I’m sick and tired of people using the racism label to block discussion and debate, says Patrick Christys

Just today Michael Gove said Britain has a problem with Islamist extremists trying to indoctrinate kids with their warped ideology.
Just today Michael Gove said Britain has a problem with Islamist extremists trying to indoctrinate kids with their warped ideology.
GB News
Patrick Christys

By Patrick Christys


Published: 12/12/2022

- 20:25

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 10:27

When the fear of being called Islamophobic infiltrates politics and law enforcement then it becomes a massive problem for society

What is the Definition of Islamophobia? It is - the dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.

It’s pretty easy not to be Islamophobic. Just don’t be. Don’t be a racist: But it is the fear being called Islamophobic that stops people from discussing issues that happen to, at times, involve the Muslim community.


And when this fear of being called Islamophobic infiltrates politics and law enforcement then it becomes a massive problem for society.

Let’s take two big issues: extremist ideology being taught to children in schools and grooming gangs.

Just today Michael Gove said Britain has a problem with Islamist extremists trying to indoctrinate kids with their warped ideology.

In 2014 there was the Trojan Horse scandal - Tahir Alam, former chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, which ran three schools in Birmingham, was alleged to have written a 72-page document for the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007 detailing a blueprint for the "Islamisation" of secular state schools promotion to children of extremist views.

But ever since then there has been a concerted effort to play down the problem, to label anyone who dares to suggest that there’s an issue with Islamist radicalisation in schools or an attempt to radicalise kids as a frothing racist. And an attempt to re-write history, as the New York Times did, by calling it, you guessed it, an Islamophobic hoax.

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I’m going to quote Gove now because I think he says it best: “The notion that the events in Birmingham had nothing to do with extremism is as dangerous as it is false, since it conceals an ugly truth that too many prefer not to acknowledge: we have a problem in Britain with Islamist ideology and its adherents, who seek to impose their intolerant values on Muslim communities, including children, through non-violent means including the capture of important institutions such as schools. The fear of being branded ‘Islamophobic’ has only made it more difficult to speak up about such extremism.”

Islamophobia is a problem. But so is the unnecessary fear of being labelled Islamophobic. And it shouldn’t exist, because as long as you’re not actually being Islamophobic then people should have the bottle to speak out about what they can see happening.

I’m sick and tired of people using the racism label to block discussion and debate - and to hide criminality. Like grooming gangs.

Grooming gangs were left to rape their way across Britain seemingly because police forces were more concerned about being called racist than they were about stopping the industrial scale gang rape of mostly working class white girls by mostly British-Pakistani or South Asian men.

Don’t just take my word for it, take the findings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

In fact that report found the fight against grooming gangs is still being hampered by fears of being called racist.

And the report also found that abuse is still happening in all parts of England and Wales.

So here we have the prime example of a very real problem being identified, that being widespread grooming gangs of mostly British Pakistani men. And a lack of desire to deal with that problem because of fears of being called racist.

the channel migrant crisis. People can see the drain to resources this is causing, people can see the fact that many of these people are not genuine asylum seekers, and yet people don’t want to talk about it because they’re afraid of being called racist.

There’s nothing racist about a genuine concern that Britain may not have the infrastructure to cope with the sheer number of people coming across in small boats,or not wanting your local village hotel to be commandeered and used to house people who may be about to be told they’ll be deported. These are legitimate concerns that people are afraid of raising with their friends or colleagues for fear of being called racist.

Something has gone seriously wrong somewhere along the way, because we currently live in a country where people are willing to turn a blind eye to Islamist extremism in schools, actively try to pretend it never happened, where police are afraid to bring serial child rapists to justice and ordinary people don’t speak up about security concerns in their own back yard because they’re scared of being called a bigot.

The fear of being called Islamophobic or racist is used to stop people dealing with problems they see in society. The irony is, of course, that if those problems remain unresolved, it may actually lead to more genuine islamophobia and racism in the long run.

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