A post about two articles today, that although ostensibly seem quite different, both seem (no conclusive proof yet) to have led to the same "problem." The first one is this. On Saturday in my home town of Bolton, the hard right football casual spawned EDL or the English Defence League had a rally in the town centre. They ( website here, if you don't know who they are about.) claim only to be against "jihadists" rather than Islam in general. But there has been incidents of them shouting abuse at pro Palastinian protest, and Nazi saluting by members of the analogous Welsh Defence League. On a more subjective level their website has a large splash for the Jihadwatch a blog /website that combines some legitimate concerns with the more militant strains of Islamism with the dodgier right wing conspiracy theories that the terminally insecure "patriots" seem to like so much, that do the rounds across the pond, and get taken up by like minded souls here. The march itself resulted in 74 arrests and was estimated to have cost 3.3 million pounds (a lot of Boltons shops shut, taxi firms basically shut down over the weekend.) in lost incomes and in the preparation for the day itself. From all reports it was a tense encounter, with mutual recriminations from EDL and the UAF, who counter marched the rally, and according to Assistant Chief Constable, Gary Shewen, the trouble focused around:"It is clear to me that a large number have attended today with the sole intention of committing disorder and their actions have been wholly unacceptable. Turning their anger onto police officers they acted with, at times, extreme violence and their actions led to injuries to police officers, protesters and members of the public.
"The police are not and should not be the target of such violence and anger and this protest and the actions of some of the protesters is roundly condemned by GMP and by Bolton Council. Were it not for the professionalism and bravery of police officers many others would have been seriously injured. I would also like to praise the efforts of the EDL stewards who worked with us in the face of some very ugly confrontations."
200 miles away in the Berkshire village of Cookham (where the exterior shots for Fawlty Towers "A Touch of Class" episode were filmed incidentally.) gay couple Michael Black and John Morgan were turned from a Swiss themed guest house run by a Christian couple, after she claimed that giving them the double room they wanted would go against her beliefs. This kind of story always makes for a good one to the newsmans eye. Mutual recriminations, zealous minorities victimising decent God fearing folk. "The angry people in newspapers" pictures. Fire and brimstone bible bashers persecuting in the name of God, you know the spiel. I mean it even got a look in on the Jeremy Vine Show!
It's hard not to feel for the guests turned away. Being dismissed by a complete stranger who knows nothing about you, and being shunned because of your sexual orientation would be an unpleasant experience for anyone. It also raises questions of misleading statements on the website of the B&B:
"A warm & friendly welcome awaits ALL GUESTS!! at our Swiss Bed & Breakfast in the idyllic village of Cookham, near Maidenhead in Berkshire." (emphasis mine)
I should also add that they [B&B owners] are not deemed to have commited a criminal offence by the police, though civil action against them has been proposed. which I'm sure the right wing press will absolutely avoid bringing up in articles on the case.
Unfortunately, and this is where it ties in to the EDL caper on Saturday; Swiss B&B has had death threats posted on its website as well as warnings of a potential arson attack. This is plainly wrong for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. Now I must emphasise that I think the lady who runs the B&B was out of line. She may pay quite a price for what she did. She has violated the customer service statements on her own website for a start. She has shunned 2 paying customers she knew nothing about for being gay. Despite her claiming she is free to practice what she feels at her home, it is still subject to business regulations (never mind they had paid for customer service. She refunded them though), I'm sure she has to put all the fire safety stuff in, and all the stuff that goes with providing service to a paying customer. And that is the crux of the matter. If you are putting on a service for paying customers, you have to abide by your contract, grit your teeth at those you may not like but who have not actually broken their part of the contract (like smashing the place up.). At the very least if she insists on putting a bit of Christian spirit into running a B&B, stick up a notice saying that only married couples get double rooms. (I think you can still do that.) So although she has brought this sorry situation on herself, trying to right a wrong (a good thing) with a bigger wrong (the worst way to do this thing) can never the way to go.
Now I wasn't there at the EDL march, so I can't directly comment on the UAF conduct, or the veracity of the police chiefs statement first hand. But if the claims were valid and the UAF did do some of the things stated, then the same thing applies to people threatening the B&B owners. Right minded people know that homophobia and racial prejudice have no rightful place. By sending out death threats to this couple, apart from being an evil thing to do just gives the religious homophobes out there ammunition. Yes it's the GLBT who are the real fascists! I wouldn't be surprised if we get an article this week on this being the next best thing to chucking the Christians to the lions. The usual sort of buck passing twaddle bandied about "it's my religion to oppose gays.**" and the usual semantic party games trying to explain why banning to gay people from a B&B isn't homophobia. The more overtly racist postings on nationalist websites, and the more guarded letters published in "normal" papers by these people are full of passive aggressive squirming references to "liberal fascism" and the "UAF are the real Nazis" etc. They can't really say anything else. It is self evident to most rational people that blatantly judging people on ethnicity and sexual orientation is wrong. They can't justify their prejudices, because they literally have nothing justifiable to back them up. That is why they are so keen to try and shift the blame, to distract from this. The great causes of countering prejudice by its own merit should rise above its opponents. Stooping lower than the people you claim to righteously oppose just harms genuine attempts to obtain a society based on genuine merit, and free of base prejudice. The truth shall set us free and all that.
** I always find this statement by devout Christians odd. The man who their faith is named after was so concerned about homosexuality, he mentioned it the grand total of never. I think that says more about the beliefs of the people making the statement, than J. C. But what would an athiest like me know. Hmmmm)-:
No comments:
Post a Comment