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From the UK: Fundamentally Flawed
Their plan in the UK will be the same. The human fertilisation and embryology controversy and the argument over hybrid embryos, abortion and gay rights is merely the start of a larger cultural battle that they will want to wage across Britain for years to come. Like Hizb ut-Tahrir and their Islamic caliphate pipe-dreams, this lobby is in it for the long haul. Throughout this controversy, moderates have kept saying they want to hear a sane debate on the issue of abortion. And there is plenty of good science around pointing out why the 24-week limit should remain, including by the British Medical Association. It is the anti-choice lobby, led by Nadine Dorries, that is trying to fudge the science. Dawn Primarolo MP said last night in parliament: "She has asserted many things as fact which are not."It's important to continually expose their networks, because the first tactic of fundamentalists is to deny their links to each other until they're confident that coming out more openly won't jeopardise their agenda. In God's Name primarily featured a certain Andrea Minichiello Williams, public policy director at The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF). One group associated with LCF is Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), an organisation we exposed on the Liberal Conspiracy website as having registered and bought the domain name for Conservative MP Nadine Dorries's 20 weeks campaign to lower the legal limit for abortion. CCFON also runs another anti-choice website that claims it only wants to "substantially" reduce the 24 week upper time limit but it is backed by a whole list of organisations that want to ban abortion entirely. In the documentary, Andrea Williams keeps talking about the killing of foetuses through abortions but rarely acknowledges the case for having an abortion in the first place. Does she want to bring back the coathanger? Nadine Dorries MP keeps claiming she is pro-choice and that she is not a Christian fundamentalist but then why is her campaign funded and co-run by them? Why are many of her allies groups that want to ban abortion entirely? Imagine the outrage if it were a group of misogynist Muslim fundamentalists such as Hizb ut-Tahrir running the campaign instead. CCFON is close to the Conservatives and Dorries has repeatedly been given a platform on ConservativeHome to continue publishing images to make her flimsy "scientific" argument. There is no doubt that the Christian fundamentalists are coming. We may think this to be a liberal, secular country but they aim to embed themselves into the political establishment and, over the longer term, push through piecemeal changes to roll back equal rights for gays and women. Monday night's documentary showed this already in action. The mainstream media has completely failed to make the connection between the Nadine Dorries campaign, which is being enthusiastically backed by Conservative leader David Cameron, and these fundamentalists. Yesterday ConservativeHome claimed that even if she loses the vote, Dorries's campaign had "already succeeded" because of the media coverage she had had. But then this was never supposed to be a battle over abortion rights. The pro-choice lobby was slightly caught out, especially since Dorries had plenty of support from the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph newspapers, but they won't be next time. The time to sit on the fence on this issue is over because this isn't just about abortion. Their agenda is clear - to take us back to the days of God's rule and intolerant religious fundamentalism. If the Christian fundamentalists are getting organised to push through their homophobic and misogynist agenda, then liberals must also get organised. The feminists have to link arms with gay groups, with secularists, atheists, trade unions and many more. They have to be willing to take their arguments to ordinary people in Britain and expose the agenda of the fundamentalists because the media cannot be relied on to do it. This is by no means an anti-religion rant or platform. It is vital that moderate Christian groups also join the debate in favour of compassion and oppose the homophobic agenda of the Christian right, otherwise they risk having their religion hijacked. In two years time, if the Conservatives come into power, as is likely, these battles will flare up. It's time for liberals to organise. Because if the Christian fundamentalists are in it for the long haul, then we have to be too. They lost the battle last night, but the war has just begun.
From the UK: Fundamentally Flawed | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
From the UK: Fundamentally Flawed | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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