As we settled down for tea in his palatial North London home (a perk of the job), he came out fighting. “This book is probably politically incorrect in the highest order. And if it isn’t, well at least I intended it to be.”
If you expect a religious leader to be accessible, or give straightforward answers, think again in the case of Sir Jonathan. He makes a case for a Britain where there is greater integration but, crucially, without assimilation. To the layman at least, this argument, especially in the contentious case of faith schools, throws up more questions than answers.
I recognise the tension you’re talking about and it is a real tension,” he said. “And it’s the theme of the book. How do we create integration without assimilation? How can you be part of a larger entity without losing your identity? That’s the very narrow bridge that this book walks across.”
Good for him. We should be fighting against politically correct everything. Free Speech! As we talked about at the library the other day, we are so afraid of saying anything that might offend someone that our conversations are now reduced to hello and good bye.
I actually read where someone was ‘offended’ because in response to ‘thank you’ the clerk said “my pleasure” instead of “you’re welcome”. Where do we have a right to not be offended? I joked with a co-worker the other day when she said ‘good morning’, that this was offensive to me because I don’t like mornings. (we see eye to eye on this issue, so we had a good laugh about it.)
One psychology study in the 80’s was on ‘responsive listening’ and it was basically ‘if you are offended at something, or something someone says makes you angry, it’s not their problem, it’s yours. Find out why it offends you and try to deal with it”. Of course that didn’t last too long. No victims.
Here’s a good analysis of so called ‘hate speech’, which is a device used by the emotionally fragile who are unable to respond to an argument with an argument (i.e. the assumed basis of modern liberal education) and therefore set out to censor and control:
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MikeSAdams/2007/10/22/why_islamic_fascists_get_away_with_hate_speech
Gordian:
Brilliant!