Signs of the times – political correctness gone mad

I came across the following article (published at the bottom of this post) which raises some interesting issues if this goes any further.

In Britian political correctness has gone totally mad, where people can be threatened under hate crime laws for speaking out. The government are particularly on the side of the minorities (who are actually the majority in the media, and increasingly in politics). It is interesting to note that when Christians are seriously threatened by Muslims, in fear even for their lives, as in a recent case reported in The London Times  of 28th April 2008, the government does not come to their aid. But it rushes to the aid of ’the minorities’ snapping their fingers demanding more and more ‘rights’, or complaining about unreasonable, tiny and even ridiculous things – this is the very same people who will not offer far more basic rights to others, let alone the kind of rights they demand. 

The Times  reported the sorry tale of Nissar Hussein, a man from Bradford converted to Christianity from Islam. He complained to British police when Muslim locals threatened to burn his house down if he did not ‘repent’ and return to Islam. Instead of police help or protection, or even a word of warning to the locals, Nissar was told by officers to “stop being a crusader” and to move on to another house. Compare this response to the over-the-top heavy handed responses made when it is the other way around - eg: police responding to complaints made by  Muslims about Christians. When some British Christians have made a fair, peaceful, non threatening, and non inciteful comment about Islam or about homosexuality, the police are knocking on their door quicker than Bob’s your uncle. Some police forces even take such brave people all the way to court for nothing!  If you are going to have hate crimes legislation in place, then do not discrimate depending on the source of the complaint, otherwise it is not hate crimes legislation, rather it is censorship, bullying, intimidation and authoritarianism, and a promotion of the minority and discrimination against all others that dare to disagree. It is an intimidating enforced silence made by a mafia of sorts. And such is the case presently in this country.

Britain is so scared to say anything now for fear of being called ‘rascist’ that evil is allowed to prosper.  It is so bad that Asian Muslim women trying to help young Muslim girls from being forced into arranged marriages are not even allowed to help their own kind! For instance, Bradford area schools are intimidated by political correctness gone mad, into not putting up posters with an organisation’s helpline number that reaches out to these young girls with an alternative to enforced marriage against their will. An Asian woman reported in the media, that British schools see hundreds of teenage Asian girls suddenly disappear from their midst each year, never to return, many to be sexually abused by older men in forced marriages against their will, or even be honour killed, yet the schools will say and do nothing through fear and intimidation from the Muslim community. If a white kid is so much as smacked by their parent, the school is on the ‘phone to social services. If a white kid plays truant from school, the parent is taken to court. Apparently it is not OK for a white fourteen year old boy to stay at home playing with his playstation, but it is perfectly ok and acceptable for a 14 year old Asian girl to be kept off school, to be forced into an arranged marriage against her will, and possibly to be raped, beaten, and even killed without a word being said, far less any action being taken. Hundreds of young British Muslim girls have human rights violations committed against them in Britian each year. Forced abroad, perhaps even victims of honour killings. Yet few people will speak up in case they are accused of rascism. That stinks!

Anyway, the following article is an interesting case for discrimation/hate crimes as who would the courts side with if it came to the crunch - Islam or the Gay/Gender-change side? Whose rights are considered more important? 

“A Muslim husband threatened to sue an all-female driving school after discovering that his wife’s driving instructor used to be a man.

Joanne Dixon, owner of the Laugh n Pass driving school which operates throughout Yorkshire, says the man telephoned to complain after his wife’s first lesson with 42-year-old Emma Sherdley – formerly a married father of two called Andrew but now legally a woman.

Mrs Dixon said that the man asked her to send a “proper woman” instructor and, later, she received a further call asking for compensation and threatening to sue, saying that she “should have known” not to send Miss Sherdley.

Mrs Dixon, who set up Laugh n Pass with all-female teachers 10 years ago, designed to put women learners at their ease, said: “Emma is a popular and very well-respected instructor. What difference should it make that his wife is Muslim?

“He said his wife had been out with a male and I said, No, she’s been with a female. Then he said, ‘Just send a proper female.’

“In my eyes we’ve done nothing wrong.”

Instructor Miss Sherdley has a birth certificate and a “gender recognition certificate” to prove her legal status as a woman, although she is still waiting for final surgery to make her transition from male to female physically complete.

She says that none of her other pupils has had a problem with her sex change and she found the man’s complaints “hurtful, offensive and deeply upsetting”.

The problems began after the man, from the Meadowhall area of Sheffield, booked a two-hour driving lesson for his wife.

Miss Sherdley travelled from her home in Holmfirth to the couple’s house and the woman got into the car. They then went through the relevant documentation together but, before they even pulled away from the kerb, the woman made an excuse to go back into the house.

Mrs Dixon said: “They asked if she could just do an hour. Emma said that was no problem and then the man and his wife started talking between themselves.

“Then they asked Emma if they could cancel the lesson as the baby was crying and needed breastfeeding. The gentleman gave Emma some money for her inconvenience and Emma drove off.

“Next thing we knew, 15 to 20 minutes later, I received that phone call.”

Miss Sherdley says the complaints made her seriously consider giving up her career, but she is now determined to carry on after receiving her boss’s support.

She said: “I always knew as a child that I was a woman stuck in a man’s body. I tried hard to be a man, getting married and having children, but it never worked and never would.

“For the past six years I have been what is correctly called ‘transitioned’. I still have to undergo the final surgery, but legally I am a woman.

“That is what my birth certificate says, that is what the gender recognition certificate proves, and for that man to threaten to sue me and the driving school is totally and utterly wrong.”

At present Laugh n Pass employs 20 female instructors, who teach women throughout South and West Yorkshire, and Mrs Dixon said: “Emma’s done really well. She’s so bubbly and gets on with everybody – she’s just one of the girls.” “

Article from the Yorkshire Post, May 21, 2008