Fascist Multiculturalism Rears Its Head In England

Adolph Hitler's brand of fascism, and in fact much of American progressivism even through the Thirties, was built around notions of racial strength and purity. Jonah Goldberg traces this grouping tendency to the Sixties' race riots--specifically the violent black separatist movements, many of which were based on black racial supremacy--and today to the left wing's explicit use of racial politics to divide Americans into groups based on culture and race. Of paramount importance to them is that "white culture" not influence those of other ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. Even at the large missions conference in Urbana, Missouri, one of my friends heard a talk about racial and ethnic justice, and how healing begins when we learn to take pride in our ethnic backgrounds; this notion, the fascistic undertones of which are obvious, is an obsession on the Left, and especially college campuses. Of course, this typically leaves white Christian males who buy into it still feeling a bit less than racial and ethnic pride--after all, when someone talks about "injustice," it's "his people" who are the offenders. As Jonah Goldberg put it, white men are the new Jews.

Sometimes this notion is revealed a bit more clearly--especially in nations without a Constitution to protect its citizens from intrusive government. So, as Allahpundit reports, a group of police officers in Britain accosted a pair of Christian ministers for dropping leaflets in a largely Muslim area and for talking to several young Asian men about Christ. From the original report: "He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message. He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station." As Allah notes: "In America, as far as I know, hate crimes constitutionally can only be charged in connection with another criminal offense. You can’t be charged with hate; you can be charged with assault and have your sentence enhanced if they prove the assault was motivated by hate. Thoughtcrime + actual crime = hate crime, in other words. In the U.K., it sounds like they’re flirting with knocking out that pesky “actual crime” element and just going the whole nine Orwellian yards. " If you think he's being hyperbolic, read this article that Allahpundit also posts to. Orwell: Your version of tyranny, at least, will likely never reach American soil, but your homeland has begun to buy into it.

Set aside the question of whether you think that Christian missions are morally right. (Though I believe they are not merely right, but morally required.) Set aside your gut reactions about ministers speaking about their beliefs to those who hold other beliefs. There is, quite simply, no sense in which the government has the right to go about preventing people from sharing what they believe is true about the world.

But this is what happens when the law becomes a cultural and racial tool: Inevitably, it becomes a hammer with which to strike against whatever group is disfavored at the time. You can thank the Founding Fathers that we in America have the right--at least nominally, though not on most college campuses--to offend whomever we want, to have whatever opinions we want, and to debate about them with anyone we want. In the United Kingdom, such freedom of thought is on the wane.