?

The only thing sadder is that these fears will be a constant companion for you, right up until then.

I have read Londonistan, I am very familiar with the output of Mark Steyn, James Delingpole and others. And I know that they share your fears.

I feel very sorry for them, too.

What puzzles me most, though, is that the Leighs and Glorfindels of this world would like us to follow the same path as the Islamic countries that they profess to despise, and take action against people whose religion they don't approve of.

Incidentally, Glorfindel, your repackaging of Pauline Hanson into a mere representative of "the class she represents" is entirely unconvincing. You fail, for example, to draw the obvious parallel with the supporters of the BNP.

Which Party is, after all, the topic of this thread.