Defying Terror Is Not Done By Breeding Hatred: An Open Letter To Katie Hopkins

We do not need a 'final solution'.

Last night an atrocity took place. Last night innocent children and teens, some as young as eight, went to a pop concert and were denied the chance to come home. They were denied a future when a coward detonated a home made device. A coward, who does not deserve any other title because - to attack children - a person cannot be anything but. 

In the wake of such an atrocity we should come together to prove our culture - our multicultural, welcoming, caring, brave, progressive society - is not terrorised. We have not been cowed into change or submission. We are still who we have always been, people who want bright futures for our children, people who want freedom, tolerance, and peace in a world devoid of senseless death and suffering. 

Yet there are some who deny we are such a society. They use this tragedy, an abhorrent attack on our children, to spout their vitriolic lies. They encourage hatred and retaliation, but it is not retaliation against the perpetrators they incite, it is not justice. What they encourage is attacks on other families, other businesses, other women and children. They breed hatred which in turn leads to fear among the very communities we need to work with, not against. It breeds further opposition where hatred festers, spreads, grows and creates an environment where others become entrenched in angry, hate filled dogma. In such environments, extremist views fuel atrocious acts.

One such 'person' is Katie Hopkins. We all know her; that loud mouthed apprentice with the IQ and personality of a tapeworm (or so it seems). Today, in the wake of a disgusting attack on children, she incited hatred using the very words Hitler used when planning his sustained attack of the Jewish population. The Nazis used the term 'Final Solution' to disguise the nature of the Holocaust, and now Hopkins is calling for a 'final solution' to terrorism. The underlying message is clear, when she says we need a final solution to extremist mosques and schools, she is actually encouraging an Islamic Holocaust which would not only affect extremists. She seems to be encouraging the replication one of the most horrific crimes of the twentieth century, where 6-11 million men, women, and children where exterminated following a protracted period of fear mongering and propaganda designed to breed hatred between religions and races, between the 'good' and the 'undesirable'. 

I doubt she is blind to the insinuation which using such language as 'final solution' makes, but even if she is, that it breeds hatred is clear for all to see. Her twitter stream is awash with people demanding Muslims be deported, demanding mosques and schools are closed, and even demanding Muslim homes are entered. She demands we rise up, and calls us cowed ants for preaching solidarity and a continuation of our lives rather than roaring hatred at other members of our society, whether or not they're guilty of a crime. She implies our politicians and men are eunuchs, emasculated cowards who fail to protect their women and children. She shames normal, good people by encouraging behaviour which is just as bad or worse than that of terrorists. 

She is encouraging a holocaust. 

Take a moment to think about that.

As many as 1.5 million Jewish children died in the Holocaust. 

1.5 million children. 

That is what the likes of Katie Hopkins encourage, knowingly or otherwise, when using terms such as 'final solution'. 

Is anyone really alright with that?

This so called 'columnist' and 'television personality' has gone so far as to write an article, painting herself as a distraught, keeling, saintly figure, horrified by the atrocity and by society's cowardly response. She attacks politicians and common people, she uses the death of a family's precious eight year old and the wonderful work of first responders to further her own hate-filled agenda. She writes as if she has the right to claim a child's death for such a purpose, not even a day after the attack.

What kind of person does that?

She describes deaths, with no regard to families grieving for those lost. She turns their loss into a mouthpiece for her twisted hatred, and yet she is still given a platform on which to speak. She is every bit as bad as any extremist Islamic cleric; a loathsome figure with a stage on which to spread hatred as though it were some brave resistance rather than extremist terrorism. She speaks for a minority, just as an extremist cleric speaks to a minority. She no more represents us than an extremist cleric represents most Muslims. So why is she given air time and print space?

Her followers and even some other 'journalists' claim to be horrified that the public have replied to her hate-speech with anger. They claim to be horrified that people are more angry at Katie Hopkins's tweet than we are at the senseless murder of children. But such a claim isn't true, we are angry at the senseless attack on our children. We are horrified and we are furious. It is that horror  and fury which also makes us so angry at Katie Hopkins tweets and articles, not because she is an easy target, but because she incites more of the same.

Up to 1.5 million Jewish children died in the Holocaust.

Think about that for a second.

Now tell me you aren't angry that Hopkins is preaching the need for a 'final solution'.

I would advise you to avoid her article. Do not read it. Boycott her commentary. Report her tweets but do not retweet them or share them.  Doing so only spreads her message. Katie Hopkins only has a voice while she makes money for her employers; boycott her and she will disappear. 

Why do we need her to disappear?

We cannot root out the hatred of others while hatred spreads amongst ourselves. Those preaching hatred in our communities are the easiest to remove because they are in the open and think they have our ear. Get rid of Hopkins and her ilk, then we can focus more of our attention on defying terrorism. We can focus without resources being wasted fighting our own hatred and bringing to justice those who set fire to mosques and attack innocent women for wearing a hijab. It is in our best interests to root out all hate speech, not just Islamic extremist hate speech, because when we act with intolerance and hatred we had extremist terrorists an excuse to resist.

I replied to Hopkins tweets about her article, but I would like to make what I said then the basis of an open letter to the slimy pond scum columnist. She probably won't read, but as a mother, as the grand-daughter of a Polish-Ukrainian taken from home as a boy by Nazis who were collecting children to use as forced labour, as the grand-daughter of a Polish-Ukrainian boy who never saw his parents or siblings again, I need to say this.

An Open Letter To Katie Hopkins

Katie Hopkins,

I unfortunately made the mistake of reading your article regarding the Manchester Arena bombing. I was numb by the word 'bed', at the end of your first sentence, and to answer your question 'are we too sick to be saved?' I'd like to answer that you certainly seem to be.

We need a doctor, do we? Do you know what doctors do? They give people a chance hope, hope that they can carry on as normal. They may carry on with amputations, or carry on with removed organs, or carry on after a period of suffering, but they carry on. That is what we need. Doctors don't breed further illness. They let us carry on after a period of suffering or injury, and so your whole metaphor is flawed. 

You show no regard for grieving families as you describe how people died in order to incite fear.  You do not speak for first responders or the dead. You create vivid imagery, painting yourself as some saintly, kneeling mother, distraught and unprotected by leaders and 'eunuchs', when really you are a poisonous snake, whispering hatred and inciting fear, showing abject disrespect and disregard to those who died because of hatred.

You should be ashamed of yourself, as a mother, as a commentator on national affairs, as someone with influence. Instead you spout hatred to further your infamy. You disgust me, who - as a mother of two, as someone who has been to a gig at that arena, and as someone whose ancestry is rich with those who were subject to hatred, who survived oppression, and who fought to defy those who would see them succumb - is appalled by this attack on children. You disgust me, as a British European, as someone with spiritual faith, and as someone who knows there are times when fighting is necessary. You disgust me, because your writing is not the courage of the resistance but is an echo of Hitler's 'final solution' propaganda.

You do need to be fired. You need to be locked up and kept from inciting further hatred while we channel resources into defying terrorism, because that's what we should be doing, Katie. We should be defying terrorism, not breeding more of it, not encouraging citizen to attack citizen. 

You are a waste of resources, Katie; a black hole paid to spew fecal matter. What we need is real hope; the type found in Muslim and Sikh taxi drivers giving free lifts to those caught up in the attack, the type found in a homeless man rushing into the arena to help and to hold the dying, the type found in visiting doctors and surgeons offering their help at hospitals where the wounded were taken, and the type found in people rushing out to give blood in case it's needed. The hope we need is found in people coming together despite an attack on a gathering. It is found in people saying 'We are still here, we will not become monsters who give further excuse to attack. We are still here, unified, because only unified can we be strong.' 

No, a vigil does not bring back the dead. A vigil does not remove a terrorist from our streets. What a vigil does, is tell those who are grieving that we are there for them if they need us, while also telling the perpetrators that we will not be cowed or controlled.  A vigil, a lit candle, a call for calm and to carry on, such things respect the dead by not encouraging further death and by not diverting focus and resources from finding the perpetrators of such crimes. A vigil is far more respectful than any call to 'rise up' and create a 'final solution'.

Keep calm and carry on is the British response to a tyrant seeking a 'final solution'. We should remember that. It has served us in the past and it will serve us again in the future.

What we need is real hope, not your false sainthood and message of hatred.

Up to 1.5 million children died in Hitler's 'final solution', Katie. Is that really what you want to repeat? Is that really the message you wish to be remembered for? I hope not, for all our children's sakes.

Regards,

A concerned member of the public and a mother.

To anyone else who stumbles upon this.

Please, give your children an extra kiss tonight. Phone your parents and tell them you love them. Help your neighbour carry heavy bags from their car, regardless of their religion, race, nationality or orientation. Cuddle up on the sofa with your partner. Welcome every person you meet with friendship rather than judgement because - while friendship can be refused - you lose nothing in offering it. Judgement and hatred will only ever deprive you of friends, of allies, and of people who could care for you.

To any journalist or member of the public who speaks in support of Hopkins or in outrage at the anger directed at her, remember that the Holocaust started with hatred. It started with blaming a people and claiming there needed to be a 'final solution'. Then remember that up to 1.5 million children died in the Holocaust. Do you really support such incitement? Are you truly unable to appreciate why people are angry?

To anyone who has lost a loved one to such senseless violence, or who has been a victim of it, I cannot understand the depth of your suffering. I truly hope I'm never in a position to understand it. All the same, you have my sympathy, my condolences, and my anger that you have been made to suffer because of senseless hatred. Anyone involved in such atrocities needs to be brought to justice, and we need to work towards ensuring further atrocities do not take place.

Carmine Raven