Give Them an Inch, and They'll Take a Country

Earlier this month, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on the latest example of Western Culture meekly surrendering to the will of Islamic extremists. The local authorities in Dundee, Scotland released a public service announcement to inform residents of a new police telephone number for non-emergencies. The ad featured a picture of a black German Shepherd puppy sitting in a constable’s hat next to a telephone. This cute reminder would appear to have been an effective and non-threatening method of distributing important information to the community. The British are renowned for their love and appreciation of dogs, so a postcard featuring a puppy would certainly attract attention. In a strange twist, however, not all the feedback was positive.

Apparently, Dundee’s Muslim community took great offense to the ad. It is said that dogs are viewed as “ritually unclean” in Islamic culture, and local Muslim activists contacted Tayside Police to lodge a protest against the distribution of this public service announcement. Self-appointed leaders in the local Muslim community were angered that they were not contacted before the postcards were distributed to residents in Dundee. They alleged that had they been consulted beforehand, they would have had the opportunity to stop the production of this postcard before it was too late. Shopkeepers even refused to exhibit the ad in their stores so they would not offend local Muslims.

Like much of Western Europe, Great Britain has seen a steady increase in its Muslim population over the years. As the size of the Islamic community has grown, so has its influence. Liberal immigration policies in democratic nations have led to a rise in cultural diversity throughout the West, and the notion of tolerance appears to be the highest of all virtues. Not wanting to be seen as unwelcoming hosts, many Western democracies, including Great Britain and the United States, have been particularly sensitive to the customs of their immigrant populations. However, some in authority have permitted the tolerance of foreign cultural values to come at a great cost to those of the sovereign nation.

While it may be nice to welcome new cultural influences to one’s community, the virtue has its limits. Rather than inviting Muslims to exercise the free expression of their religion as part of a greater cultural mix, Western democracies, through political correctness have allowed the wishes of certain segments of the population to supersede those of the community at large. British citizens are expected to sacrifice an important part of their own culture in order to satisfy the wishes of those who are not British. Tolerance should cut both ways, but while we in Western democracies are required to sacrifice our unique cultural identities to placate those of other backgrounds, the same courtesy is not granted by them to us.

It is high time that we in the United States and Western Europe stood up to the bullies who demand that we surrender our culture for their comfort. As the expression goes, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. Like parasites, Islamic extremists have infiltrated Western cultures and have weakened their hosts from within. If we continue to give ground and allow others to use their sensitivities to gain more power, we lose our own. We must stand up to preserve our own culture or we risk being annexed by theirs