Skip to comments.
I see Richard Reids in jail every day
Telegraph.co.uk ^
| Dec 30, 2001
| By Dr Theodore Dalrymple
Posted on 12/30/2001 1:16:24 PM PST by T Ruth
Excerpts from the article:
* * *
There is no doubt, however, that for some years now the strongest evangelical current in British prisons has been that of Islam, and it is important to our future to understand why this should be. In the first place, there is a general susceptibility of a proportion of prisoners to religious conversion. Crime is definitely a young man's occupation: it is not for the elderly or even for the middle-aged. There thus comes a time when it dawns upon prisoners that a life of crime is never going to lead to riches and contentment: for the fact is that, in the long term, crime still does not pay.
* * *
[Islam] answers their need for transcendence, of course, as any religion would, but it does more than that: it revenges them upon the whole of society. For whatever official apologists of multiculturalism might say, everyone knows that Western society has long felt uneasy about the growing number of Muslims in its midst. By converting to Islam, the prisoner is therefore expressing his enmity towards the society in which he lives and by which he believes himself to have been grossly maltreated.
* * *
Conversion to Islam is therefore an expression of anger or rage: but contrary to the modern sentimental view, not all anger is justified or even sincere. Indeed, much of it is the product of dishonesty and bad faith combined with sheer ignorance. And far from assuaging this dishonest rage, liberal breast-beating fans it, sustains it and appears to justify it. Every time a multiculturalist speaks, therefore, and every time he asserts that all cultures are by definition equal except the West's (which is, of course, worse), he makes a convert to Islam and, perhaps, another Richard Reid.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: anthonydaniels; dalrymple; theodoredalrymple
Food for thought.
Link to complete article is here.
1
posted on
12/30/2001 1:16:24 PM PST
by
T Ruth
To: T Ruth
"But they harbour within their breast a firm and unalterable belief that a much greater, indeed existential, injustice has been done them by society as a whole. They are not well-educated, of course, and are completely unable to distinguish between unfairness (the permanent, if regrettable, condition of human existence) and injustice, which is somebody's fault. Nor do they care to analyse the true source of their miseries, preferring instead to blame a large and amorphous entity such as society: for by doing so, they absolve themselves of all personal responsibility for their past, present and future actions."
Reminds me of the FR libertarians--so stifled--angry!
To: T Ruth
bump
To: T Ruth
To: denydenydeny
That's what I thought too at first glance, but the Telegraph and National Post ran different versions.
5
posted on
12/30/2001 1:47:20 PM PST
by
dighton
To: T Ruth
Reid and all the rest of these British prisoners are no more Islamic than you or I. Let them answer to Islamic law for their offenses and see how many continue to "subscribe" to Muslim doctrine.
6
posted on
12/30/2001 2:25:07 PM PST
by
Bonaparte
To: f.Christian
No offense -- and I mean that, sir -- but this FR libertarian (with a small "l") is not angry at all. I am, however, amused by the doctrinaire Republicans whose knees jerk at 1,800 rpm every time they hear one of the magic code words (like marijuana -- yikes!).
To: T Ruth
There is no doubt, however, that for some years now the strongest evangelical current in British prisons has been that of Islam,It's not surprising that Islam would gain so many converts in prisons. Who's in prison except murderers, rapists, thieves, etc? What "religion" says murder, rape and thievery is OK when done to non-believers? For that matter what other religion was founded by a murdering caravan thief?
Perhaps when jails are full of carpenters, Christianity will get a boost in converts.
To: T Ruth
Crime is definitely a young man's occupation: it is not for the elderly or even forthe middle-aged.Oh, my. Are we full of it or not? White collar
crime is definitely of the middle-aged variety.
9
posted on
12/30/2001 4:29:03 PM PST
by
gcruse
To: gcruse
White collar crime by delinquent business executives probably is not the route by which Islamic fanatics are created.
To: f.Christian
It is worth noting that the average prison inmate has an IQ in the lowest decile (lowest 10%) in the US. Probably the same holds true in the UK. You have to be pretty stupid to chose a life of crime, even stupider to get caught. One aspect of stupidity is imagining that all your problems are some else's (society's) fault, and that you have no responsibility for your actions.
To: thucydides
White collar crime by delinquent business executives probablyis not the route by which Islamic fanatics are created.Did I say it was? Hmm. I was
commenting on the notion that
crime is a young man's game.
12
posted on
12/30/2001 5:59:37 PM PST
by
gcruse
To: gcruse
Well, if one is talking about violent crime, it surely is a young man's game. Yes, there are exceptions, but nearly all violent crime is carried out by a small subset of the population one of whose characteristics is youth.
To: thucydides
Well, if one is talking about violent crime, it surely is a young man's game.Well, the comment to which I referred said nothing about
violent crime, just crime.
14
posted on
12/30/2001 6:24:18 PM PST
by
gcruse
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson