Chrenkoff

Monday, April 11, 2005

What's at stake in the British election

British election campaign gets really ugly:

"Oona King was pelted with eggs and vegetables as she attended a memorial to Jewish war dead. Miss King, 37, the black Jewish Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, was attacked as she joined mourners to commemorate 60 years since the Hughes Mansions Disaster, when 134 people, almost all Jewish, were killed by the last V2 missile to land on London."

The eggs missed King but hit some of the Jewish participants in the event.

"Miss King, who enraged many of her Muslim constituents when she openly supported the war in Iraq, told the crowd that the attack was one of the 'saddest' things she had ever witnessed.

"Clearly angry, she said: 'I think [the eggs] were aimed at me but the sheer ignorance never mind the lack of respect is shocking. They have no idea where their freedom came from and who gave it to them. They don't know they are lucky to be here. That is truly one of the saddest things that I have ever seen. There were people who helped save this country, having eggs pelted at them at a time when they are remembering those they had lost. It is disgusting'."

King's east London seat contains some 55,000 Bangladeshi Muslims, who constitute more than half of all the voters - "most of whom bitterly opposed the war in Iraq." And many of them don't seem to share King's sentiments about respect or being lucky to live in Great Britain.

"Many of the Muslims, especially the young men, now living in Hughes Mansions resented her presence. Ibn Alkhattab, 21, said: 'It will be all about the war. There is enormous anger. No one will vote for her.'

"His friend added: 'She represented these people and then voted for the war. We all hate her. She comes here with her Jewish friends who are killing our people and then they come to our back yards. It is out of order. What do they expect?'"

Amazing stuff, isn't it? Welcome to Eurabia, except that most Iraqis are actually happy to see Saddam behind bars, unlike Bangladeshi and other non-Arab Muslims who always had the best of both worlds: in home countries they didn't have to suffer under a bloodthirsty maniac like Hussein, and in the West they could enjoy living in a society that allows them to pelt Jews with eggs and actually vote - vote - against somebody they disagree with. Which makes them perfectly qualified to resent that others are now sharing in the freedom they have in Great Britain.

But that's not all - there is one man out there who's shameless enough to exploit the sorts of scummy sentiments espoused by Ibn Alkhattab and his friend. Yes - it's George Galloway, the lefty parliamentarian expelled from the Labour Party for his infatuation with Saddam. Galloway decided not the recontest his Glasgow seat in Scotland and is moving to King's seat, 400 miles away, to try to ride back into the parliament on the wave of bigotry.

"Later Miss King, the daughter of the black American civil rights activist, Preston King, who was brought up in north London, and Mr Galloway, a factory worker's son from Dundee, traded insults at a constituency event organised by BBC London 94.9FM at a local arts centre.

"Both candidates, who were vocally supported by large sections of the audience, took every opportunity to attack their opponents.

"Miss King, who said she would not trust her opponent to 'deliver a pizza' far less effective policies, attacked him for his close association to Saddam Hussein and in particular when he flew out to visit the dictator. 'When I come across someone who is guilty of genocide I do not get on a plane and grovel at his feet,' she said to whoops of delight from her supporters.

"He hit back when asked how he felt about challenging one of just two black women MPs in government. 'Oona King voted to kill a lot of women in the last few years,' he replied. 'Many of them had much darker skins than her'."

It's neither here nor there, of course, but I don't think there are many women in Iraq with "much darker skins" than King: