I am coming to a gradual understanding of what the much discussed "caliphate" is. It is roughly speaking a Utopian idea - the Golden Age returned to earth - when everything will be organised according to God's law and justice and peace will "return" (surely some mistake?) to the world.
This is of course, like all utopias, a marvellous idea (unless you examine some of the tenets of sharia law). However, there have already been a number of caliphates, ruled by various caliphs, from the earliest days. The first one lasted 30 years and ended in civil war. Subsequent ones were the Ummayad one - which seems to have been reasonable - but also coincided with massive territorial expansion - to allow the infidel to share the delights of the caliphate! More recently that horrendous breed of men, the Ottoman sultans, claimed the caliphate. I doubt whether anyone could dispassionately judge Ottoman Turkey to be a society overflowing with peace and justice - the royal family itself was riven with hideous cruelty - how could they be the perfect divinely ordained rulers?
When ISIS proclaimed a caliphate, it was very far from the ideal. The Koran has some harsh verses in it (as does virtually any religious text) but nothing that advocates the sort of behaviour they are indulging in.
So - perhaps a caliphate is better seen as an idealised version of a sharia state that will never come to pass. This is where UKIP comes in. When I hear their nostalgic chat about what the UK should be like, I wonder if they too have a sort of utopian ideal of the UK, where everyone is English and happy, smiling and cheerful (this would make a change from the UKIP supporters, who tend towards the snarling, grumbling end of the spectrum - but perhaps that would all change in UKIPIA). As well as there being no, or very few foreigners (wives and concubines of leading party members would be permitted to remain - as long as they continued to please these potentates) we would be living on English produce from our own fields, and having our own nuclear energy (instead of having to buy it from the detestable French), and we would be able to enslave people, and remove any of their human rights we chose to. There wouldn't be much tax, but there wouldn't be any services any way - everything would have to be paid for. Women wouldn't work, unless they were very old and unlikely to require maternity leave. Education would be optional after 12 and useful apprenticeships in mining and the chimney sweeping sector would become widely available. The sea would gradually become disgustingly polluted, because we would have opted out of oppressive EU water purity standards, there would be a great deal of other pollution, as smoking in public places would be encouraged again.
Homesexuals would be "discouraged" - and would find themselves spending more time indoors, if not actually in the closet, since there would be few penalties for those who harmed them. Economically UKIPIA would be a bit of a mess as we would be losing a great many of our export markets. We would not have the income to import foreign goods - especially foodstuffs, which would gradually become more expensive. Luxury goods have become more expensive, due to the taxes on them - which doesn't worry ordinary people at first - until the definition of "luxury" is extended to include cat litter, deodorant and lavatory paper. The sales of skin whiteners that had gone through the roof as people attempted to diminish their ethnicity, now floundering as they too are taxed at luxury rates.
It becomes more apparent that the senior party members are living a rather more luxurious lifestyle than ordinary people - and although most of them are not career politicians, but also run small businesses of their own, still there is talk of UKIP MPs cheating on expenses. Nevertheless, election publicity shows happy smiling faces, and even fat people (most of whom have disappeared since biscuits, cakes, fish and chips and Diet Coke were declared a "luxury good" and attracted the top rate of tax.
This is just off the top of my head of course, further research in the UKIP manifesto will no doubt reveal more. Meanwhile - remember, only 13% of the population are immigrants (it's probably only 5% in Thanet)... . The fact is, their fantasy British caliphate, will emerge just as unjust and cruel as any other similar regime... I just hope that UKIPIA will remain a fantasy for a very long time.
The important thing to remember about the word Utopia is that it is concocted from the Greek ou topos - No Place!
This is of course, like all utopias, a marvellous idea (unless you examine some of the tenets of sharia law). However, there have already been a number of caliphates, ruled by various caliphs, from the earliest days. The first one lasted 30 years and ended in civil war. Subsequent ones were the Ummayad one - which seems to have been reasonable - but also coincided with massive territorial expansion - to allow the infidel to share the delights of the caliphate! More recently that horrendous breed of men, the Ottoman sultans, claimed the caliphate. I doubt whether anyone could dispassionately judge Ottoman Turkey to be a society overflowing with peace and justice - the royal family itself was riven with hideous cruelty - how could they be the perfect divinely ordained rulers?
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| A caliph... perhaps the first one, Abu Bakr Siddique? |
When ISIS proclaimed a caliphate, it was very far from the ideal. The Koran has some harsh verses in it (as does virtually any religious text) but nothing that advocates the sort of behaviour they are indulging in.
So - perhaps a caliphate is better seen as an idealised version of a sharia state that will never come to pass. This is where UKIP comes in. When I hear their nostalgic chat about what the UK should be like, I wonder if they too have a sort of utopian ideal of the UK, where everyone is English and happy, smiling and cheerful (this would make a change from the UKIP supporters, who tend towards the snarling, grumbling end of the spectrum - but perhaps that would all change in UKIPIA). As well as there being no, or very few foreigners (wives and concubines of leading party members would be permitted to remain - as long as they continued to please these potentates) we would be living on English produce from our own fields, and having our own nuclear energy (instead of having to buy it from the detestable French), and we would be able to enslave people, and remove any of their human rights we chose to. There wouldn't be much tax, but there wouldn't be any services any way - everything would have to be paid for. Women wouldn't work, unless they were very old and unlikely to require maternity leave. Education would be optional after 12 and useful apprenticeships in mining and the chimney sweeping sector would become widely available. The sea would gradually become disgustingly polluted, because we would have opted out of oppressive EU water purity standards, there would be a great deal of other pollution, as smoking in public places would be encouraged again.
Homesexuals would be "discouraged" - and would find themselves spending more time indoors, if not actually in the closet, since there would be few penalties for those who harmed them. Economically UKIPIA would be a bit of a mess as we would be losing a great many of our export markets. We would not have the income to import foreign goods - especially foodstuffs, which would gradually become more expensive. Luxury goods have become more expensive, due to the taxes on them - which doesn't worry ordinary people at first - until the definition of "luxury" is extended to include cat litter, deodorant and lavatory paper. The sales of skin whiteners that had gone through the roof as people attempted to diminish their ethnicity, now floundering as they too are taxed at luxury rates.
It becomes more apparent that the senior party members are living a rather more luxurious lifestyle than ordinary people - and although most of them are not career politicians, but also run small businesses of their own, still there is talk of UKIP MPs cheating on expenses. Nevertheless, election publicity shows happy smiling faces, and even fat people (most of whom have disappeared since biscuits, cakes, fish and chips and Diet Coke were declared a "luxury good" and attracted the top rate of tax.
This is just off the top of my head of course, further research in the UKIP manifesto will no doubt reveal more. Meanwhile - remember, only 13% of the population are immigrants (it's probably only 5% in Thanet)... . The fact is, their fantasy British caliphate, will emerge just as unjust and cruel as any other similar regime... I just hope that UKIPIA will remain a fantasy for a very long time.
The important thing to remember about the word Utopia is that it is concocted from the Greek ou topos - No Place!
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