Brendan O’Neill reports from London that a niqab outfitted Muslim woman’s homophobic abuse of a homosexual man taking part in a Pride march in Walthamstow has “caused much discomfort in woke-left circles. He wonders how they will react to a public spat “between two of their favourite “identity groups”.

They must be in a pickle, O’Neill thinks. If they condemn the “religious nutter” they risk being linked with “nasty Islamophobes” who slag off niqab wearers. Or, if they go soft on the screaming Muslim woman, they risk implying that it is sometimes “okay to bark insults at gay people”.

So far, the Left has chosen to be gentler with the “Muslim homophobe” than with “other homophobes”, one lefty MP just saying she was “gutted”. A lefty newspaper chose not to use the word ‘niqab’, merely saying that the “abusive woman” was “dressed in black, with a black veil and blacked-rimmed glasses”, although they did relent later and admit that she was wearing clothing “commonly associated with female followers of Islam”.

And, rather than tell the woman to “eff off, as they undoubtedly, and rightly would have done if it had been any other kind of anti-gay hysteric”, the victim of the abuse told her that ‘we still love you’, and another marcher informed her that ‘fascists’ say the same thing about her as she is saying about gay people.

“Obsessive ringfencing” of Islam from normal levels of scrutiny, O’Neill calls it. And, when the Left has finished silencing and oppressing most of us, it is going to have to deal with the Muslims. Good luck with that, wankeroos!

What does the Right do when friction between their different groups and supporters (besties?) occurs?

See: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/11/liberals-attack-queensland-nationals-push-for-coal-fired-power-stations.

On the other hand: https://www.ft.com/content/0576af14-5285-11e7-a1f2-db19572361bb.

But then, on the third hand: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-difference-between-labor-and-liberal-isnt-as-big-as-they-want-you-to-believe-20160628-gptd8u.html.

So to answer your question - in the spirit of liberalism the Left just accepts that disagreements are the normal state of human society and human politics.

Sorry!

See: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/11/liberals-attack-queensland-nationals-push-for-coal-fired-power-stations.

On the other hand: http://www.ft.com/content/0576af14-5285-11e7-a1f2-db19572361bb.

But then, on the third hand: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-difference-between-labor-and-liberal-isnt-as-big-as-they-want-you-to-believe-20160628-gptd8u.html.

Cossomby,

Thanks. But it is best not to cite Leftist organs’ comments on the Right, and vice versa.

None of your references has any parallel with the Left, Islam and homosexuality. The first is about Liberal infighting (do you seriously think that the Liberal Party is Right these days?); the second was pay walled, but lefty nevertheless, and the last was just more Liberal party infighting.

My information was also pay walled – a conservative online magazine – but the author is something of a ‘bitzer’, neither Right nor Left, but a little more Left than Right.

For the record, I don’t regard the LNP as the slightest bit right wing these days, so by criticising them, you will not upset me in the slightest. With the demise of the short-lived Australian Conservatives, there really isn’t a party remotely right wing in Australia. Some might say that One Nation is, but they are all over the place; I don’t really know what they are about. Neither do they.

Yes Cossomby, you do highlight the fact that the only rationality left in our parliaments today is provided by the National party, & a couple of independents.

Hasbeen,

I reckon it would be a good idea if the Nationals were the major partner in the Coalition. The Liberals are getting more like Labor after every election.