Winter lights? Not our idea

Nobody who heard the local news in London yesterday morning could have failed to hear the latest bizarre story about a local council bending over backwards to "accommodate" people who never asked to be accommodated (guess who?). Publications coming from Lambeth council, which serves a chunk of south London from the south bank through Brixton to Crystal Palace, omitted all reference to "Christmas lights", substituting "Winter lights" and even "celebrity lights" instead. Whoever this was meant to placate, the Daily Spew (right) was in no doubt: it was aimed at us Muslims.

What I was amazed to find out was that the council involved was not your archetypal "loony left" Labour council, but a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Tories (from the Times via Harry's Place). Listening to one of their councillors, Bernard Gentry being interviewed on the Vanessa Feltz show, it became apparent that the decision wasn't the council's but was made by some lowly petty bureaucrat and got into the publications without the council itself knowing. It was just unfortunate that the next council meeting wasn't scheduled until after said lights were due to be switched on.

I always have the same feeling whenever I hear of these foolish attempts to "avoid hurting our feelings" without asking us first. I mean, there's no shortage of community leaders whose opinions could be consulted, but for the record, Muslims do not expect people outside the community to tone down their religious celebrations to avoid offending us. True, we are not allowed to participate in the religious aspects of these festivals, but if our brothers are to be allowed to take up half of a main road in east London every year for a big Mawlid march, how can we object to people putting up lights in their town centres and calling them what they are? And as acknowledged on the show this morning, it's incredibly patronising, and has big PR damage potential.