How did it get to be in Britain that a convicted terrorist who has served four years in jail gets to sue a pub called the Saracen’s Head because, he says, the sign outside depicting a bearded Arab/Turk is so horribly offensive and racist that it not only makes him feel “anxious and fearful” it’s also likely to incite violence against Muslims.
Which is confected tosh! A convicted terrorist — jailed for producing and distributing extremist material inciting others to commit vile acts of terror — is terrified that a swinging pub sign will incite violence against fellow Muslims?
Well it hasn’t for the past 500 years, so it’s not likely to now. The only reason Khalid Baqa – the terrorist in question – should be scared of that sign is if it comes unhinged in a gale and smacks him across the head. But that’s not likely to happen either.
But even if he really IS offended – so what? He should just have to live with it. The rest of us have to live in fear of terrorists like him, why shouldn’t Baqa be made to live in fear of a pub sign?
We’re all offended by lots of things but we don’t expect to get compensation for it. Nor do we expect the society in which we live to have to change to accommodate our offence.
Baqa, who assures us all he’s now given up what he calls ”all the terrorist stuff” has been around long enough to know that if you offend or upset certain cultures, certain religions here in soft touch Britain — there’s money in it. And he’s going for it… He even admitted that he’s only recently discovered how you can force the change of pub names online by bringing action in the small claims court. So it begs the question: has he ever been to the Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham or does he just see this as a nice little online earner?
What I’m not understanding though is how all Baqa’s fear and anxiety about this pub sign will be assuaged if he wins the £1,850 he’s after from the small claims court?
The pub landlord, a decent bloke called Robbie Hayes is understandably dumbfounded by this action. He could be forgiven for thinking he’s woken up in an alternative universe where an orange bearded bloke who he says has never been in the pub, even though Baqa insists he has visited in person and contacted them FOUR times (you’d think staff would have remembered a big bloke in a skullcap with a violent orange beard) is claiming trauma and upset over the name of a pub that has stood for centuries.
Robbie thinks Baqa is chancing his arm. And he’s probably right. The rumours are the terrorist has plans to sue another 30 pubs of the same name – a bit like spread betting – and even if two or three or those targeted bung him £1,800 it’s going to be a very Merry Christmas in the Baqa household.
But now that we know his game it’s to be hoped Greene King brewery empire which owns the Saracen’s Head in Amersham, Bucks, tells Baqa to go take a running jump if he continues to insist names should be changed. They shouldn’t pay him a penny because there’s a principle here – that people who disagree with our culture yet choose to live here – think they’re perfectly within their rights to have it changed to suit them. Well, they’re not.
What’s happening here is the perfect example of how multiculturalism and integration has utterly failed in this country. And also how its being exploited.
We allow people from different cultures, different countries to come into British society and live totally separate lives within it.
We even allow these cultures to change the way WE live our lives to accommodate THEIR cultures.
Why do we do that? Because it goes way beyond the tolerance Britain is famous for. It feels like total capitulation and subservience.
And why every time we talk about this, when people say it isn’t right, are they slated as xenophobes, racists and bigots. How did we get into a situation where we bow down to one particular culture, we dance around it, we change British traditions for it, in order not to offend people from those cultures?
We’re a Christian country for goodness sake. We don’t change our traditions on the say-so of Christians. So why should we do it for other religions?
We’re even at the stage now where we can’t claim to be a patriot or that we’re proud to be British because it’s considered heresy in the eyes of the political and cultural elites. We can’t celebrate British traditions, our values, our heritage because we’re supposed to be ashamed of it.
Well stuff all that! Yes, Britain, like every other country, has things in our past that we aren’t proud of and that don’t fit with 21st century values. Every country in the world has. But we cannot spend our present and our future apologising for our past.
And if we’re talking offence — I’m grossly offended by the fact that we allow people to live in our country in segregated communities where they behave in ways that are contrary to our values, our standards, our laws even.
Why do we allow Sharia Law to be practiced in Britain which effectively reduces women to third class citizens and affords them no protections? Why has there been unlawful segregation in Islamic schools?
Why do we still allow first cousins to marry – popular on one particular community in this country – when its responsible for 30% plus of all birth defects in those marriages. It’s even responsible for the excess deaths of 90 babies countrywide.
You see all that offends me – and probably you – way more than a pub sign ever could yet we’re told we must put up with all of it in the name of multiculturalism.
It’s time Britain stopped apologising for its values, its past, its traditions. And if people ARE triggered by them – tough! Live with it – or go somewhere where you won’t be.
