Usually scrolling through twitter and looking at the insane ramblings of establishment elites is bad enough but the latest comments from Rees Mogg have left my jaw firmly on the floor.
I do not share Jacob Rees Mogg’s politics and have personally never warmed to him. That being said I recognise that he did have an appeal that transcended class divides as someone that could be trusted, he was polite and well mannered in all circumstances and of course was a committed Brexiteer. He spoke in Latin and classical language to relate points of view and many were impressed.
The shine started to come off for many when at the last minute in a humiliating about turn he came out and backed Theresa May’s Brexit deal after spending months taking it to pieces. He was very much slammed across social media for this. He also recently shared a YouTube video by the leader of the Alternative Fur Deutschland (AFD) party and was attacked by the outrage mob over this and it looks as if it has had an effect on him.
He appeared on BBC Radio 4 yesterday and including a snippet of his comments he proclaimed on Twitter: “Anti- Islamic comments have no place in society”.
The first thing that springs to my mind is Mrs Thatcher would have questioned him on exactly what society is but this comment is both ignorant and frightening on so many levels.
Many people in this country are concerned with the role of Islam and whether it is compatible with western and UK values. My opinion is that a moderate and tolerant outward looking Islam is of course compatible with our way of life but sadly it appears this is not the current dominant strand of thinking behind Islam.
The freedom to critique and analyse religion is enshrined in law. What Rees Mogg is implying here is that perhaps Blasphemy Laws should be reintroduced into the UK? My degree is in Theology and Religious Studies and as part of that I studied Islam and Persian Studies. Now I admit my knowledge of the subject is not as strong as it once was but what Rees Mogg is saying is that you cannot be against Islam and your comments have no place in society, how is this healthy for debate?
For an educated man he displays an incredible level of ignorance in that Islam is not one coherent ideology practiced by all believers. By his very words he implies that criticism of fundamentalist Wahabi, Salafist or Ultra- Shia’ism is not permissible? One of my lecturers was the reformist scholar Mona Siddiqui who was frequently accused of being an apostate. By Rees Mogg’s logic she would have to be out of a job?
By both he and the establishment’s attempts to suppress all forms of political debate and especially in relation to Islam what they are actually doing is feeding the theory that the UK has ‘submitted’ and in fact will drive more people into the hands of real extremists and dangerous groups.
We are in the midst of a raging culture war and it strikes me that Rees Mogg is enjoying his celebrityhood and being a media darling whilst at heart having a real weakness meaning he buckles under pressure and will follow the prevailing agenda.
A free and tolerant society means the right to analyse and critique religion and ideologies without moving into hate and violence, this is the law. If Rees Mogg is advocating a change to this law then I suggest he takes it the electorate and sees how far he gets with this stance. An indication can be seen in the comments where he is slammed across the board by free-thinkers and many Conservatives. His tweet has also been ‘ratioe’d’ meaning it has significantly more comments than retweets or likes.
If Rees Mogg represents the thinking wing of the Conservative Party then I see very little future for it as a party. This is a real shame as we have many classical liberals and Conservative thinkers who add great value to the nation. Thinkers such as Douglas Murray, James Dellingpole, Fraser Nelson etc, who again I don’t share their politics, are Conservatives in the truest sense and if you look at what was done recently to Sir Roger Scruton even they don’t have a place in the modern Conservative Party.
Conclusion- Frightening stuff indeed!
David Clews
UNN Correspondent
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Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
