Just checking for reviews of Melanie Phillips' new book, and came across this, on Amazon ... the details of what people who bought Londonistan also bought. Bawer, Fallaci, Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, Bat Eeyore ... not really the stuff of rational discussion about protecting western national identities, is it?
On the subject of Mel, did anyone see the interview she did on the Heaven and Earth show on BBC1 yesterday morning? The show was presented by Gloria Hunniford and the other guest was Haleh Afshar of York University. Prof. Afshar. Phillips went on, and on, and on! The comments that stuck out were those about the vast majority of Muslims not being extremists (not the impression you'd get reading her blog), and those about how Britain is somehow losing its national identity, an utter joke coming from Phillips, whose primary concern, judging by her published output, is that the media watch what it says about a colony of ex-Westerners in the Middle East.
And as someone who has lived in Wales, I can safely say that the people there certainly haven't lost their identity, and it's no secret that the Scots haven't either. What we don't have is a shared collection of national myths about how our nation came to exist, and with good reason, because such myths are usually historical distortions and falsehoods (and in some of these countries there are laws threatening jail to anyone who says the myths are not true, that the old order was preferable, or that the founder is not what the myths make him out to be). Actually, we used to have such a myth: it was called the Protestant Constitution, and it manifested itself mostly in hostility to Catholics, up to and including murderous riots.
I don't think there was ever such a thing as a British identity.
The time when Britain emerged was a time of incredible class tension. There were middle class thinkers who claimed that the working class were literally a different species. Also if MP is thinking about that time as the ideal of Britishness she should know that it was a time of high "anti-semitism" and not the make believe kind she claims to see today.
I don't think she does believe most of what she writes though because it's so blatantly contradictory.
On the same note is anyone else getting sick of hearing Haleh Afsar representing muslim issues.
She comes across as barely literate and knowing very little about the subject matter.
I wonder if there is some co-ordinated campaign by the American conservative movement to buy up huge quantities of right wing books in order to boost their chart ratings.
I think the reason why the English people lack a national identity is that they have been too successful. The British Empire (and its former possession, the United States) have been so hegemonically successful that in many cases items of English culture (eg the collar and tie for work, the English language) have become items of global culture, no longer connected explicitly with England.
Another factor is that many countries base their national identity on unity against foreign oppressors. However, no part of the Anglosphere (except the Southern United States) has ever been conquered and occupied at any time since the Unification of the Crowns. The United States has solved the problem by becoming an ideological state, while the legacy of Empire provides a basis for Australian/Canadian/New Zealand national identity. However, the imperial legacy has become increasingly denigrated in Britain itself.
"Bat Eeyore"
Nice one. I like it.
While it is difficult to refute (haven't seen anyone attempt it) the examples she lifts from the historical record, her book only offers a heavily one-sided picture of the treatment of Jews and Christians in Islamic culture and, therefore, to that extent it is an untrue picture.
Celal, I believe the late Edward Said did a refutation of Bat Yeor aka Giselle Littman back in the early 90s, but I cant remember where.
Historians dont take her seriously because they know her background and political affiliation. You hear one jewish fanatic, you've heard them all. She claims that the late Maronite terrorist Gemayal came up with that silly word "dhimmitude."
Dr. M
"...late Maronite terrorist Gemayal.."
Not to mention an admirer of Hitler and Nazism. Hajj Amin Hussein wasnt the only one visiting you know who in Berlin. Dont tell anyone though.
Yusf,
BTW brother if you want to know about the name change, and I havent told you already, I can. I think you know my outrageous antics by now.
You may be interested in this criticism of Bat Ye'or...
She made an appearance on Anita Anand's show last night on Radio Five Live. You can listen here (till next Monday):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/anita_mon
Fast forward to 1hr 45mins. Same old rubbish really.
I find it ironic that she goes on about British identity, when she herself has an Israeli passport and is a mouthpiece for the zionist state. If she is so worried about British identity, then she should berate herself and those British Jews like herself who hold two passports and treat Britain as a resource to be used to fight for their ideological racism in the Middle East.
I posted a little clip of Mel ranting about British women supposedly throwing themselves at Muslim men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmnopQWgCyg