GUNPOWDER, TREASON ... AND NOW ISLAM An Englishman's reflection on '5/11'
One is reminded
that Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' attributed Rome's downfall
to 'sex and circuses'. The fallen British Empire continues to sink further
still, with an approaching 'culture quake' catastrophe finding too many people
seemingly at ease with our comparable decadence. When the BBC indulges the
nation with an epic TV orgy of Rome's corrupt power and pornography, when the
Today programme (4 November 2005) abuses our ears with perverted propaganda from
America's gay bishop Gene Robinson and an insultingly-sympathetic and absurd
portrayal of grotesque anti-art from Argentina, we are surely justified in
accusing the nation's official voice of institutionalist culture corruption.
Then, in the run-up to Guy Fawkes, our intelligence is further insulted when the BBC provides us with a 'pc' perversionist history of the Gunpowder Plot. To argue that we must avoid excluding groups from society on religious grounds or suffer the consequences is both naive and dangerous in the extreme. The simple fact is that the Roman Catholic conspirators of 1605 were enemies of the State professing allegiance to a hostile foreign power (both religious and political) which had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I and backed the Spanish Armada in 1588. If the fate of the Vatican terrorists of '5/11' was gruesome over-kill, a nation thus threatened cannot afford to be lax over security.
In political terms, an otherwise tolerant democracy cannot tolerate those who pursue intolerant violence against it. Such a threat was not lost on the framers of the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701). In short, it was reasonably argued that a Catholic, Pope-serving monarch is a threat to the political as well as the religious liberties of a free people. Since the papal agenda continued unchanged, even the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act was tolerance too far. After all, when the Roman Catholic hierarchy was restored in 1850, Cardinal Wiseman resorted to Rome's familiar rhetoric, declaring to his clergy, "It is good for us, reverend brothers, to be here in England. ... It is for us to subjugate and subdue, to conquer and to rule, an imperial race. We have to do with a will which reigns throughout the world, as the will of old Rome reigned once; and it is for us to bend or break that will, which nations and kingdoms have found invincible and inflexible. Were [protestant] heresy conquered in England, it would be conquered throughout the world." To cut a long story very short, via Vatican intrigue during two world wars and the rise of the European Union, Rome's anti-British agenda has never changed. So, 'Remember, remember, the Fifth of November!' - and set the UK free from the EU as soon as possible, preferably before Turkey becomes a member!
While it is vital to remember all this history, the threat of Islam is but the latest assault on the hard-won Christian-based cultural, political and social values of the United Kingdom. While the BBC lavishly entertains an increasingly decadent nation with the corrupt saga of ancient Rome, its secular anti-Christian agenda driving revisionist history, Islam's conspirators continue to stockpile their terrorist powder kegs in the cellars of this country's tolerant culture - with little or no protest from Roman Catholic, Anglican, ecumenical and multi-faith leaders. While the BBC amuses and confuses the nation, global jihadists - some quietly, others violently - are plotting the overthrow of all we have known for centuries. They are preparing for 'UKistan' in no uncertain terms!
Tragically, our secularist Government - which Islam aims to subjugate and replace in any case - is playing dangerous games by ignorantly distinguishing between militant and moderate Islam. They are deluded by the deceptive mantra 'Islam means peace'. Their legislative programme is driven by Islamic appeasement, especially on economic grounds. After all, the iniquitous Abortion Act of 1967 has robbed the nation of five million tax payers, so immigrants are judged necessary despite the potentially nation-threatening religion they espouse. Of course, some theorists are vainly advocating a reformation of Islam. However, attempts to pacify and democratize this religion are doomed to failure. It could never happen without a radical rejection of Muhammad's vicious dictates and a severe abridgement of the ingrained hatred and oppression of the Qur'an. The execution and alienation of reformists by Muslim purists in Islamic states surely destroys all hope of such reformation.
So what is to be done? First, in reverse order of importance, there must be combined political and religious measures, as follows:
1. Reliable information must be made available to community, educational, church and political leaders about authentic Islam. The loveless concept of Allah, the contradictions of the Qur'an, Islam's appeal to the baser instincts of human nature, the degradation of women, its bloody jihadism and a fallaciously-promised paradise for suicide bombers (murderers not martyrs) must not be hidden.
2. With active and sensitive compassion, Christians must use all proper means to evangelise Muslims. In the process, there must be no concessions to liberal as well as Muslim denials of the deity and grace of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and only Saviour of the world. In short, the case for the pure, life-transforming faith of biblical Christianity must be courageously made.
3. ID cards requiring carriers to disavow violence in the pursuit of their agenda must be introduced. Muslims in particular must publicly reject the bellicosity of the Qur'an and the Hadith if they wish to remain part of democratic society. If they refuse to do so, or - as is more likely - are convicted of lying on the basis of 'taqiyya' when they sign, they must then be deported to countries where the intolerable is tolerated, e.g. Saudi Arabia or back to Pakistan.
4. State benefits should be withdrawn from anyone who, in ultimately working the system to destroy it, refuses to abide by these reasonable, charitable and enlightened democratic ideals. How idiotic can a Government be to allow enemies of the State to live off the State?
Second, there must be a fresh focus on the authentic Protestant Christian Faith that gave Great Britain its true greatness - and betrayals of this heritage by the liberal religious and educational establishments must be opposed with vigour. If ancient Rome was destroyed from within by its own corruption, and, in the post-Empire era, the UK is fast losing its moral cohesion for similar reasons, there must be a national repentance. It is worth noting that church historians of yesteryear viewed the rise of Islam as a divine judgement on the corruption and decadence of 7th century Eastern Christianity. Indeed, one may argue that the rapid rise of Islam in 'Christian' Europe within the last thirty years or so is to be viewed similarly.
The tragedy is that while many people resent the oppressive prohibitions Islamic shar'iah law would impose, they also reject more holy yet humane Christian values in favour of the immoral life-style Islam justly laments in Western culture. Thus an appropriate repentance must go deeper than what the ethical barbarities of Islam might produce. Indeed, there is an older precedent for the consequences of national apostasy and the necessity of such repentance. The Old Testament prophet Daniel has much to teach us. In ever a nation suffered from a total culture quake, it was the Jewish people during the Babylonian captivity. Uprooted from their God-given land in 587 BC, settled far from Jerusalem and the Temple, they were sustained by faith in God and His gracious promise of eventual restoration. Living in the final years of the captivity, Daniel's faith, courage and integrity mark him out as an 'excellent' statesman and man of God (see Daniel 6: 3). His humble and prayerful spirituality make him an example for us today. In his prayer for the people, he identifies himself with the nation that had been punished for its sinful rebellion against God (Daniel 9: 4-15). Rather than adopt the dubious modern practice of apologising for the sins of others, Daniel shared and acknowledged the nation's guilt: "We have sinned, we have done wickedly" (v. 15). In deep, heart-felt repentance, Daniel pleaded with God to have mercy on His people: "O my God, incline your ear and hear; open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies" (v. 18).
After the reigns of Belshazzar and Darius, Daniel's prayer was answered when Cyrus the Persian became king in 539 BC. The new king's liberal policy eventually allowed the Jews to return to their land. God's merciful promises were fulfilled. While the parallels might be few, may we not plead with God to restore the power of the Gospel and the consequent blessings of a harmonious society here in the UK? Rather than the political scenario of Daniel's day, many Christians consider that our position is more akin to the early church threatened by opposition from the pagan Roman Empire. Be that as it may, let us be sure to undergird every legitimate and God-honouring attempt to revive Christian influence in our nation with Daniel's prayer: "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act!" Apart from this, there is no hope.
Dr Alan C. Clifford