Submission statement or whatever: The UK’s élite institutions are once again failing to properly stand up to a campaign of bigotry and hate and call it out for what it is. This is a continuing pattern, and I don’t know how we fix it as a society unless everyone with a PPE degree suddenly decides to grow a spine.
> And conservative media immediately threw its weight behind this narrative. Anti-white systemic racism was real, Alister Heath wrote in the Telegraph, predicting more murders “until it’s crushed”. The Times and Spectator concurred. There have also been calls to specifically target Sikhs, for instance to ban the kirpan (the ceremonial dagger that it is a religious requirement to carry). Reform leader Nigel Farage called for “pure cold rage” in response to the murder.
> As expected, our more centrist media has stood by without challenging this narrative. The BBC, in a phrase that will be grimly familiar to American anti-Trump liberals said Nowak’s murder “raises … questions” about race and policing in an article largely devoted to laundering fascist talking points. Or, in Sky News’ words it “highlighted the debate on whether the police are anti-white.”
> And all this had been accompanied by harassment and vigilante violence. In the last few days “At least 15 people have been accosted on the streets by collectives of white individuals surrounding Sikhs” Amandeep Singh, a charity educator, told the Guardian.
[…]
> I predicted, in sketching an anti-Sikh panic, that political parties would cave to pressure “Enthusiastically in Reform’s case, awkwardly and abjectly in Labour’s.” Just as I was finalising edits to this article, Andy Burnham, currently the party’s preferred successor to Starmer, was asked about removing the exemption that allows Sikhs to carry small ceremonial knives. “I think it needs to be looked at” the supposedly centre-left alternative replied. He even managed the “awkwardly and abjectly” part, waffling about how forcing a minority to choose between a religious duty and leaving their homes would have to be done “carefully.” Never mind that legislating based on one incident is virtually never a good idea. Never mind that the knife used to kill Nowak was nothing like the small kirpan most Sikhs carry. Those in power just cannot seem to tell the fascists no.
richmeister6666 on
Sikhs are probably, alongside Jews, one of the most integrated religious communities here in the uk. The fact that an incident like this is so rare despite the fact many Sikhs carry ceremonial knives should mean we give the community our absolute backing.
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Submission statement or whatever: The UK’s élite institutions are once again failing to properly stand up to a campaign of bigotry and hate and call it out for what it is. This is a continuing pattern, and I don’t know how we fix it as a society unless everyone with a PPE degree suddenly decides to grow a spine.
> And conservative media immediately threw its weight behind this narrative. Anti-white systemic racism was real, Alister Heath wrote in the Telegraph, predicting more murders “until it’s crushed”. The Times and Spectator concurred. There have also been calls to specifically target Sikhs, for instance to ban the kirpan (the ceremonial dagger that it is a religious requirement to carry). Reform leader Nigel Farage called for “pure cold rage” in response to the murder.
> As expected, our more centrist media has stood by without challenging this narrative. The BBC, in a phrase that will be grimly familiar to American anti-Trump liberals said Nowak’s murder “raises … questions” about race and policing in an article largely devoted to laundering fascist talking points. Or, in Sky News’ words it “highlighted the debate on whether the police are anti-white.”
> And all this had been accompanied by harassment and vigilante violence. In the last few days “At least 15 people have been accosted on the streets by collectives of white individuals surrounding Sikhs” Amandeep Singh, a charity educator, told the Guardian.
[…]
> I predicted, in sketching an anti-Sikh panic, that political parties would cave to pressure “Enthusiastically in Reform’s case, awkwardly and abjectly in Labour’s.” Just as I was finalising edits to this article, Andy Burnham, currently the party’s preferred successor to Starmer, was asked about removing the exemption that allows Sikhs to carry small ceremonial knives. “I think it needs to be looked at” the supposedly centre-left alternative replied. He even managed the “awkwardly and abjectly” part, waffling about how forcing a minority to choose between a religious duty and leaving their homes would have to be done “carefully.” Never mind that legislating based on one incident is virtually never a good idea. Never mind that the knife used to kill Nowak was nothing like the small kirpan most Sikhs carry. Those in power just cannot seem to tell the fascists no.
Sikhs are probably, alongside Jews, one of the most integrated religious communities here in the uk. The fact that an incident like this is so rare despite the fact many Sikhs carry ceremonial knives should mean we give the community our absolute backing.