Did someone in this arena blaspheme diversity? Scott McConnel’s last came to mind when I learned that British immigration officials barred Dutch MP Geert Wilders from entering Britain (at the invitation of a member of the House of Lords) to attend a screening of his anti-Islamic (and by all accounts awful) film (watch here) on the grounds the filmmaker’s presence in Britain might cause anti-Islamic violence. 

My first reaction was to assume that the Brits were more afraid of that which they didn’t mention–Muslim backlash (and what delicious irony to think their silence regarding Muslim backlash was due to a fear of, yes, Muslim backlash).

But after bouncing about the British papers a bit I’m convinced it’s primarily political grandstanding on the part of Home Secretary Jacqui “Jackboot Jacqui” Smith. Secretary Smith, after first running for Parliament as part of an “all women shortlist”, earned her nickname promoting greater police powers, including the right to hold terrorism suspects for 42 days without charge.

It would behoove us to note how readily combined are old-fashioned authoritarian measures with newer, Left-inspired limits on speech and assembly (revealing them as not all that “new” and not very distinct from what is typically thought of as Rightist authoritarianism) and how the percieved “need” for these things results from tensions caused by That Which Shall Not Be Questioned–diversity. Of course, if some have their way questioning diversity will itself soon be criminalized “hate speech.” Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we set out to appease.