Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has come under fire for an interview in which he suggested airport security should focus their attention on where the
"threat is coming from". The outspoken Irishman told the Times that terrorists were most likely to be lone Muslim males. Cue outrage.
"Who are the bombers? They are going to be single males travelling on their own. If you are travelling with a family of kids, on you go; the chances you are going to blow them all up is zero. You can’t say stuff, because it’s racism, but it will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion. Thirty years ago it was the Irish. If that is where the threat is coming from, deal with the threat".
(Michael O'Leary)
Condemnation was swift and predictable. There were howls of 'Islamophobia' from woke keyboard warriors, Islamists and Labour politicians. Some went further, calling it 'racism'. Then there was Naz Shah's response...
'Horrific' Naz? These are words. No, actually they're facts. And it's the facts that lie behind what he said that expose the insidious nature of your outrage. It's not horrific to point out the bleeding obvious, but you know what is horrific? Terrorism. Actual terrorism. People being killed and injured.
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| Wreckage of Flight 9268, a Russian passenger plane blown up over Egypt in 2015 |
The hypocrisy and lack of equivocal condemnation is deafening. People like Naz line up to condemn terrorism, but only when Muslims are the victims. Look how quickly Labour politicians pounced on the stabbing of an imam at Regent's Park Mosque last week. It was instantly
condemned as a 'hate crime' by Diane Abbott, although it later turned out to be nothing of the sort. Yet when Islamists strike she responds by downplaying what she cannot even bring herself to
call terrorism.
In those few instances where Muslims are targeted Labour's response is always the same - condemnation, an expression of solidarity with the Muslim community and demands for a clamp down on 'hate speech' to combat the 'rise of the far right'. What they mean by this is a clamp down on anyone pointing out the facts about terrorism, hence their outrage over O'Leary.
The deadliest terror attacks in Britain and Europe over the last ten years were all carried out by Islamists, with the exception of the 2011 Breivik attacks in Norway and last week's Hanau shootings. Almost 400 people have been killed, thousands of arrests have been made and hundreds of plots averted. There's just no comparison between the threat from Islamism and the far right, but any suggestion that Islamists pose a bigger threat is classed as 'hate speech', 'racist' and 'Islamophobic' by the left. The terror threat from Islamists is very real and it may be uncomfortable reading for those with their heads in the sand, but it comes from followers of Islam.
Labour and their allies are just very keen to stop you from talking about it.
