The term culture war has been around for a very long time and used to describe broadly, the fight on social issues between the left and the right. It was given to us by Pat Buchanan who I discussed on the podcast with the Telegraph’s Tim Stanley. He wrote a book on the man.
Indeed, the phrase Make America Great Again was first coined by Buchanan when he put the fight for the culture over economics firmly on the Republican agenda. His barnstorming speech at the 1992 Republican Convention contained the line, “This, my friends, is radical feminism. The agenda that Clinton & Clinton would impose on America – abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units – that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation that we still call God’s country.”
The culture wars exploded and what followed were debates over gay marriage, abortion and gender equality. Soon there was cancel culture. Transgenderism took centre ground. Before you know it, we were talking about toilets.
Those ‘wars’ over the culture occurred because liberal democracies allowed them and provided for either revolutionary change if you are a conservative or progress if you are a leftist. It is into this that the Irish Times thinks the dispute over Israeli fans attending a football match in Birmingham is also a culture war.
Mark Paul in his London letter for the Irish Times wrote about the fallout from Israeli fans being banned from Birmingham in a piece headlined, “Maccabi Tel Aviv match morphs into latest front in Britain’s culture wars. Israeli club does not want its fans to travel to Aston Villa match, but tensions have not gone away.”
He couldn’t be more wrong. This is not just the next stage of the traditional culture wars: this is The Culture War, the war that will end all others. This is the battle for whether Islamic culture will dominate Britain and arguably Ireland or whether Britain will remain a liberal democracy built on a Judeo-Christian foundation.
First the basics. West Midlands police have banned fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv’s from attending a football match at Aston Villa in Birmingham next month. This caused outrage in the UK including the Prime Minister who said it was the wrong decision. Maccabi Tel Aviv have saved them for now by saying they will not take any tickets, even if the decision was overturned as the safety of the fans could not be guaranteed. On this they are right.
As Mr Paul sets out, Birmingham has the second-highest Muslim population in Britain as a proportion of population. According to the 2021 census, 29.9% of the midlands city was Muslim, behind Bradford (30.5%). London’s proportion was around 15 per cent.
“Anger at Israel over its brutal war in Gaza is at its highest in Britain’s Muslim communities, where sympathies lie squarely with their Palestinian brethren.”
Brethren is an interesting and accurate choice of word. Muslims of Britain feel they have much more in common with their brothers in Gaza than their Jewish or Christian or Atheist neighbours that live down the road and share a country with. This is only going to get worse.
“The district of Aston (home to Aston Villa), north of Birmingham’s centre, is the most Muslim part of the city, with a majority of Aston’s population followers of Islam, mostly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.
All of this meant that an Israeli team playing in Aston at this time was always going to cause an issue. Local Independent MP Ayoub Khan, a Pakistan-born, Britain-raised former Liberal Democrat, ran an online petition calling for the match to be cancelled. Failing that, he wanted it played behind closed doors with no fans, or moved to another country.”
And that is pretty much that. After two years of pro-Palestine/anti-Israel marches in the UK anyone with a brain could have seen this coming. Britain’s Muslim communities whose sympathies lie squarely with their Palestinian brethren will start with the Jews. It rarely ends with the Jews.
Next it will be the women. Only a few weekends ago women were banned from fun run in London. ‘An event in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, was advertised on the Muslim Charity Run website as an “inclusive 5km race” for “runners and supporters of all ages and abilities” – open to “men, boys of all ages and girls under 12.” Nice.
We are yet to get to the heart of the Muslim grooming gang inquiry. Starmer was forced to order a public inquiry into Pakistani men raping white English girls with impunity for years. The inquiry is now losing support of the victims.
If you read Douglas Murray The Strange Death of Europe or Mark Steyn’s After America: Get Ready for Armageddon you will have seen this coming. The Israel – Gaza war has perhaps accelerated the real culture war and emboldened the Islamic radicals.
The trajectory is clear Muslims have babies, the English and Europeans do not. Yes, there is a Muslim middle – class but they are outnumbered by a much more hardline Muslim youth who identify far more with their Hamas supporting ‘brethren’ in Gaza than they do with English school mates. This is all aided and abetted by the left who have always hated western civilization and its ‘colonialist tradition.’ The mainstream media will take Pakistan born Mr Ayoub Khan MP who starts petitions wanting to ban Israeli football fans (who just happen to be Jewish, they’ll tell you, a shocking coincidence) and dare you to say he is not British.
The best Britain can hope for is that these areas, where Jews dare not venture and where social occasions are split along gender lines remain as enclaves and do not spread to the rest of the country. That’s best case scenario.
The other scenario, the most likely on current demographics, is the Britain that I know and love is on the way out. It is a beautiful country, with an exquisite countryside and proud history. A country with decent, honest and hardworking people, whose sense of fair play is recognised around the world.
Twice in the last century their sons, brothers and husbands were asked to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom, to defend liberal democracy across the continent. Twice they made that sacrifice. The feminists in particular would want to take stock. Their next opponents are going to make the Christian pro – lifers look like care bears.