Melanie Phillips and the making of 'Londonistan'

By Aussiegirl

Melanie Phillips has written a new book called "Londonistan". Here is a preview of in an article in Tech Central Station. For an interview with Melanie Phillips you can go to Front Page Magazine, where Jamie Glazov does his usual fine job of keeping us abreast of important developments. Phillips makes some great points about the emotionalism of the essentially honor and shame driven system that is modern Islam, which contrasts so starkly with the overly intellectualized and rationalized attitudes of the West. More on this subject later as well. The differences between an honor and shame based society, and one based on law, and what that bodes for our future and our ability to understand this clash of cultures.

TCS Daily - The Making of 'Londonistan'

[...]For decades, immigration has been a taboo subject in Britain. Large scale immigration from the 1960s onwards, first from the Caribbean and then from the Asian subcontinent into what was previously a relatively homogeneous society, played on post-colonial guilt to produce a neuralgic preoccupation with the supposed racist attitudes of the indigenous majority.

The British governing class came to believe that upholding the majority culture was racist, that Britain's history was something to be ashamed of and that its national identity was the cause of prejudice, intolerance and conflict.

One consequence of this taboo was that the widespread abuse of the asylum system was never dealt with. Illegal immigrants simply vanish into British society. No-one now knows who has come into Britain and who has departed. In addition, the government has encouraged mass immigration in order to change the nature of the country.

[...]This was one of the key drivers behind the creation of what is known derisively as 'Londonistan', as Britain became the epicentre of the Islamic jihad in Europe. The country's homage to freedom of speech, generous welfare entitlements and the fact that immigrants could simply lose themselves in the system turned Britain into a magnet for Islamist terrorists and extremists.

[...]Here indeed was the multicultural rub, the mind-bending reasoning by which the doctrine locks its adherents into the mother of all Catch-22s.

Since minorities are always victims of the majority, even when minorities do wrong, it's therefore the majority's fault. This is the victim culture of grievance. And the greatest exponents of this moral inversion are those Muslims for whose pathological inferiority complex it seems to be tailor-made.

Thus they view their own aggression as defence because of their belief that, since Islam represents perfection, the weakness of Islam relative to the West must be caused by western aggression. Since therefore they see their culture under attack, they believe it is legitimate to 'defend' Islam by attacks they reconceive as defence.

Their exaggerated notions of shame and honour mean that every slight turns into a major grievance, disadvantage morphs into paranoia and Islam itself is perceived to be under siege everywhere, thus providing extremists with the justification for attacks.

[...]But the hallmark of 'Londonistan' -- which is a state of mind as well as a haven for terrorists -- is that non-Muslims too have absorbed some of these tropes because of the multicultural mindset that the minority perspective is the legitimate one.

[...]The national identity of Britain is based on a particular culture, history, language, religion, law, customs and values. It cannot still remain recognisably itself if it makes itself home to large numbers of people who cannot or do not wish to assimilate into that identity. That's not racism. It's national survival.

Melanie Phillips is a columnist for London's Daily Mail and is the author of Londonistan. Her website is available here