BBC’s correspondent of religious affairs, Frances Harrison has another politically correct report on the Cartoon controversy. As per usual, the context – free speech/Muslim intolerance – is missing from the piece. It all becomes another report of how Europeans have difficulty accepting the OTHER.

This is how the article starts, with a quote from an Imam:

“We will keep on working for integration, to build bridges. If you don’t know who is Muhammad I am telling you please read about Muhammad,” said the imam.

Imam, I wouldn’t worry about that, in a few years reading about Muhammad will be mandatory in Danish schools.

I have been tardy in posting this film of proceedings in the European Parliament, especially as I helped find it and get it on to YouTube. (Or more accurately tried to find it and congratulated others in the Group for getting it together).

On my way out of the house this morning, I was called by a BBC researcher to discuss my opinion of non-domiciled tax status. As my opinions were not the ones expected, our conversation did not lead to any broadcast. But I was rather pleased with what I said, and I might as well spend the rest of my railway journey writing it down.

A quote from Harry de Quetteville in The Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2008

Kosovo's new national flag, in thinly disguised tribute to the EU, is blue and yellow and festooned with stars. But few Kosovans seem very enthusiastic about brandishing the symbol of their new state. Perhaps their affection will come with time, once they get over the dreary inoffensiveness of the new emblem. But perhaps not.

For Kosovans, whatever their ethnicity, already have a flag, whether the tricolour of Serbia or the red and black of Albania. Kosovo's new flag must now do battle for the affections of locals with these fetishistically popular colours. It seems unlikely to win any time soon. This mismatched fight of the flags sums up the size of the task facing Europe in its stewardship of Kosovo.

Today, one day after Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, the United States and the major European countries rushed to recognize Kosovo’s independence. George Bush hailed Kosovo’s “bold and historic bid for statehood.” Five years ago, Mr Bush invaded Iraq and began “operation Iraqi freedom.” He toppled Saddam Hussein in order to get rid of a rogue regime, one of the members of the “axis of evil.” Five years later, Mr Bush is saddling Europe with a new rogue state.

Kosovo's Flag: notice anything familiar about it?

So, a third European Muslim state struggles into life, its parturition attended by a gaggle of EU midwives, infuriating Serbia and Russia into the bargain. One can see Serbia’s point. Against its will part of its Sovereign territory is being ripped from it, a part that is of immense national importance to Serbian identity and heritage.

 
It is as if Kent and Sussex became inhabited by minority which transmogrified into a majority and achieved independence against England’s will, taking with it its access to the battlefield of Hastings and Canterbury Cathedral: for thus is the fate of the battlefield of Kosovo Polje (The Field of Blackbirds), which marks a fundamental moment in the creation of Serbian identity, and of a host of important religious sites of considerable importance to the Serbian Orthodox Church.

A quote from Reuters, 13 February 2008

A woman in Germany who became pregnant after an online sex auction has won a court battle to force the Web site that hosted the sale to reveal the names of the winners, so she can find out who's the father. Six different men won Internet auctions to have sex with the woman in April and May last year. They were only known to her by their online names, a spokesman for a court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart said Wednesday.

A quote from The Mail on Sunday, 17 February 2008

Britain is to become the first Western nation to issue bonds approved by Muslim clerics in line with sharia law, which bans conventional loans involving interest payments as "sinful". The scheme would mark one of the most significant economic advances of sharia law in the non-Muslim world.

No talk about decline and decadence is able to avoid a mention or two of the last days of Rome. It’s a cliché inside a banality wrapped in a truism. But in the case of European politics it’s an urge that simply cannot be helped.

Take for instance what actually worries the European political class. Is it the declining economic prospects of the continent? Is it the deadly demographics? Is it a growing and increasingly fanatical minority within its borders? The answer is none of the above.

For a moment from the noise I thought that Galatasaray must have won a match, but turning round the corner it became apparent that it wasn't the Turks, but their close cousins the Kosovars.

I had an inward revulsion for all the carrying on, but I checked it. What will I do when Britain finally leaves the EU?

Driving round Brussels waving the Union flag will be the least of it.