It’s our fault

The British government seems to have taken the view that British Muslims’ increased hostility to Britain in the wake of the London bombings has been caused by British themselves, necessitating greater “outreach” efforts to win over the “moderate” but justifiably angry Muslims. The reality, of course, is that Muslims are alienated from Britain because it’s a non-Muslim country. Therefore any particular grievance they may conceive against Britain (over the Iraq war, say, or over increased security checks of Muslims in the wake of the London bombings) is simply the inevitable result of that underlying opposition. Liberals can’t understand the increased hostility, because they can’t conceive of the underlying opposition that gives rise to it. Liberalism means seeing your own historical identity as bad and as having no rights, and the identity of the nonwhite Other as good and as having unlimited rights. If the nonwhite Other hates you, that only proves the liberal’s premise that one’s own side (not the side of bien pensant liberalism, of course, but the side of one’s historic country and culture) is at fault. Everything Muslims do, from verbally attacking Britain to “understanding” but “not condoning” terrorism to condoning terrorism to sympathizing with terrorists to committing terrorist acts against British people, simply confirms the liberal’s belief that Britain itself is at fault and must “do more.”

Never has the saying been more correct: a liberal is a person who refuses to take his own side in an argument. The liberal West’s confrontation with Islam is uncovering the true nature of liberalism as never before.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 02, 2005 05:19 PM | Send