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The Brussels Journal and Muslims

Friday, 25th January 2008

On Wednesday, I linked to to the story of the idiotic judges of an award who rejected a story based on the three little pigs:

...The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they "could not recommend this product to the Muslim community".
They also warned that the story might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".
The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"

The Brussels Journal is a site which many American conservatives read about matters European. Unfortunately, although some of its writers are far from stupid, many of their attitudes - prejudices, to be blunt - mean that the 'news' the site reports is often seen through distorting glasses.

It's a vicious circle: many otherwise well informed American conservatives get their information about Europe - specifically, the influence of Islam in Europe - through a site which views Islam itself as a cancer to be fought and which regards an Islamic takeover of Europe as something which has effectively already happened.

This distorts so many Americans' outlook, seeing Europe as essentially written off to Islam. The Brussels Journal should be seen for what it is: a hard line anti Muslim propaganda sheet.

Now I can hardly be accused of ignoring the threat to the West of militant Islam. I am regularly attacked by the likes of the MCB and the MPAC as an Islamophobe for highlighting instances of Islamism on the rise. I am very concerned by the influence and reach of Islamism in Europe and write about it here all the time.

But it's one thing dealing with facts and rational analysis. It's quite another when pernicious sites like the Brussels Journal tar all Muslims with the same extremist brush and distort the news to portray Islam itself as destroying our society rather than Islamic extremists.

Take their report of the story above. The whole point of the story is not that Muslims complained (as far as I can tell, not one Muslim expressed anger at the tale of the Three Little Pigs). The point is rather, as Richard Littlejohn put it in his inimitable way today:

What we have here is another case of brain-dead white "liberals" taking offence on someone else's behalf to the point of mental illness.

But how did the Brussels Journal report it?

That's it I resign. This latest piece of lunacy has tipped me over the balance and I think I am going to start taking large quantities of drugs.
Wake me up when the Muslims have gone.

The last line is the giveaway. Yes, we in the West need to be relentless in defending Western values and free speech in the wake of Islamist demands. And it's liberals of all people who ought to be in the front line of that fight, defending those with lifetyles and attitudes which Islamists would kill.

But we need to be just as relentless in remembering what those values are, one of which is tolerating those of a different faith, when their faith does not impinge on our values. And it isn't Muslims who have sought to ban the story of the three pigs - it was 'brain-dead white "liberals" '.

Sentences like Wake me up when the Muslims have gone and the attitudes they reveal are the mirror image of the Islamists' own prejudices, and have no place in a proper defence of Western values.

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Michael N

January 25th, 2008 1:34pm

Well said. And what a superb line from Mr Littlejohn.

Oliver Kamm

January 25th, 2008 4:47pm

It appears that one of Brussels Journal's contributors is John Laughland, aptly characterised by David Aaronovitch as "PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes".

Lee Jakeman

January 25th, 2008 5:21pm

I read the Brussells journal every day. I'm aware of their bias, but many of their articles have been revealing. What you said about Americans being misinformed is true, but you could also say the same about Melanie Phillips. Her blog is read widely in the US, which is why Britain is regarded as the Fourth Reich by many Jews over there. I think the same can be said about any blog that tends to focus exclusively on a particular theme. With the Brussells Journal, it's Islam in Europe. With Melanie Phillips, it's the misrepresentation of the Arab Israeli conflict. Your own blog is much broader in its coverage, so people are not likely to typecast you (or Daniel Finkelstein) in the same way.

Sergey

January 26th, 2008 4:05pm

I see nothing "pernicious" in content and goals of Brussels Journal. Every community and nation has a right to chose which people they want to have as their neigbours, and if government denies them this ancient right, they should defend this right and drive invaders out of their communities themselves, by peaceful means, of course, like boycots, demonstrations, expressing their dissatisfaction by presence of not-welcomed aliens among them and so on. These measures are part of democratic culture too.

Jordi

January 26th, 2008 11:44pm

It wouldn't surprise me that Americans look to Brussels Journal for information about Europe. I read Brussels Journal every day because it is the only reliable source of information on what is truly going on in Europe. And I am European! Strange silence among the main stream media in Europe, but authorities in Spain have just arrested 12 Muslims who were planning on blowing themselves up over two days (19/20 January) in the Barcelona metro system. Had the attack occured, the carnage would have made the Madrid bombings seem insignificant by comparison. It's time for pseudo-scholars like Stephen Pollard to wake up. In any case, his criticism should encourage Brussels Journal to keep up the good work!

Matt Edwards

January 27th, 2008 8:44am

Are you not being a tad over sensitively critical here? There is far more reported in The Brussels Journal than Islamic topics. It is indeed unfortunate that to the rest of the world Britain and Europe appear to be subservient to the will of Wahabbist Saudis and their oil stocks. We have seen how the principle of free speech and domocracy have been exploited to silence opinion that seeks to preserve our tradional character and ethics. I say long live the Brussels Journal, Paul Belien and all others who dare to challenge the EU juggernaut and its 'politically correct' legions of storm-troopers and useful idiots. We should be mounting greater efforts to save Muslims from the idiology of political indoctrination masquerading as the Islamic religion.

Julio Juncal

January 27th, 2008 5:06pm

Mr Pollard is right--brain-dead liberals should be blamed for the Piggy Wiggy fiasco. But that is not the end of the story. Mr Pollard omits talking about the mindset that is at the root of these issues. That's where the Brussels Journal excels. It's easy to say that it is anti-Muslim, which definitely is not. It's anti-Islamist, which is quite different. As an American, I do read it daily to be informed about Eurabia. The Islamists are a great threat to the West as we know it. That's the only important issue we all ought to be concentrating on. If the Brussels Journal contributes to shedding light on the problem, we should be supporting it rather than finding fault with it. The Brussels Journal pernicious? Not at all.