When the Islamists came for Cineworld

We are a nation that has already cut itself into tiny little pieces, and a common culture and ideal is nowhere to be found.

I’m not sure why any of us should be shocked or surprised by this. That a deliberately intimidating Islamist mob has frightened its opponents into silence is surely par for the course in this multicultural utopia that is 21st century Great Britain.

The Batley Grammar school teacher (remember him?) is still in hiding a year after displaying photos of Muhammed in a lesson about religious tolerance. It’s a shame that the zealous mobs banging on the front gates didn’t get the memo. Or how about the time when, across that small strip of choppy sea, a French school teacher was beheaded for doing the same thing?

Now it seems the next link in the line of the scimitar is Cineworld, which tried to play host to the film The Lady of Heaven, a historical drama on the life of Muhammed’s daughter. Interestingly, the release and subsequent backlash allows us coddled Westerners to peak into Islam’s ongoing civil war fought between the Sunnis and the Shias (the film itself was written by a Shia cleric, Yasser Al-Habib). Nevertheless, if this conflict is to play out, we should hope it takes place out on the sands of the Middle East, not our own streets.

Reality, on the other hand, is not so kind. Cineworld decided to pull the plug not because they thought the film was ‘too offensive’, but because of the threat of direct physical violence. In its own words: “Due to recent incidents related to screenings of The Lady of Heaven, we have made the decision to cancel upcoming screenings of the film nationwide to ensure the safety of our staff and customers.”

Safety. Concern. Worry. Duty to protect our colleagues. Is this the nose-turning manner of a corporation pandering to protected identity groups, or one bullied into submission? Cineworld’s decision is detestable, but understandable. After all, criticism or mockery of Muhammed/Islam followed by unannounced, violent retaliation from Islamists isn’t exactly sitting in the ‘myths and legends’ section of the local library. The arrival of mobs on the pavements of Birmingham, Bolton and Sheffield highlighted that the call to arms was on Cineworld’s front door and they, naturally, considered it too dangerous to hold their ground. The outbreak of violence could have been only a split-second away.

In their justification for tearing the movie away from your paying eyes, the Islamists plagiarise the buzzwords that have oversaturated societal discourse. Placards waved at these quick-fire gatherings often had the word ‘hate’ stamped in bold on their surface, the only real difference being the explicit religious terminology in calling the film ‘blasphemous’.

What wonders events such as these do for community cohesion. Are we a nation united in our differences, or a balkanised asteroid cluster of archipelagos who don’t talk to each other, only to reach out to the other side in anger and vindictiveness when the ‘other’ upsets our precious taboos? Those who marched to their local Cineworld to protest largely originate from homogenous Muslim communities where crafting any caricature of Muhammed is a strict no-no, hence why they believe the ‘blasphemous’ charge carries considerable weight, whereas the accusations bounce off us as if they were microscopic balls of rubber.

We are a nation that has already cut itself into tiny little pieces, and a common culture and ideal is nowhere to be found. The censorship-via-mob of The Lady Of Heaven is further proof that we are a land that is eating itself alive.