Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor “on the attack” against people of reason

Here is what Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said on Radio 4 (of course) last week:

“I’m on the attack. We have to stand up to them [non-believers]. There is something not totally human if you leave out transcendent [God] and you [atheists] are not fully human. They have an impoverished understanding to what it is to be human. We are all made by God.”

Needless to say, he has no evidence – let alone proof – for his assertions (that’s the point of faith), but imagine if a rational person said this:

“I’m on the attack. We have to stand up to them [Catholics]. There is something not totally human if you leave out reason and you [Catholics] are not fully human. They have an impoverished understanding to what it is to be human. We are not all made by God.”

Pretty strident stuff, and the bit about “not fully human” would be quite offensive to Catholics, I guess. If they said it about Muslims, perhaps it would earn a fatwa. At the very least, there is no doubt it would not be acceptable on “RBC” Radio 4.

Amusing sketch

Here’s one of my favourite comedy sketches from the Nineties

UN moves to make it illegal to criticise Islam

Here’s the story on this one: http://www.slate.com/id/2212662/

Interview with Pat Condell

Pat speaks about the ongoing Islamification of Europe.

Nice quotation

“Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.”

- Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Muslims Against Sharia

Here’s an interesting blog I have just found, with a very good article about the current British appeasement of imperialist Islam. The premise of the site seems somewhat confused though: Islam cannot be reformed. As Robert Spencer has said, “Islam is Islam”. It can’t be reformed without the abandonment of the Qur’an – and then it isn’t Islam. It just needs to be jettisoned in favour of reason and civilisation. This is, though, at least a start.

Winston Churchill quotations

I saw Winston Churchill’s grave after visiting Blenheim Palace yesterday.

In these dark days of leftist idealism, creeping sharia law and government appeasement, his words are especially important.

Here are some choice quotations:

The warnings

“What the horn is to the rhinoceros, what the sting is to the wasp, the Mohammadan faith is to the Arabs.”

“An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.”

“There is no greater mistake than to suppose that platitudes, smooth words, and timid policies offer a path to safety.”

“‘All men are created equal’ says the American Declaration of Independence. ‘All men shall be kept equal’ say the Socialists.”

“Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the abject worship of the State.”

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

War speeches

“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many long months of toil and struggle.

You ask what is our policy. I will say, it is to wage war with all our might, with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.

You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory however long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival.”

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!”

“If we can stand up.. [to Hitler's totalitarian threat], all Europe may be free and the life of the world may more forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their Finest Hour.’

Quips

Lady Astor: “If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee.”
Churchill (attrib.): “If I were married to you, I’d drink it.”

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Others

“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

In the news

If it seems I haven’t been making many observations about society recently, that’s only because I haven’t had the time to even look at the news. When I do pick up a free paper in Leicester Square I see the same kind of agonisingly politically correct nonsense yet again:

The London Paper:

1. “Beauty Parade fuels an ugly scene”. A bunch of butch looking feminists take offence to women lucky enough to be better looking than them enhancing their status by entering a beauty contest. They hold up placards saying “every woman is a queen”. The word “jealousy” inescapably springs to mind. But they need to get over it – nobody is being exploited, except men, perhaps. As one entrant says “We chose to be here – no-one forced us”. So what if these women are good looking? That’s only one thing. And every woman is not a queen: it depends on conduct as well as looks, and few have all that it takes.
2. Yet another protest by British muslims – this time they have the gall to hold up placards saying “Muslims rise against British opression” as brave troops (who might not even have wanted to be there in the first place) return from Iraq. They call them “butchers”. The police can do nothing about this.
3. Finally, a photo competition, one of the three shortlisted being that of a Muslim woman, covered head-to-toe (thus preventing any opportunity of integration), pushing a baby along in Brick Lane, east London. Behind her lies a wall criminally graffittied. This is described as “the vibrant, multi-cultural East End”. It isn’t really vibrant – it is mainly drab and run-down. Just go there and have a look. It isn’t really multi-cultural either (unfortunately) – it’s mono-cultural with cultures living side by side but not integrating – or indeed even approving of each other. Maybe that has something to do with Islam forbidding relationships between muslims and non-muslims.

I’m home now, and I’m pleased the papers are even mention these stories, even though they cast them in such a PC light. On the Internet, not working for anyone, we can state things as they actually are.

For liberals

One law for All march

I’ve never been on a march before. I’d say I’m not the marching type. I’ve never been inclined towards trade unions, or clubs of any kind.

But today I’m going on the One Law for All march. I’m doing this because I saw freedom of speech in the UK dealt a very hard blow from the government recently and I want to visibly defend the notion of “one law for all”. I expect everyone from our side will behave in a civilised manner which befits the principles we are defending.

I hope there will be a good turn out from people of reason. I also hope the police will be there, so that they can arrest us in case Muslims appear and start being offended and cursing us and making threats of violence.

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Well, the march has now taken place. The speakers and organisers did an excellent job and it was great to see people publicly objecting to the introduction of sharia law. We walked all the way from Trafalgar Square up to Red Lion Square, near Holborn.

You have to do some “speaking in unison” while on a march (though I did very little), however everybody was very orderly and good-natured. I was pleased to see the police there and spoke to one of them. I said “I bet it’s not often you have a march supporting the law”. Wary at first, he then smiled. I went on: “It seems to have gone off well. I guess the main threat was from people turning up to object to it.” He confirmed that. Quite frankly, the police were there to protect us. They were highly professional throughout.

One or two people who seemed to have nothing else to do joined the march midway though, and made themselves very vocal, which was a something of a problem since they hardly represented us, but it could have been worse: it could have hijacked wholesale by the likes of the BNP. Instead it went very well and the point was made: sharia law is creeping into Britain – with apparent approval from the government – and that must not be allowed.

Belief

We can’t choose what to believe – but we can choose to expose ourselves to evidence and to question dogma.