by Giulio Meotti
We live in strange times, when the Pulitzer Prize is awarded to the Palestinian Arab poet who attacks Israeli hostages and denies that the Bibas children were strangled and mutilated in Gaza.
Strange times, given that the “thoughtcrime” prophesied by George Orwell’s pen – those committed by those who dare to think things that the “Ministry of Truth” has decided should not be thought – is now a reality in the country of the author of “1984.” Orwell’s book was written in 1948 when the Soviets had swallowed up half of Europe and were eager for more.
And we remember that Jolly Old England is the country of liberalism, of the Magna Carta (the first constitutional document in history), of the first publishing house in the world (Cambridge University Press), of the first modern newspaper (The Daily Courant) and of the oldest democracy.
Until recently, a knock on the door by the police was very KGB, but now it is a feature of English national life.
A retired special agent has been arrested for a social media post warning about anti-Semitism. Hard to believe, right?
Julian Foulkes was handcuffed at home by six officers of the force he served with after responding to a pro-Palestinian activist on X, The Times reveals.
The 71-year-old was held for eight hours, questioned and finally “cautioned”. Foulkes accepted the “caution” from police after eight hours behind bars without having to go to court. He did so because, as officers discovered when they searched his home, one daughter died in a car crash in Ibiza and the other lives in Australia, and Foulkes feared he would be refused entry to visit her if convicted.
Perhaps the only unusual element in the story is that the police admitted they had gone too far and apologised. But the former officer has decided to sue the authorities.
Bodycam footage from the raid paints a disturbing picture of what police are considering “suspicious”. Officers searched Foulkes’s book collection, with one expressing concern about some of the “very Brexit stuff” on his shelf. Another leafed through a copy of Douglas Murray’s “War on the West”. No doubt, the politically correct police see this as evidence of a “potential extremist threat”.
The retired cop was responding to a “pro-Palestine” protester who had denied there was a “hate” streak in the marches in London.
His post on X, sent two days before police went to his home, was a reaction to reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming an airport in Dagestan, Russia, looking for Jewish passengers. It was a response to an activist threatening to sue Suella Braverman, the then Home Secretary, for calling the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London “hate marches”.
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It was six o’clock on a Sunday morning when Allison Pearson found herself on her doorstep, in her dressing gown and slippers, facing two police officers.
The Telegraph journalist was facing a “Kafkaesque” police investigation for “inciting hatred” in a social media post last year. Pearson, an award-winning writer and excellent columnist for the English newspaper, had two police officers arrive at her home to tell her that she was under investigation for a post on X (formerly Twitter).
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In London, Niyak Ghorbani, an Iranian dissident, has been marching alongside the Jewish community for months with his “Hamas is terrorist” sign protesting pro-Hamas marches. Ghorbani was forcibly removed by the Metropolitan Police for holding the sign and arrested many times.
Do you find it normal that an Iranian exile would be arrested for protesting against terrorists? The organizers of the same marches from which Ghorbani is being chased by the police have ties to Hamas, have met with Hamas officials, or have publicly praised its terrorist atrocities. One group, the Muslim Association of Britain, was founded by Muhammad Kathem Sawalha, a former Hamas leader who now lives in London.
In this case, everything is “legal”: because the authorities are no longer liberals (the original definition), but submissive positivists.
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Christian preacher Hatun Tash was preparing to give a speech on the Koran at Speakers Corner in London when she was dragged away by police officers, as a crowd surrounded her and shouted “Allahu Akbar”. The police then paid £10,000 in damages to Tash.
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In February, 50-year-old Turkish citizen Hamit Coskun was charged with causing “anguish” to the Islamic faith after burning a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London. If Coskun is convicted, it would mark another step in Europe’s continued capitulation to the jihadists’ veto, where fear of a violent backlash dictates the limits of free speech.
When a retired police officer, a Telegraph journalist, an Iranian exile, a disabled activist and a Turkish Christian are arrested, interrogated and taken away by the police for expressing their views, it means that democracies are being overwhelmed by the newbarbarians already inside the city walls.