scott hemingway

The left, always so quick to peddle its social theories for the common good, is convinced that it is using Muslims as instruments to install socialism or, in its most delirious dream, communism. They throw open the borders, defend “diversity” and shout “resistance” against imaginary ghosts in the streets, sincerely believing that these communities will help bring down capitalism and install radical equality. They look at sharia and see only a cultural detail, as if the Quran were a disguised manual of Marx. In practice, the European left has turned itself into a cheerleader for those who, if they held power, would end the rights of women, homosexuals and anyone who dares to question religious authority. They think they are manipulating demographics to weaken the “oppressor” West, but what they are actually doing is feeding a project that detests precisely the values they pretend to defend. It is ironic to watch second-rate intellectuals celebrate the veil as a women’s “choice” while pretending not to see the stonings and executions in other latitudes. On the other side, the Islamists know exactly the game they are playing. They use the left as a red carpet to introduce political Islam and sharia, exploiting Western guilt and the desire to destroy “the system.” They need neither complicated theories nor manifestos; it is enough to smile in solidarity photographs and advance step by step — mosques, laws, demographics. While the progressives celebrate multiculturalism, they are preparing the ground for something less egalitarian and far more theocratic. In the end, the result is predictable — the left, blinded by its own ideology, ends up being the first to be swallowed. The useful idiot rarely realises that that is all it is — useful until it is no longer needed. And Europe, meanwhile, is slowly waking up to the reality that not everything that arrives wrapped in rainbow flags is truly progressive. Photo — Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo