[Update at end]
Two nations which have been integral parts of Western Civilization show signs of internal dissolution. England has banned Geert Wilders from its shores and justifications are risible:
Preserving ‘Harmony’ for Islamic Radicals
Geert Wilders is barred from entering the United Kingdom.It has come to this: If you are an Islamic radical, trained to carry out terrorist atrocities in al-Qaeda’s jihad against the United Kingdom, the British will welcome you with open arms. Not content with that, Great Britain will lobby insistently for your release from custody so that you may freely roam British streets—and the halls of Westminster.
If, by contrast, you are a duly elected representative in the democratic government of a country to which England is bound in the European Union, and you speak about the undeniable—though mulishly denied—nexus between Islamic doctrine and jihadist terror, Great Britain will slam her door in your face.
That is the lesson in the appalling saga of Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and Exhibit Umpty-Umpth illustrating the depths of capitulation to which the West has sunk in its half-hearted bid for cultural survival.
This is nothing less than surrendering to the mob. The supporters of radical Islam, who are more than willing to attack their adversaries in the most hate filled ways, not only with mere words, but with more concrete implements of "political" discourse, have cowed the British authorities, who appear much more fearful of angering the Islamic mob than of the destruction of lawful order that is occurring by virtue of their dereliction of duty. The British bureaucrats who are directing the surrender couch their cowardly appeasement in the language of rights and sensitivity, ie "free speech does not confer the right to offend", but of course that is exactly what free speech means. Once a country surrenders the free speech rights of a minority, that country is no longer free.
In Canada, the surrender proceeds apace:
Muslim Mob Attacks Jewish Center At Toronto University. Police Respond By Shutting Down The Center.
It's so weird how a country where multiculturalist tolerance is enforced via elaborate micro-fascism could slip into something that seems very much like a pogrom:
Another anti-Semitic incident took place in a Canadian university Thursday when over 100 anti-Israel activists surrounded a campus building belonging to the Jewish student club 'Hillel' at York University, Toronto. The activists pounded on office doors while yelling out racial slurs. Campus security was forced to alert police to restore order and the latter demanded that the offices be shut down. An anti-Israel march is also scheduled for Friday, and 'Hillel' leaders have called on Jewish students to arrive with Israeli flags in order to show support for the country. But anti-Semitism also took its toll outside of the campus. A Jewish student reported receiving a phone call during which an unidentified person threatened his life and those of his family members if he were to continue his pro-Israeli activities in the university.
Here's a first hand account from one of the students inside. I wouldn't even have found it except I did a second search after coming across that "the [police] demanded that the offices be shut down" thing. Turns out that's 100% true - because the police didn't have the time to protect the Jewish students. Unbelievable:
Read Omri's post for a truly chilling description of what can only be called a modern day pogrom. It should shock Americans to recognize how far Canada has "progressed" along the multicultural pathway of surrender to the most illiberal force on the planet, Muslim extremism.
Digression: Yesterday I noted that some human conflicts are unsolvable, that despite our best efforts all we can hope to do is contain and manage them. Anti-Semitism is not going to be eradicated in my life time. It seems to be an inherent part of the human psyche, part of a scaffold of rationalization and projection that allows failed human beings and failed cultures to avoid taking responsibility for their own failures. The Jews have been a small but easily identifiable sub-population throughout their often unhappy history. They tend to be successful and visible in modern societies. They are noted to be a "chosen people" (a concept typically misunderstood by those who dislike the Jews) and are objects of all the envy and resentment that successful older siblings can arouse when the younger siblings worry that they are less favored than the older. Since envy and resentment are such intimate parts of our psyche, we can never hope to be free of such base emotions. Save for the truly saintly, the best we can do is contain and manage such feelings, leavening them with pleasure at others' successes amid the recognition that another person's good fortune does not imply our ill fortune. The genius of liberal democratic capitalism is the recognition that life does not have to be a zero-sum game but that if we all treat each other with respect, we can all win.
The world is now in the early stages of a very frightening and potentially destabilizing downturn. When societies are severely stressed they tend to regress in certain unhappy but predictable ways. (I discussed these tendencies here and here.) Anti-Semitism is an early sign of a society that is under stress and decompensating. It is also a social illness that, if not addressed, tends to worsen and metastasize. It should be obvious, but is rarely understood, that untreated anti-Semitism (ie, anti-Semitism that is allowed to flourish) poses existential risks to the society which is its host.
Anti-Semitism is one of the few core beliefs that unifies the Islamists and it has crippled their host societies. Britain is behaving like an immunologically compromised host, unable and unwilling to fight back against the invasive anti-Semites, whose hatred for Jews has begun to increase and spread to include hatred for the host culture. The refusal to defend free speech in the face of Islamist rage bodes poorly for Britain. In the UK anti-Semitism is indeed metastasizing.
In Canada, things have not yet progressed quite so far. Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant and others have stood up to the soft fascists of multiculturalism and pushed back against those who would curtail their freedoms in the service of appeasing those who hate their host culture.
Vigilance against the assaults on our freedoms by the Islamists and their enablers in the cowardly bureaucracy will be more important than ever as economic downturn progresses, the international arena regresses, and all of our societies become increasingly stressed.
Update: Ed Morrissey notes that anti-Semitism, as a measure of societal regression in the face of economic stress, is on the rise throughout Europe:
One-third of Europeans blame the economic collapse on …
…. the Joooooooos. Anti-Semitic attitudes have increased in the wake of the economic collapse, a study across seven European countries has found, with a third of Europeans blaming the Jews for the economy. Spain appears to have the highest levels of animosity towards Jews:
The fact that Europe has become nearly Judenrein is immaterial to the anti-Semite, and the misbehavior of non-jewish bankers, politicians, and borrowers throughout this meltdown is likewise immaterial to the anti-Semite. Once again, anti-Semitism is a marker of societal regression, not an causal explanation.
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