We have no right to lecture China (my take on the news)

Two stories have dominated the news over the last few days. The attempt to blow flight 253 out of the sky has caused headlines around the world. The other news, creating as much – if not more – uproar here in the UK was the execution of drug trafficker Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen caught with 4kg of heroin in China. (4kg are apparently enough to kill 27,000 people.)

After an overdose of incessant outrage by all the bleeding heart liberals I simply had to share my thoughts on the matter.

Shockingly, Mr. Shaikh had found fervid defenders in Gordon Brown and other members of the UK government and our liberal elites. According to official sources the government raised the case on 27 occasions, including Gordon Brown’s direct interventions with Chinese president Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.  Their repeated calls for clemency were (thankfully) unsuccessful. As a result, our Prime Minister attacked and strongly condemned China this week, while the entire official campaign grew increasingly hysterical.

At a time when the UK is on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to a record deficit and general mismanagement of public finances and the economy, when British soldiers are killed in Afghanistan thanks to a lack of equipment and missing support from the government, Gordon Brown had seemingly nothing better to do than try to save the neck of a rightly convicted criminal.

As has been only too common with British criminals, Mr. Shaikh claimed to be suffering from a mental disease and hence not being responsible for his crimes. The illness he saw as a convenient coup-out was bipolar disorder.

To be fair, I have no way to know if Mr. Shaikh was bipolar or not. (It is interesting, however, that there have reportedly been no medical records of his ‘illness’.) The point is, he was clearly fit enough to conduct his criminal business, travel the world and traffic drugs. He absolutely knew he was committing a crime for which death penalty is the punishment in China and much of the Far East. As far as I know, nobody has forced him to go to China and break their laws.

Anyone who is (mentally, physically) fit to commit a crime is fit to stand trial and be punished. There are millions of people suffering from bipolar disorder, and they would happily attest that it doesn’t make them go out killing, robbing, or selling drugs. Blaming bipolar for a criminal career is an insult to all the law-abiding people who suffer from a mental illness.

I am glad China has not allowed itself to be bullied into reversing the sentence handed out by its courts. I cannot think of any country that has less of a right to criticize China when it comes to criminal justice than the UK.

We all know that our liberal elites view drugs as a fashionable habit and matter of personal choice rather than a serious criminal offence. Drug dealers are free to ply their trade in this country, celebrities openly hooked on drugs are revered as role models, even prisoners have easy access to drugs any time they wish to.

Worse still, drug users are rewarded by our welfare system. An estimated 267,000 drug addicts live off state benefits – addiction is seen as ‘disability’, entitling them to generous welfare payments. As usual, the (shrinking numbers of) hard working taxpayers are condemned to support the useless and destructive lives of criminals and drug users.

The Chinese Government should be applauded, not condemned, for acting to defend its people and society from the drug trade. I have little hope we will ever see our own government do the right thing and act vigorously against crime.

Meanwhile, we witness the workings of UK justice (laughable to even call it such) on a daily basis. The vast majority of criminals – including burglars, robbers, violent attackers, serial criminals with dozens of offences, and at times even rapists and pedophiles -continually escape custody. In fact, hundreds of thousands of crimes that carry a lengthy jail sentence in other countries don’t even make it to UK courts anymore – criminals are instead given on the spot fines and cautions.

Murderers are unlikely to spend more than a handful of years behind bars either. Only yesterday we saw a man who killed his wife – stabbing her 96 times (while their children where playing nearby) – released after just 5 years. (That means serving less than three weeks for each mortal wound.) As unbelievable as it seems, his was still one of the longer prison stays compared to many other murderers.

Offenders, no matter how shocking their crimes, are seen as victims. Victims of their upbringing, social class, environment, society, alcohol or drug use… anything is good enough an excuse. As such, they don’t deserve to be punished, for it would be ‘inhuman’. They must be supported and protected instead. A pity that the true victims seem to warrant no such humanity.

Our rotten justice system, inept government and the liberal intelligentsia with their destructive, ‘progressive’ ideas should learn from China, instead of lecturing and condemning it.

If they did, we might still have a chance of reversing the rampant drug and crime problem and complete social and moral breakdown we have been witnessing here. The reason why we have seen violent crime rates soar is the lack of any punishment, derisory sentencing and shockingly relaxed prison regime.

A society that rewards criminals and punishes the victims (whenever they try to protect themselves amidst a lack of protection from the police or law), while law-abiding citizens are increasingly afraid to walk the streets, is inevitably heading for self-destruction.

If anyone needs a proof that the Chinese justice system works, I can only encourage you to spend some time in Chinese cities. They are safe, with low crime, no anti-social behaviour, no vandalism. Then compare to the mayhem back home. Unlike the UK, China seems to understand that the state has a responsibility to protect the lives of vulnerable and innocent citizens. In failing to do so our government endangers all our lives and is co-responsible for millions of future victims.

Needless to say, I don’t support political imprisonment. However, when it comes to actual crime, China is right.

And for those who have cried out in support of the convicted drug trafficker: Save your sympathy for the victims instead.

And yet more appeasement…

The second story of the week has also much to do with appeasement. For Labour is well versed in that – whether it comes to criminals or, as in this case, radical Islam.

As we now know, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas day as it approached Detroit, was educated in Britain. It is here he was reportedly radicalized and turned to terrorism, before leaving to train with Al-Qaida in Yemen.

That should have come as no surprise. Although the majority of British Muslims oppose violence, there are many thousands who support the use of terror in the name of the Islamic cause. A number of them travel to places like Yemen to be trained and prepared for suicide missions, just as Nigerian born Abdulmutallab did after ending his studies at the University College London in 2008.

It’s not just British born extremists either. The UK has been a magnet for foreign radicals thanks to the generous welfare state, easy-entry immigration policies and extreme tolerance to expressions of radical Islamist views. The vast number of British connections of known terrorists and dozens of terror plots hatched and uncovered here are evidence the UK has become one of world’s main hubs of radical Islam and terrorism.

British intelligence has long known that many universities across the country have been infiltrated by militant jihadists. It is also no secret that extremists preach hate at many mosques and madrassas and use them as recruitment centres.

The sheer size of the problem is shocking. A 2008 poll by the Centre for Social Cohesion showed that nearly 30% of Muslim students in the UK thought killing in the name of Islam to be justified.

You’d think something was being done about this. Well, you’d be wrong.

British universities, including the University College London where Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society, have been inviting radical preachers to give lectures. These are known extremists who spread anti-Western propaganda, incite killing of gays and violence against infidels. It is astonishing and criminal that this radicalization of students is allowed to go on in this country. No surprise then that a large number of known terrorists have studied at British universities.

And it’s not just universities. Radicals are allowed to openly preach hate and murder in UK mosques and at times even in mainstream media, and extremist Islamic networks can operate freely.

The government, although well aware of the threat, prefers to do nothing. All in the name of diversity, multiculturalism, human rights and other ‘progressive’ ideals.

While most countries arrest, jail, extradite or deport those who are linked to terrorism and incite murder, the UK seems to welcome them with open arms.

What is no less disturbing is that while radical Islamists are allowed to express their criminal views openly, those who come out in criticism of anything that has to do with Islam are rarely treated with such courtesy. For in the best case they are accused of islamophobia and racism and, in the worst, charged with some spectacularly misapplied criminal offence.

Our leaders insist that extremism and terrorism are simply matters of violence and have nothing to do with Islam. They have chosen a path of appeasement, frightened of offending Muslims or making them feel targeted in any way.

Even the concepts of patriotism and national identity have become an inconvenience and increasingly provoke embarrassment or outright derision. Apparently they are unfit for a modern, multicultural society. I have lived in many countries over the last fifteen years. Britain is the only one where patriotism is a dirty word.

But it gets worse still. Not only does our government not fight this widespread radicalization, it often indirectly supports it. Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are poured into promoting the ‘real’ (peaceful) Islam, much of it diverted straight to radical groups. Some of the organizations the government supports are known to harbour extremist views. A number of extremists are even on the government payroll as advisors on radical Islam.

Am I the only one who thinks all this is insanity?

It’s important not to demonize those Muslims who oppose violence and extremism. They are just as entitled to live here in peace as any other religious minorities. But isn’t it time to take steps against those who preach hate and violence and openly admit to want to destroy the British society and Western way of life?

That includes prosecuting and jailing those who incite murder, deporting and extraditing the many who are wanted abroad for terror-related crimes, outlawing the extremist networks and tightening up immigration controls. I’d like to think it will happen at some point. Time is running out though, and our ruling class is not exactly known for common sense policies…

Chances are, we’ll get an extra large dose of diversity, multiculturalism and other politically correct ideas instead. And more hassling of old ladies at airports, so that certain groups don’t feel offended for being singled out. After all, profiling those who are most likely to present a threat is terribly un-PC today, and making life more onerous for everyone is so much more ‘fair’.

Tags: China, criminal justice, Gordon Brown, Hu Jintao, Islamic extremism, terrorism, Wen Jiabao

This entry was posted on December 30, 2009 at December 30, 2009 and is filed under Featured, News, Petra's View, Politics & Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.