In the Holy Month of Ramadan...

In Afghanistan, "Scores of civilians have been killed after a massive explosion in a highly secure diplomatic area of Kabul left 64 people dead and wounded more than 300, the Afghan interior ministry said on Wednesday."

In Iraq, "An Islamic State car bomb that targeted families eating ice-cream after breaking their Ramadan fast has killed at least 17 people and wounded 32 more in southern Baghdad."

In the Philippines, "Police and security services have imposed a night-time curfew and increased their presence in a second Philippine city following reports that Islamist militants fighting fierce battles in Marawi might pose as civilians to sneak out and open a new front. More than 90% of Marawi’s 200,000 population have fled a week of street clashes and aerial strikes. Many have relocated to Iligan City, 24 miles to the north, where authorities have implemented a 10pm to 4am curfew."

Also in the Philippines, "The CCTV monitor was showing a live feed of gunmen in the hospital lobby. From the safety of another floor, Jan Yamit, a 23-year-old health worker, watched in horror as the militants shot a police officer and then a security guard before storming into the building.

“I can’t explain what I was feeling. I was nervous. I am pissed by those kinds of people. They kill defenceless people,” he said of the attack in Marawi, a city on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

He and his brother, who worked as a lift operator in the building, sneaked from one room to another. Eventually, they found a wooden plank and made a bridge from the third floor to a neighbouring building.

“Those who were killed were Christians,” he said.

The attack on Marawi, a mainly Muslim city of 200,000 people, by the Islamic State-linked Maute group this week has led to a fierce three-day battle, with the army deploying attack helicopters and special forces. At least 46 people – 15 members of the security forces and 31 militants – have been killed. On Friday, the Maute held its positions on bridges and remained hidden in buildings, despite heavy overnight artillery and airstrikes."

 In Egypt, at least 26 people, including children, were killed and 25 wounded in a gun attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of Cairo.

And this was just the first week of the Holy Month. Into the second week, we now have 7 dead and 21 critically injured in London - less than a fortnight after the Manchester attack.

Our values will only prevail if we speak up

"After Manchester, our values will only prevail if we speak up for them." So writes Guardian correspondent Nick Cohen this morning.

Except that our values have not prevailed. The article is not open for comment. In fact, very few articles in the Guardian are open for comment any more. The essential contradiction having now been realised, the portrait of its renowned editor, C P Scott, together with the strapline "But comment is free", has been removed.

Comment is free no longer.

Corbyn is spot-on

It is not often that I find myself in agreement with a left winger like Jeremy Corbyn, but he is spot-on in his analysis when he says that the Manchester bombing would not have happened if the western powers had not destabilised Libya by getting rid of Gaddafi, and that ISIS would not have risen to power if it had not been for the intervention in Iraq.

We would probably not, however, agree on the reasons. The project to turn these countries into western-style democracies were never going to succeed; their societies are too fractured and tribal for democracies to be able to work, and that is why they have always been ruled by dictators and tyrants. Fortunately, the attempt to get rid of the tyrant ruler of Syria was stopped in its tracks. Had Assad been got rid of, the consequences would have been immeasurably worse than the present situation, bad as it is.

Western countries need to stop the meddling.

Manchester - discussion shut down

It is noticeable that the newspapers have closed down web site discussion on articles about the Manchester bombing. On the Guardian site - the strapline "Comment is Free" now seems ironic - only the most trivial and uncontroversial articles are now open for comment these days.  The Financial Times was more open but has subsequently removed all the comments.

This leaves the field open for conspiracy theories and claims that the authorities knew about the bombing threat and just allowed it to happen, for the sake of having a pretext for imposing tighter controls and surveillance.

However, what we do know, since the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, admitted as much, is that the bomber was known "up to a point" to the British intelligence services and police. Which raises the question of why he was allowed through immigration control without detention and close questioning. This would be difficult politically, since detention of suspects is open to accusations of racial and ethnic profiling.

Perhaps the law needs to be strengthened so that whatever he was known "up to a point" for is made a chargeable offence. That, though, could mean that tens of thousands of people could end up in prison. However, in this case, it now turns out that Islamic terrorism was the family business, so one would have expected that the bomber would have been known more than "up to a point". But if these people are not put out of harm's way, the alternative is the frightening one of allowing them free, when resources are inadequate to keep them under effective surveillance

There is also a refusal to acknowledge the nature of the "extremism" and "radicalisation" which is behind this and similar incidents. Since they are not committed by extremist Methodists or radical Christian Scientists, their actions must be motivated by something to do with the nature of the particular faith when radicalisation leads them to commit acts of terrorism. Radical Catholic men, for instance, become monks and friars. But this beast is rarely named.

It is also why initiatives like "Prevent" are bound to fail; in order to be effective, the beliefs of what is now a significant minority would have to be openly challenged. This is an impossible task when the dominant belief in society is no belief at all, leaving it impotent when it comes to presenting counter arguments. The widespread belief in nothing at all also makes it difficult for people, including opinion-formers, to understand the power of beliefs and the risks of having a community within society which holds to beliefs which are potentially dangerous.

This incomprehension is a problem peculiar to western countries which have not previously had Muslim communities in their midst; if you talk to Christians from countries like Syria and Iraq, they will spell out what they have had to deal with for centuries.

If there is any conspiracy, it is one of silence based on fear of giving offence, of being confrontational and of being accused of racism. We will pay a heavy price in the end. Actions by the authorities will be useless. And there is a limit to what the public will tolerate. People are not fooled. As Morissey has said, the bomber was an extremist. Extremist what? Extremist rabbit? Morrisey was accused of making a dumb statement, but that accusation only serves to increase the gap between the pulsillanimous media and politicians, and what is plain as daylight to everyone else.

Cult of ugliness

Compare and contrast. The former seems to have been inspired by the latter, but which is the more elegant?
Fatima shrine.
German bunker, Jersey, built 1942.

Orthodox ordination yesterday

I attended an ordination yesterday, of a man who is probably the first-ever Swedish Orthodox priest. The bishop had come all the way from Paris. The parish, which is attached to the Patriarchate of Antioch, is a mixture of Swedes and Syrians, and the liturgy was in Swedish, Arabic and English. This of course,  contradicts the claim that the Orthodox are divided into national groups.

There was a party afterwards, in which the Bishop emphasised that the most important thing for a Christian was to hold to the love of Christ.

There was a fair sprinkling of Church of Sweden clergy but none of the dozen or so Catholic priests in and around Göteborg came; in fact, apart from myself, there were only two other Catholics present. I wonder if they were invited or knew that the event was occurring?

80 years ago today - 12 May 1937

The 12th of May 1937 - 80 years ago today - was the day of the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. It was commemorated by this attractive postage stamp, at a time when the British Post Office issued just one or two commemoratives a year.

Tridentine Mass hanging on

I went to the Tridentine Mass this morning. It was better attended than usual. We are fortunate in having a choice of two - one in town on Saturday evenings, and another on Sunday mornings at a Franciscan house about ten minutes out on the commuter train. The Saturday evening one draws about fifty, the Sunday morning one about a couple of dozen. Both are said by dedicated priests; the celebrant for the Sunday morning Mass is in his mid-seveties and had a stroke earlier in the year. It is a great effort for him to say it, as well as a Novus Ordo Mass earlier in the day.

To have two Tridentine Masses most weeks looks good, but in truth it is hanging on by a thread. The overwhelming majority of Catholics are uncomfortable with Latin and want their Mass in the vernacular, with plenty of the Lutheran hymns that most of them were brought up with; this, the prevailing form of Mass, is hardly even recognisable as Catholic. Those of us who prefer the traditional form find it hard to accept that we are at the margin of the margin but that is the reality. It will be a miracle if the Tridentine Mass is still around in these parts in five years time.