Ruth Gledhill has an unmissable post on Rowan Williams. Do read it all. But this leapt out at me:
A few weeks ago, I was chatting to a woman who works in an advocacy role for Muslim women in an area that, quite independently of the Bishop of Rochester, she described as a 'no-go area' for non-Muslims. Her clients were women in the process of being sectioned into mental health units in the NHS. This woman, who for obvious reasons begged not to be identified, told me: 'The men get tired of their wives. Or bored. Or maybe the wife objects to her daughter being forced into a marriage she doesn't want. Or maybe she starts wearing western clothes.There can be many reasons. The women are sent for asssessment to a hospital. The GP referring them is Muslim. The psychiatrist assessing them is Muslim and male. I have sat in these assessments where the psychiatrist will not look the woman patient in the eye because she is a woman. Can you imagine! A psychiatrist refusing to look his patient in the eye? The woman speaks little or no English. She is sectioned. She is divorced. There are lots of these women in there, locked up in these hospitals. Why don't you people write about this?'My interlocuter went very red and almost started to cry. Instead, she began shouting at me. I was a member of the press. 'You must write about this,' she begged.
'I can't,' I said. 'Not unless you become a whistle-blower. Or give me some evidence. Or something.'
She shook her head. 'I can't be identified,' she said. 'I would be killed. And so would the women.'
So there you have it. After weeks of wondering what to do, inspired by the Archbishop, I've taken her word that she is telling the truth, respected her anonymity, and written it anyway.
And this, I imagine, is what the Archbishop wants for the whole of England. As they used to say in my father's country parish: 'Heaven preserve us!' I wonder what they're saying there today. Expressions somewhat shorter and sweeter, I fear.
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Dhimmier&Dhimmierer
February 8th, 2008 4:28pmIt looks as though Muslims have already created a state within a state. So we need to start policing them properly. And if we do that, how will they react? As Private Eye might put it: a) Very badly. b) Er. c) That's it.
Austin Barry
February 8th, 2008 11:16pmCan you sense, as I do, that we've arrived at the tipping-point. That this howl of outrage will shape itself into something brutal which will change everything and forever.
Len Burch
February 9th, 2008 3:39amThat the Arch-bishop is surprised at people's reaction must confirm his stupidity. The man is not fit for his job. That he should have a place in our Parliament is beyond reason. He may have wakened up the many who are sleep-walking into future social strife and much unnecessary costly trouble. We always fancied that in Britain we were less involved with civil strife and less of a police state than other countries. But we simply then did not have their problems of a multi-cultural society. A multi-cultural society is nonsense, since what makes a society is the unity of its culture. A multi-cultural society is a contradiction is terms and has not worked throughout history.. The Anglican Church will continue to wither, when “led” by such people
Max Kaye
February 9th, 2008 7:23pmUnfortunately, I agree with Austin Barry. It looks like things may turn very ugly. Alas, that is always the lesson of appeasement, and for too many years we have appeased the growth and spread of Islamism and Islamists in Britain.