Muslim Extremists Intimidate Parliament

Britain’s House of Commons was thrown into chaos last night, and its Speaker is under heavy attack for violating arcane procedural customs having to do with amendments on “Opposition Day.” I won’t try to untangle the procedural questions; what is relevant is what caused the House to be tied up in knots.

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was trying to save Labour members from potentially having to vote against a resolution by the Scottish Independence Party that “called for an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza] and condemned the ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians.” Why was Hoyle trying to avert the necessity to vote on that resolution?

Not just for political reasons, but because a Muslim mob had gathered in Parliament Square and members were fearful for their safety:

It wasn’t just political discomfort: the fear of being seen as against a ceasefire was, in many cases, a fear for personal safety. In the Commons it was a Tory backbencher, Paul Bristow, who made the most arresting point.

He felt strongly about Gaza, he said, so much so that he lost his government job to support a ceasefire. But he also felt personally at risk in his Peterborough constituency because he was seen to be on Israel’s side.

“Because people misrepresented my position, someone suggested on social media that they would show my wife a real man,” he told MPs. “Someone else suggested that they would attack me and my family.” In other words, voting against a ceasefire would mean a credible threat of violence from extremists.

The murder of Sir David Amess at the hands of Ali Harbi Ali permanently changed the mood in the House of Commons. Ali had tracked two Tory MPs – Michael Gove and Mike Freer – as potential targets before he settled on his victim.

I’ve spoken to MPs who put it even more emphatically than Bristow. “It’s not a protest outside my house that I worry about, it’s the safety of my children,” said one. Another says he worries about being attacked on his journey back from the airport, which he never varies.

The Muslim mob in Parliament Square wasn’t just threatening the safety of MPs. Protesters also projected genocidal slogans onto the Elizabeth Tower, which stands in one corner of the Houses of Parliament:

Police stood by as the slogan “From the river to the sea” was projected onto Parliament on Wednesday night, a senior Jewish MP has said.

Andrew Percy, a Tory backbencher, raised concerns after pro-Palestinian protesters beamed the slogan onto the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben.

He spoke out during a Commons debate on Thursday that saw many MPs express fears over their safety and warn that threats from “Islamist extremists” were stifling democracy.
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Other messages projected onto Parliament by protesters including “Stop bombing Gaza,” “Ceasefire now” and “Stop war now”.
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Thousands of pro-Palestinian activists had gathered in Parliament Square, chanting slogans that could be clearly heard in Parliament.

In this photo, you can see the word “From” projected onto the tower in giant letters. The rest of the slogan followed:

London police were criticized for not stopping projection of the genocidal slogan, as they have been repeatedly in recent months over their failure to crack down on rampaging pro-Hamas mobs. I suppose the police are afraid, too.

As one whose organization was recently the victim of an arson attack, I understand the seriousness of the threat of Leftist violence. But Britain has descended a long, long way if the House of Commons can now be intimidated by a mob.