Circumcision is much worse than non-stun slaughter
On the hostile environment
I am the wound, and yet the blade!
The smack, and yet the cheek that takes it!
The limb, and yet the wheel that breaks it,
The torturer, and he who’s flayed!
First, a quick disclaimer about ‘radical Islam’, which has abruptly emerged in the British news agenda in the past couple of weeks. It is the Tories who have acted to revive this topic with Nick Timothy tweeting about the ‘domination of public spaces’.
A sceptic might say that the Tories would much rather talk about the threat of Islamism, to which no concrete solution is ever really proposed (except ‘robust integration’, or even ‘assimilation’), as opposed to the issue of immigration – which they are unable to speak about because the ‘Boriswave’ puts them on shaky ground. Having a big bust-up about prayers in public spaces is a useful way of presenting yourself as radical and targeted by the establishment.
So, we should be wary of giving this showy combat too much oxygen. Nonetheless the topic of halal, kosher and burka bans will all have some meaning during the next election, particularly if Iran becomes a violent quagmire and Muslims in Britain become as politically active as they were during the last election post October 7th.
Paul McCartney was probably right when he said that we would all be vegetarians if slaughterhouses had glass walls. The first time that I came upon footage of the Westland-Hallmark scandal as a teenager I did not eat meat for, if memory serves, about a year. I remember vividly towards the end of this small protest I would fantasise about the taste of a McDonalds double cheeseburger with a mayo chicken stuffed inside (my poison of choice). Eventually I broke, and since then, for purely selfish reasons - that I like the taste of meat and believe there are health benefits to consuming animal proteins - I try not to think about the caged chickens who are being ground into a rubbery paste.
