On the anniversary of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan WIlliams's controversial comments about the inevitability of sharia law in the United Kingdom, he's restating his views and sees people coming around to his viewpoint. Well, wasn't Britain under the Romans, Angles and Saxons (Danelaw), then Normans. It's been awhile, but perhaps we are seeing another population moving in a taking over. The thing about Islam is that it is a political system with religious underpinnings, and to give it space within a political and judicial system is to infect that system with an aggressive entity that will keep pushing for domination, and will only stop temporarily when conditions do not favor conflict. There is no stable peace with such a system, only an occasional hiatus from hostilities.
What would Churchill think? He doesn't seem to be held in high esteem in high places these days:
A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.
The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.
But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."
Diplomats were at first reluctant to discuss the whereabouts of the Churchill bronze, after its ejection from the seat of American power. But the British Embassy in Washington has now confirmed that it sits in the palatial residence of ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, just down the road from Vice President Joe Biden's official residence. It is not clear whether the ambassador plans to keep it in Washington or send it back to London.
If Churchill returns to London, how many friends will he have there? For how long?
Churchill on Islam:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
Posted by: David Gray | February 17, 2009 at 02:44 PM
You mean Islam was a problem before the perfidious Zionists took over ancestral Palestinian lands?
Posted by: Judy K. Warner | February 17, 2009 at 03:04 PM
I look at the European situation as being an object lesson on Deuteronomy 28:36. If you choose not to serve the Lord, you will be forced to serve other gods you did not choose. Verse 43 also seems relevant.
I imagine this must be the way Hosea and Jeremiah felt. On the one hand, God's judgment are just. On the other hand, what a loss...
Posted by: R. C. Smith | February 17, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Judy,
I'm as flabbergasted as you. All my illusions are shattered. We have to let people know! :P
Posted by: Nick | February 17, 2009 at 04:51 PM
Unfortunately the internal rot that presages collapse in the face of a more virile religion and culture is reaching across the Atlantic and now infecting America with the same self-hatred and lack of backbone that is causing people to label Europe as Eurabia. Churchill would be appalled, but I don't think surprised. After all, he had to dig Europe out of the hole Chamberlain dug for it with Hitler at Munich.
Posted by: Deacon John M. Bresnahan | February 17, 2009 at 06:27 PM
Unfortunately the internal rot that presages collapse in the face of a more virile religion and culture is reaching across the Atlantic and now infecting America with the same self-hatred and lack of backbone that is causing people to label Europe as Eurabia. Churchill would be appalled, but I don't think surprised. After all, he had to dig Europe out of the hole Chamberlain dug for it with Hitler at Munich.
Posted by: Deacon John M. Bresnahan | February 17, 2009 at 06:29 PM
>After all, he had to dig Europe out of the hole Chamberlain dug for it with Hitler at Munich.
Chamberlain was Rambo compared to today's Eurocrats...
Posted by: David Gray | February 17, 2009 at 06:47 PM
Well, that helps improve my opinion of the current president a whole big bunch. Well, not really, but I don't think it's possible for my opinion of him to go much lower than it already had . . .
Kamilla
Posted by: Kamilla | February 17, 2009 at 07:12 PM
Great as he was, Churchill needed America to help him dig out of the hole. But when we're in a hole, who will help us dig out?
There is no one.
Posted by: Judy K. Warner | February 17, 2009 at 07:28 PM
Perhaps the immigration of Moslems to Europe is the necessary precursor to the evangelization of Moslem lands itself.
Posted by: Gian | February 17, 2009 at 10:19 PM
>Perhaps the immigration of Moslems to Europe is the necessary precursor to the evangelization of Moslem lands itself.
It would be helpful to have some Christians left in Europe in that event...
Posted by: David Gray | February 17, 2009 at 10:24 PM
[G]Perhaps the immigration of Moslems to Europe is the necessary precursor to the evangelization of Moslem lands itself.
[DG]It would be helpful to have some Christians left in Europe in that event...
There are some good ones, even in France (running at about 8%, I believe). With that little bit of leaven, there's still hope for the continent. Don't forget Poland, now an EU member.
were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled
...did anyone else find this part of the Churchill quote strange?
Posted by: bonobo | February 18, 2009 at 04:00 AM
>There are some good ones
But very light on the ground.
>...did anyone else find this part of the Churchill quote strange?
No, I find Churchill insightful but not infallible.
Posted by: David Gray | February 18, 2009 at 04:27 AM
No-one is infallible about science or history, or pretty much every other topic, eh?
Posted by: bonobo | February 18, 2009 at 05:10 AM
When an entire culture departs from Truth, its only option is to embrace a Lie. Europeans evidently so despise their heritage that they will cede their sovereignty to any unelected cult, who may look normal but in reality they are barbarians bent on global domination.
But enough about EU bureaucrats. Islam is a worry also!
Posted by: ropata | February 18, 2009 at 05:13 AM
>>>When an entire culture departs from Truth, its only option is to embrace a Lie. Europeans evidently so despise their heritage that they will cede their sovereignty to any unelected cult, who may look normal but in reality they are barbarians bent on global domination.<<<
The end of the Cold War marked a return, for Europe, to the 1920s, and with it the process of punishing itself for the cardinal sin of butchering the flower of its youth in the trenches. The process was interrupted by the rise of the dictators and the Second World War, but the emergence of the Soviet Empire in 1945 prevented a return to the status quo ante. Now, with the existential threat of Soviet domination (and U.S. economic and military suasion) past, Europeans can get back to the fun business of self-flagellation and cultural suicide. They won't be happy until the last of them has traipsed off the stage of history, because, obviously, a culture that could fight the Great War for four years isn't worthy to live.
Posted by: Stuart Koehl | February 18, 2009 at 05:59 AM
>>>The end of the Cold War marked a return, for Europe, to the 1920s.<<<
I think there is a lot to be said for that analysis. Europe has never recovered from the horror of what took place in the Great War. It seems to have destroyed any confidence in its own cultural heritage. American liberals suffer from the same problem.
Posted by: GL | February 18, 2009 at 09:03 AM
"American liberals suffer from the same problem." True, and I would say as much out of the desire to imitate Europeans as anything else. One is familiar with the type, always at pains to affect a European style so as to distinguish themselves from the rest of us lumpen Americans.
Posted by: Steve K. | February 18, 2009 at 09:15 AM
"What would Churchill think?"
Dear Mr. Kushiner, the old lion is probably spinning in his grave!
What a shame. This great hero helped win WWII, and yet the spirit of Chamberlain has prevailed in the long run over England. I'm completely flabbergasted on behalf of Churchill that the spirit of Chamberlainism has prevailed.
I know that there are still pockets of resistance here and there, but by and large, the internal cancer of appeasing, accomodationist secular liberalism has hollowed out and rotted the structural foundations of England's society and institutions (not to mention most of Europe's).
This suicidal implosion from within (and which America is also following, much to my chagrin) just staggers the mind.
I'm all for cultural co-belligerency among conservative Protestants, conservative Catholics, and conservative Orthodox to stem this slide into spiritual, cultural, societal, political, and economic suicide in America.
And denouncing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is certainly appropriate. His comments about the inevitabilty of Sharia Law in England is harmful. The ABC, the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion overall are sadly on a downward trajectory of its own choosing.
And FWIW, I'm glad that WFO is in AMiA. They don't approve of WO. And I'm glad that W.E.D. Godbold is a Continuer. The Continuers don't approve of WO either. And (per Steve Hutchens) Bishop of Durham N.T. Wright is a WO heretic.
Posted by: Truth Unites... and Divides | February 19, 2009 at 07:50 PM