Anti-islamic fascism

The intellectual community is mourning the death yesterday of the polemical atheist Christopher Hitchens, who was one of those to coin the term islamofascism.

Like his fellow-atheist Richard Dawkins (and I am an atheist too by the way), Hitchens put religion at the root of pretty much all evil. Again, like Dawkins, it was only a short step from this simplistic view to demonise Islam, on the basis the actions of a fanatical and brutal minority of followers of that religion. In doing so, Hitchens ended up being more of a caricature than many of the bigots he attacked: a caricature of the typical medieval crusader who saw Moslems as Infidels, and then went off to Jerusalem to cheerfully murder thousands of Moslems and Jews. Hitchens' ill-judged views led him to support the war in Iraq and, by implication, the Presidency of George W Bush. In doing so he allied himself with a virulent and bigoted Christian movement in the United States and ended up lending credibility to a President that he should have viewed as being more dangerous than Ronald Reagan, whom he rightly criticised.

I have very strong views about Moslems who believe they can coerce women and girls, or that they can do violence against those who offend their beliefs, let alone innocent people (and a majority of the innocent victims of Islamic terrorism are, in fact Moslems). Political correctness should never lead us as far as saying "who can blame them?" Such an attitude would be obscene.

Nevertheless, the views of Hitchens, Dawkins and others amount to an attack on the fundamental principle in liberal societies of freedom of worship. The same is even more true of those Christian right-wingers in the US and elsewhere who seek to demonise all Moslems: in particular the intemperate and downright nasty reactions to the current "All-American Moslem" reality TV show running in the US at present.

There are some practising Jews and Christians who would cheerfully see the rights of non-believers curtailed. They too see those who don't share their beliefs as infidels and, therefore, expendable, just as extreme Moslems do. And they too have some pretty nasty and irredentist views about the rights of women and girls in the kind of society that they would like to create.

Where any such bigots seek to impose their views through coercion or violence they must be vigorously resisted. However, as long as the rights of others to think and act differently - as regards their religious practices or their private lives - are not infringed, it is a fundamental principle of civilised society that everyone has the right to follow whatever religion they please, even to the extent of voluntarily foregoing some of their rights.

Words, Ladders and Marmite

First of all, updating this blog is a bit fraught at the moment because I'm working flat out on my new novel, Download, a young adult sci-fi adventure in which the central character, a teenage girl, discovers that her brain is being used as a memory stick. Last Month was National novel-writing month (Nanowrimo) and I managed to get to the target of 50,000 words but that hasn't taken me to the end of the story. Moreover, this isn't even a first draft. I was once told that Barbara Kingsolver said that she starts at the stage of "draft minus two" and that just about describes where I am right now.


Nevertheless, at the instigation of Magdalena and her friend Anita, I did find time to get up off my posterior for the Escalade walk in Geneva last weekend. 


What is the Escalade walk? Well, to explain that we have to go back to the early morning of December 12, 1602, when the Duke of Savoy tried to regain possession of the free city of Geneva by a stealth attack. At that time, Geneva was a Calvinist stronghold surrounded by Roman Catholic Savoy and this was probably the main motive for the attack.The plan was to scale Geneva’s town walls quietly with the help of long ladders (hence the name of the event) and then open the city gates for more troops to pour into the city. However, the Savoyards were spotted, the alarm raised, and a battle ensued, which ended in a famous victory for the Genèvois. Duke Charles Emmanuel had to admit defeat and in the Peace of St Julien he had to acknowledge the independence of the Republic of Geneva.


The highlight of the battle was near the beginning when, according to legend, after Isaac Mercier, the night guard, raised the alarm, La Mère Royaume – a mother of 14 – threw her boiling vegetable soup out of the window onto Savoyard troops (according to some versions she actually threw the cauldron as well as its contents). The ensuing commotion helped to awaken the populace, who joined in the battle. 


In French, the word for a covered cauldron is une marmite (in fact, it's also the old English word and those of you who are more familiar with the word in the context of that disgusting brown goo will now notice the picture of a cauldron on the label of the jar). From November onwards, chocolate marmites are sold in all Genevan supermarkets and chocolatiers. These marmites are filled with marzipan vegetables and decorated with the red-and-yellow colors of Geneva. The youngest and oldest members of the family traditionally get to smash the marmite before everyone eats it and its contents.


In Geneva, the battle will be commemorated this weekend with costume parades, re-enactments, offering of free mulled wine in the streets and, of course, consumption of chocolate. However the celebrations began last weekend with the Escalade Race, which has been running for 34 years now, always on the first Saturday in December.


In fact, it's not one race but, rather, a number of events. The first, in which we participated, was an 8 kilometre walk from the picturesque outlying village of Veyrier into the heart of Geneva, which kicked off at 8 am. The Nordic walkers (the ones with pairs of walking sticks) follow the same route, starting 15 minutes later. Then, through the day there are then a series of real races in laps around the old town. There are separate races for men, women, adults and children, with distances varying from 2 to 8 km. Finally, in the evening, there is the Marmite race; a 3.4 km fun run in which the emphasis is on the originality of the fancy dress costumes rather than on who comes first or last (it's a bit of a free for all really). I did that with Magdalena two years ago, as part of a gang of WWF staff. A colleague took on the unenviable job of donning a panda suit and the rest of us wore panda tee shirts. In all, about 25,000 people participate in the events, which only run because of the generous assistance of 800 volunteers.

The three organised practise sessions I attended on Sunday mornings over the previous month didn't prepare me for the pace and competitiveness of the 8km walk on the day. In the practice sessions I was usually up near the front at the finish, with only a handful of people ahead of me (I've a naturally fast walking pace when I walk on level ground). However, the numbers of walkers participating in the practice sessions were of the order of 300, whereas nearly 1,500 participated on the day. So it will be no surprise to those of you who know me that there were more than 100 people ahead of me and that the fastest participant came in more than 15 minutes before I did! 


Still, It's nice to have done it.