Monday, April 26, 2010

Compare and Contrast...

Let's take a look at how the British government reacts to different religions, shall we? They've excused muslim health care workers from hygiene rules, funded muslim "think tanks", turned semantics on its ear with contortions to avoid using the term "terrorists", and banned filmmakers who make movies unflattering to Islam from entering the country. Basically, they've bent over backwards to accommodate, appease, or otherwise cater to the followers of Islam living in their midst. It's surely a sign of vast cultural respect, right? Surely they treat other religions the same way. Like, say, Catholics. Surely they give followers of Catholicism the same respect, right?

No, they slap Catholics right in the face.

UK sorry for pope-brand condom proposal memo

(CNN) -- The British government has apologized to Pope Benedict XVI for a Foreign Office memo suggesting that he could launch Benedict-brand condoms or bless a gay marriage when he visits the United Kingdom later this year.

Many of the ideas in the document are "clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful," the Foreign Office said in a statement Sunday.

This is an official government memo, folks. This is not an op-ed in the local fish wrap, this is official government policy here. The drafter of the memo? Surely he was fired, right?

The writer of the memo "has been transferred to other duties. He has been told orally and in writing that this was a serious error of judgment," the Foreign Office said.

"Transferred to other duties". Oh, that will show him! That and a stern talking to! If I'm not mistaken, the next step in the UK book of punishments is keelhauling, right? Snark aside, it's instructive to see how the government of the UK responds to one religion over another. It's telling that the Pope, the leader of over a billion some-odd Catholics, gets treated to a disrespectful memo from the government whereas the muslims have rules bent and special accommodations made.

Perhaps if Catholics returned to the era of the Crusades they'd get some respect in the UK?

That is all.

4 comments:

Ambulance Driver said...

The problem is that everybody gets respect in the U.K.

To the point that "respect" is a meaningless term.

Bram said...

Those are all symptoms.

The problem is that the British lost their balls sometime in the 20th Century.

Maybe too many brave men buried in Flanders while too many sissies reproduced. Whatever the reason, Mother England is dead.

O H Bark said...

Of course, over here in the formerly Great Britishland you can get away with a potentially extremely offensive statement such as this, but don't you dare let anybody catch a glimpse of you bringing your legally purchased, licensed and registered .223 back from the range, lest an ARU shall beat down your door!

Borepatch said...

Back at Three Letter Intelligence Agency, they all taught us the "Washington Post" rule:

Nothing you read in the Washington Post about this agency, is good for this agency.

This guy knew what he was doing, and so did the folks in his office. They just don't think they'll be punished for expressing a variant of official UK.Gov ideology.