Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a country with a rich and magnificent heritage, one of the trailblazers of global political philosophy and culture, suddenly decides, for no particular reason, much less any compelling one, to throw away the legacy of two thousand years. Its leaders invite in a group of foreigners who believe that those who don’t believe in their religion are unclean (Qur’an 9:28), vile (Qur’an 98:6) animals (Qur’an 7:179), and that they are the best of people who alone have the right to set out what is right and wrong (Qur’an 3:110). The newcomers set out to take over, with willing help from self-serving natives.
Not even close to funny, right? And wait: it gets worse. The new arrivals, you see, have laws against criticizing their religion, prophet, and holy book. Even though their new homeland is not just a bastion of the freedom of speech, but one of the foremost pioneers of the very concept, its leaders happily throw aside their centuries of accumulated defenses of that freedom, and unofficially (so far) readopt, in order to appease the newcomers, the blasphemy laws that, not many years ago, many of them worked long and hard to discard. Then, with the new order in place, they fine one of the embattled natives of this insane place over $1,300 for the heinous crime of telling a joke that might (might!) offend some of the newcomers.
Not funny, but not at all unbelievable. In fact, this is exactly what is going on today in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain. The Telegraph reported Saturday that Stephen Gray, a retired cop, has been “charged with a criminal offence for sharing posts online that were critical of Islam.” Not in Karachi. Not in Tehran. In England.
Gray conceded his guilt, at least partially, while expressing his utter shock at having been charged: “I guess some of the posts may have been in bad taste. Some of them may upset one or two people, but I didn’t think for one second it would be cast as grossly offensive by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and by the courts. Not for one second.”
Making matters even worse, Gray didn’t originate the online posts for which he was charged. He was charged for reposting memes that portrayed Islam in a negative light. “The first had the words ‘time for mass deportation’ alongside an image of a Middle Eastern man, who was in his late 20s or 30s, and the words ‘Children in Need.’ The image had the caption ‘12-year-old Mohammed recently arrived at Dover. Please donate to help him move from a three-star to a five-star hotel which has a better halal menu, free wifi and Sky and is nearer to a girls’ school.’”
This doesn’t even really criticize Islam. It criticizes the British authorities who have been so solicitous of Muslim migrants. British officials have taken at face value migrant adults’ claims to be children. They have housed migrants in top-quality hotels. The meme Gray reposted lampooned these ridiculous, unjustifiable, and ultimately suicidal practices.
The other meme that got him in trouble really did, however, have to do with Islam: “The second image was a picture of a rasher of bacon and a man in a turban alongside the caption ‘Fun facts about Bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!’”
In a small glimmer of sanity, “the district judge who tried his case ruled the first post was not grossly offensive and it related to a political issue that had been debated in Parliament. The second image, however, resulted in a conviction. The judge ruled the post was not political; it was about religion, and it was grossly offensive.”
Yet Islam really does allow for child marriage, and Sharia-adherent Muslims, who might be more likely to avoid bacon than Muslims who ignore Sharia, are more likely to take the Sharia allowance for child marriage seriously as well. The fact that it is criminal for Gray to point that out is yet another symptom of Britain’s deep and likely mortal crisis.
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Tellingly, “the person who complained about it to police in the first place, was a non-Muslim neighbour of Gray’s, with whom he had previously had an unrelated disagreement.” This is reminiscent of the Muslim conquest of Spain in the year 711; facilitating that conquest was a disgruntled Christian nobleman who was angry with Spain’s Christian rulers.
In his own defense, Gray said: “I made a joke, an ironic joke, about Islam. That is all it was at the end of the day. A joke. I certainly never, not for one second, thought it would be deemed abusive.”
It was. He was found guilty and ordered to pay over £1,000 ($1,355). Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, commented: “Prosecuting people for making jokes about Islam, particularly if they contain a kernel of truth, is a new low.” Yes, but before Britain’s ultimate demise, there will be many, many more new lows.
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