"Islamophobia" strikes Cornwall, no deaths reported

In the Daily Mail, I read the latest harrowing tale of the persecution which is inflicted upon Muslims in Britain every day. The latest culprits: the people of St Columb Major, in Cornwall. You see, St Columb Major hosts a village fete each August, and this year one group of people - composed of men as well as women - decided to dress up as Muslim women in burqas, and stage a mock beauty parade, as part of the fete. Styling themselves the "Page Three Beauties from the Ramalama Ding-Dong Times", they carried placards bearing such titles as "Miss Notbadinbedabad" and "Miss Reallyamanistan". On the parade they performed mock prayers, using a compass to find the direction of Mecca. Not, perhaps, the funniest idea ever devised, but probably mildly amusing at a village fete, particularly if one had enjoyed a few non-Halal beverages beforehand.

And, it seems that the local worthies judging costumes at the fete had been at the non-Halal beverages, because they shortlisted the Page Three Beauties for a prize for best costume. Then that heroic protector of the public, PC Plod, arrived, and ordered the group to leave the carnival, as complaints had been made about "racism". The carnival's organiser, Nina Brenton, described what happened:

We were approached by about six students from out of the area and they thought it was disgusting and offensive to Muslims.

They asked how we could allow it in our carnival, but it's not up to us to dictate what's offensive. We did advise the group in question what had happened and gave them the choice of whether to carry on in the procession, and they did.

Everybody was having fun, but in the end the police got involved and moved them on.

Yet another highly efficient use of police time, no doubt.

I must confess, though, that I am somewhat bemused as to who the six censorious students were, who took such great offence at a bit of harmless fun. I'd guess that they were rich white liberals, rather than Muslims. The kind of people, who like to preempt Muslim outrage, and end up going further even than the Muslims in their desire to ban things.

In any sane society, the police would have told those making the complaints to mind their own business, and not to watch the carnival if they didn't like what was taking place. However, we do not live in a sane society. Rather, we live in a society in which doing or saying anything which is even mildly disrespectful of Islam is, essentially, prohibited. After all, do you really think that if these people had dressed up as nuns, and had performed a burlesque of Catholic ritual, then anyone would have complained, or that the police would have got involved? No, me neither.