From Church & State: Winter 2007
Mary Kenny On The Moral Maze
Report
From (BBC Radio), 15th November 2006
(The subject was whether there should be a law against incitement to religious hatred. Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party was against such a law, as was Mary Kenny, who came on after him.)
A Panelist: It seems that you're very comfortable sitting in the same seat as Nick Griffin expressing a pretty much identical view on this question. Does it worry you that you're in such company.
Mary Kenny: Well, that's your analysis. It's not mine.
Q: So you deny that you're making the same argument that he made.
MK: I don't have the same views that he has.
Q: Not about other things. But on this issue… you are making the same argument that he made.
MK: If you say so.
Q: Well, you are… He knows that there is very powerful latent anti-Muslim feeling there to be played with and encouraged politically. And that's what he's doing. And he's doing it because he favours a predominantly white white-supremacist Britain. How comfortable are you with that?
MK: Well, I mean there are problems with Islam, and we do have to talk about them. And we do have to talk about them in a very open and honest way. And we can't sort of tiptoe around and say, Gosh, we mustn't talk about this because it involves ethnicity. I mean the Muslim birth-rate in Europe is three to five times higher than the Christian, or post-Christian, or Judaeo-Christian birth-rate, if you like. That is actually a very serious subject. They are winning the demographic race, if you like. No pun intended. And that means there will be changes in our culture. Let's talk about it. Let's be open and talk about it. And let's not pretend it's not happening.
Q: Is it right to have laws which prohibit incitement to violence by racial hatred?
MK: Well, I think, as far as I understand it, laws should be judged on their outcome.
Q: We have a law like that. Do you think that law should be repealed?
MK: I'm not in favour of hate laws, because I, because I do think it's a very slippery——
Q: ——So we should repeal the law which outlaws incitement to violence through racial hatred?
MK: I'll have to think about that.
Q: Well that would lead to racial hatred. That would lead to violence, wouldn't it?
MK: Well, all sorts of things lead to violence… I'm not comfortable with the idea that action is judged according to how the victim perceives it. I think that's a very dangerous area of law. It's a bit Alice In Wonderland… Let's be a little bit more robust about this. You can disapprove of things. I disapprove of Gordon Ramsay effing and blinding all the time all over the television. But that doesn't mean, But that doesn't mean I want to prohibit him
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