"British values". posted by Richard Seymour

I've had a tough time figuring out what "British values" are, and it looks like most commentators are finding the same task equally difficult. One solution is to define it negatively. For instance, according to Henry Porter in yesterday's Observer, wearing a hijab, supporting Palestine and hanging out with your homies is anti-British .

Porter's gripes include an opinion poll published in the Telegraph which suggests that among Muslims, about 6% thought the terrorist attacks were justified, and 56% could understand why such people carried out such acts whether or not they sympathised with them. He detects a growing "voluntary segregation" among Muslims, who have a "proud disdain" for Western civilisation. He worries about 31% of British Muslims who assented to the position that Western democracy is immoral and decadent.

I fail to see what the problem is. So, a tiny minority of Muslims are pissed off enough that they'll support such a venture? Pfft. It's like acne - they'll get over it. Anyone with half a brain can 'understand' why such attacks take place. MI5 can understand it, and they aren't the brightest fellows in the world. And Western democracy is immoral and decadent, which is one reason why many people think that. Our governing class is psychotically violent overseas and ridiculously authoritarian and mean-spirited at home. The ruling class is obnoxiously greedy, despoiling our planet and exploiting the people on it with a few bare restraints provided by popular pressure over the last century. Far better to have a socialist revolution and get it over with.

If in the meantime, I choose to strap myself into a burqa, scare pedestrians with sudden loud pseudo-Koranic imprecations, support the Palestinians and Iraqi resistance, and reject Western capitalism, what is Mr Porter going to do about it? Tell his slipper-wearing Observer colleagues about me? Denounce me from the parish pulpit? Oooh, I'm so scared.