University to pull down statue of historical figure now deemed racist

You thought it was going to be another statue of Robert E. Lee, destroyed by another southern city or school eager to prove how politically correct they are by denying public space to one of the great heroes of American -- yes, American! -- history. Noooo... This time the beloved historical figure who is to be insulted and dethroned [There must be a better word, but I can't think of it. Ed.] is none other than Mohandas Gandhi, one of the 20th century's greatest fighters against colonialism and racism.

Or so it was thought. After all, didn't the Mahatma (Great Soul) lead the non-violent revolution that succeeded in driving the evil white British out of India? Was his campaign not just against the Brits, but against racism? Didn't he believe that all men [and women. Ed.] are created equal? Errr, maybe not.

This statue of the Indian independence leader was erected two years ago at the University of Ghana, in Accra, the shithole country's capital, but was removed in the middle of this past Tuesday night, after professors at the university began a petition against the statue, which has since gained over 2000 signatures. The petition claims Mr Gandhi was a racist, citing his writings over the years in which he said Indians were "infinitely superior" to Africans, whom he called "kaffirs", a racist slur at the time.

In 1896, the Mahatma wrote: "Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness."

Mr Gandhi was in South Africa at the time. Perhaps there was some truth to what he said in 1896, but certainly there is no truth whatever to it 122 years later. Right? Anyway, his statue is gone now. It has not been replaced by a statue of an African hero [or heroine. Ed.] because [Unfortunately, considerations of space prevent us from posting the rest of Walt's comment. Ed.]

Four more Islamic terrorists convicted in UK

Islamic terrorism is a cancer that has metastasized and is spreading through the United Kingdom and western Europe at an alarming rate. (It is not so much a problem in eastern Europe since the sensible governments of countries such as Hungary and Poland have taken steps to close their borders and curb immigration from the Middle East and north Africa.) As with cancer, every time you kill one cell, another appears. Then another, and another. And then the host dies.

British authorities think they destroyed one cell of Muslim fanatics today when three British men who dubbed themselves the "Three Musketeers" were convicted at the Old Bailey (London's Central Criminal Court) of plotting a bomb attack on troops or police. Naweed Ali, 29, Khobaib Hussain, 25 and Mohibur Rahman, 33, were found guilty of preparing terrorist acts, after a trial that was partly held in secret for national security reasons (read: to avoid embarrassing British cops for letting these guys run around loose. See below.)

But Walt (I hear you say), there's four Mohammeds there, not three. The fourth, Tahir Aziz, 38, was convicted of the same charge, although he was brought into the plot in its later stages.

Crown prosecutors revealed that Messrs Ali, Hussain and Rahman met while serving prison terms for terrorism offences. They later set up a group on a messaging app called the "Three Musketeers". All the while they were planning further attacks, the men were under surveillance by MI5 (Britain's domestic intelligence service), MI5, which created a fake courier company in Birmingham and hired Hussein and Ali. Nearly a year ago, undercover officers searched Ali's car, and discovered weapons including an imitation handgun, a partially constructed pipe bomb and a meat cleaver with the word "kaffir" (= "infidel" in Arabic) scratched onto the blade.

The four men will be sentenced Thursday. For more details of the plot and police ineptitude, see "'Three musketeers' convicted of plotting terrorist attack", in the Guardian, 2/8/17.

Exotic citrus fruit latest target of PC police

In case you didn't recognize it -- and why would you -- this is a Kaffir lime, a variety of the citrus fruit commonly found in parts of Africa and Asia. The origin of the name is obscure, but might just have something to do with the knobby skin, which may have reminded someone of the appearance of the head of a "kaffir".

"Kaffir?", you say. Yes. Dictionary.com tells us that "kafir" was originally an Arabic word, used by Muslims in referring to an infidel or unbeliever. Back in the 19th century there was a large region of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan known as "Kafiristan", the setting for Rudyard Kipling's fine short story The Man Who Would Be King.

The word was carried by Arabs and by British colonizers into Africa, where, for well over a century, it referred to black people of the Xhosa tribe (of South Africa), and later any black person. When Walt lived in that region, around the time "majority rule" came to South Africa, the word was falling into disuse -- spoken in a whisper rather than a shout -- because it was considered "racist". Now we are told that "in South Africa the use of this word is nowadays completely taboo, and is indeed actionable in the courts. It is also advisable not to use the word in any of the compounds to which it gave rise."

Which brings us back to Kaffir limes. As if making the use of the N-word [except by N's! Ed.] an even greater sin than using the C-word in polite company, the progressive thinkers and forces for racial equality are now commanding us -- even those of us a long way from South Africa -- to find another name for the innocent citrus fruit.

Veronica Vinje is a student in British Columbia, doing her master's degree in "Intercultural and International Communications". And CBC News quotes her with approval, which tells you all you need to know about where this nonsense is coming from. "Kaffir," she says, is "deeply racist". Right. Not just "racist", but "deeply racist". Why...it's like using the N-word to describe black people.

Ms Vinje has taken to Twitter [naturally. Ed.] in an effort to change the name to "makrut" lime, which is the common name in much of South Asia, which is (Walt suspects), where she comes from. South Asia and the Middle East also happen to be parts of the world in which "kaffir" is still used as a derogatory term for non-Muslims. And, despite the urgings of Ms Vinje and the usual suspects in the meeja, celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray and Gordon Ramsay still call them, errr, "Kaffir limes".

"Kaffirs!" Muslim extremists ARE out to get you!

Those who know (or think they know) something of the history and culture of South Africa may think that "kaffir" was an Afrikaans derogatory term for blacks -- like the N-word in the USA. In fact, it's a much older Arabic word for a non-believer, someone who is not a follower of the Prophet Muhammad. That's what the Muslim terrorists call the rest of us.

The politically correct apologists for al-Shabaab, the armed Somali Islamic extremist group that attacked a shopping mall in Kenya, are up in arms [Bad rib! Ed.] over portrayals of the terrorists as, errr, Islamic extremists out to murder non-believers. Some lamestream pundits are saying that, oh noooo, they're just Somali patriots fighting against the evil Kenyans who've invaded their homeland.

Well, that's not what the Islamic extremists themselves are saying. In an e-mail exchange with Associated Press, reported today in HuffPost, a spokesthingy for al-Shabaab said that foreigners were a "legitimate target" and confirmed witness accounts that gunmen tried to let Muslims go free while killing or taking the others captive.

AP quotes the terrorists as saying "The Mujahideen carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the kaffirs before carrying out their attack."

Eye-witnesses have said the gunmen rounded up people, asked questions about Islam that only a Muslim would know how to answer, and told the Muslims to leave the mall. Out of 72 dead counted so far, at least 18 were foreigners, including six Brits, and nationals of France, Canada, Trinidad, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. The current death toll is 67 and is likely to climb with uncounted bodies remaining in the rubble of the Nairobi mall.

Walt's advice to fellow kaffirs: don't go to Kenya or Egypt or Syria or [Ed., please insert another dozen or so north African and Middle Eastern countries]. Stay somewhere safe, where there are no Muslim terrorists. Like, say, Boston. [Ed., maybe that wasn't a good choice. Please insert name of a country or city where there's no threat from the jihadists.]