Mr. James Delingpole Britain’s Sunday Telegraph wrote a delightfully ignorant article about how the burkini (a swimsuit designed for modesty) is part of the never-ending Muslim Crusade to rule the world. Think Pinky and the Brain. Read the article – it’s so ridiculous you’ll spend half the time convinced he’s speaking in irony. Alas, no, this guy is for real- at least he thinks he is. Delingpole claims that the burkini shouldn’t be viewed as a fashion story. Why, then, does this cosmo-wannabe spend the first three paragraphs of his article discussing how ugly it is? It’s actually rather entertaining how colorfully racist one journalist can be. The article, entitled “How the West Was Lost: the Burkini†rambles in a quasi-revolutionary style to proclaim that the burkini is a form of militant Islam that every Muslim is brainwashed into believing by their “extremist Imam.†So be afraid. Be very afraid – the Muslims are coming! In the article, there are complaints about the fact that some swimming pools have Muslim-friendly hours where swimmers are required to dress more modestly. Somehow this is threatening. Nobody is asking you to wear a burkini (thank God … or rather, Allah). Would you stop all pre-natal swimming classes because they are open to pregnant women only? Muslim-friendly swimming classes aren’t “religious apartheid†as Delingpole claims; they are just another step in catering to the diversity of Great Britain. The term extremism is only ever used by people who have no understanding of the topic they are dealing with. It enables the user to brandish jargon to disassociate themselves from the issue at hand. It implies that the ‘other’ (in this case, Muslims) are irrational and abnormal, thereby excusing us from truly understanding the situation. The oldest trick in the book is to call someone crazy to excuse ourselves from having to engage with something that scares us. Besides that, terms like “extreme†and “radical†are utterly subjective and serve little, except as a subliminal expression of one’s one viewpoint. Delightful Delingpole believes that “when most of us think of militant Islam, we tend to think in terms of suicide bombs on London buses, planes flying into Twin Towers and 19-year-olds getting their limbs blown off by Taliban IEDs.†Let’s overlook the fact that Delingpole’s vocabulary has clearly been dictated by the Bush Administration- personally I find it disgusting that murder is being associated with a religion at all. There have been so-called terrorists (another subjective term that should be rejected if we truly wish to understand the situation) of just about every religion. I know that the above is not what I think of when I hear the term “militant Islam†but maybe that’s just because I’m a logical, thoughtful human being, if I do say so myself. We Muslims are using the consideration and tolerance of Britain to plan our take-over. We have meetings to discuss our next steps. A lot of our actions have actually been inspired by the movie 28 Days Later. This is what Delingpole would have you believe…and our ultimate goal? A converted, Sharia-adhering army of Britons. Forget the fact that Delingpole clearly didn’t speak to the Muslim community, for if he had, then he would have realized that regardless of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s support, most British Muslims have little interest in implementing Sharia Law in the UK. Isn’t it basic journalism to actually interview or at least have some kind of contact with a community that you are writing about? More than that, doesn’t Delingpole feel that he has a responsibility to create a true picture of some 2 million people? The fact that Mr Delingpole considers it appropriate to curtail the basic freedom to wear what we want demonstrates that he must value freedom about as much as Saddam valued democracy. Pretty ironic considering that it is his own freedom of speech that enables him to insult just about every group of people in the UK. This kind of hypocrisy is exactly the type of attitude that incites Muslims to wear the hijab just out of rebellion. Right now, the teenager in me wants to do everything she can to spite Mr Delingpole. If you want to live in a free country, clearly a concept that still hasn’t been completely understood by him then you have to allow freedom for everyone; not just for yourself. That is the whole point of freedom. Delingpole claims that “the reason for home-grown Muslim suicide bombers is that British Muslims are constantly encouraged to think of themselves as being different and apart from mainstream British society. Heaven knows it’s a message they hear often enough from their Imams.†I have to wonder whether Mr Delingpole has ever met an Imam? For that matter has he ever even been inside a mosque? With respect, who is Mr Delingpole to be writing articles about a whole section of society, apparently without even attempting to understand the very people he is demonizing. Mr Delingpole ought to exercise a little bit of humility over a topic that, at best, he knows little about. **Izzidien is a Welsh-Iraqi contributor to Bikya Masr. This story was originally published August 20 and is republished due to its timely nature. BM
