UK - The Battle of Brick Lane

and the failure of multiculturalism.

But this sane Bengali majority has been ignored. The filming on Brick Lane has been stopped. Salique brags about his victory. This is only a small infringement – the film will be made elsewhere – but the pattern is yet again affirmed. Instead of holding open the institutions of a free society to support these women as they change their communities, we are allowing reactionaries to intimidate them with threats of force. Bezhti is now unstageable. Hirsi Ali has been driven from Europe.

In London, the police have begun to defend free speech only selectively, telling people under threat from foaming fundamentalist fringes that they “cannot guarantee their security”. When a Muslim man held up the Mohammed cartoons at a Free Speech rally in London earlier this year to demonstrate his support for free speech, he was actually arrested for a “public order disturbance”. When my friends at the Liberal magazine printed the cartoons, they were told by the police they were on their own. What right have the police to decide to abandon chunks of the population to fanatics? Why did they not guarantee the safe passage of camera crews on Brick Lane?

The Battle of Brick Lane has been another small deflating pin-prick for our free speech – and for some of the bravest women in Britain.

There's a lot more of that here.

UPDATE

Related thoughts here.

At the mention of angry young Muslims, the film-makers made for the exit and decided to film elsewhere. Police applauded their caution. The Government kept mum.

The Brick Lane campaigners have won. But at what cost? The dismal stereotype they have confirmed is that in Muslim eyes censorship is acceptable, criticism not; that young Muslim men are hotheads ready to resort to violence in any disagreement. It’s a collective character assassination far more damaging than Ms Ali’s writing.

The consequences will be dire. The caving in by Ruby Films, with the authorities’ approval, issues a warning to all artists: when it comes to Muslim territory — metaphorically and literally — don’t go there.

In Britain, Sikh and Hindu protests have shut down plays and exhibitions; in the Netherlands, Theo Van Gogh was killed for his film against Muslim extremism. Unless elected Muslim leaders and the authorities condemn unequivocally the Brick Lane campaign, we risk losing voices such as Monica Ali’s, while gaining martyrs such as Theo van Gogh.

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