A deadly attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur put a renewed focus on the concerns surrounding Muslim migration to Britain.
The assailant, 35-year-old Jihad al-Shamie, was born in Syria and emigrated to the U.K. as a child. He became a citizen in the mid-2000s and was out on bail after having been arrested on suspicion of rape when he attacked Jews “in the name of the Islamic State” on Judaism’s holiest day.
On October 2, al-Shamie rammed his car into worshippers at the gates of the Heaton Park Synagogue before going on stabbing spree. He was shot dead by police but not before calling the British equivalent of 911 and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Two Jewish men were killed and at least three other victims were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Commentator Will Kingston went viral in the aftermath of the attack for his characterization of the “diversity” experiment in the U.K. that many worry has “irrevocably” changed the cultural fabric of the region. On Tuesday’s show, he joined Megyn to discuss his commentary and what the United States can learn from Britain’s mistakes.
Kingston’s Comments
Two days after the Manchester incident, Kingston appeared on GB News’ The Saturday Five where he made international headlines for his take on what’s gone wrong in the U.K.
“I’m done. I’m done with the euphemisms. I’m done with the crocodile tears. I’m done with the calls for unity. I’m done being told not to hate. And I’m done skirting around uncomfortable truths. So let’s list them:
Uncomfortable Truth 1: Multiculturalism hasn’t merely failed, it has embedded sectarian violence on the streets of the U.K. and cost countless lives – most recently, the lives of
Adrian Dolby and Melvin Kravitz in Manchester. Again, strength and love to their families.
Uncomfortable Truth 2: Diversity is not our strength. It has never been our strength. And in fact, it has now become our greatest weakness, economically and culturally. And I’ve yet to hear any coherent argument for its value that doesn’t default to, ‘Well, we get good restaurants out of it,’ which isn’t good enough justification for complete cultural and social fracture. And besides, we’ve got the recipes now anyway.
Uncomfortable Truth 3: Islamism is a cancer on the U.K. and more citizens will die as a result of appeasing it.
We need to say these uncomfortable truths loudly, and whilst we still can.”
Megyn praised Kingston for not shying away from saying what needs to be said. “Good for you. You reminded me a lot of my pal Charlie Kirk as I watched you,” she said. “Because this is a third rail – one of the ones you’re not allowed to touch, especially in the U.K. – and you fully embraced it.”
The problem, Kingston said, is that people in the Western world have been made to believe they can’t speak out about the “uncomfortable truths” he laid bare. “I think it is reflective of where many people are at now in the United Kingdom, in Australia, across the Anglosphere, in that four [or five] years ago…. we were bullied into silence on these matters,” he recalled. “You were told that if you had legitimate questions about Islam, you were… a racist.”
He called it “a very deliberate attempt from the left” to “conflate race with culture.” Because while”race should be something that should be off limits in terms of criticism,” Kingston said religion and cultural decisions are “a choice” and “any sort of choice you should be able to criticize.”
‘Irrevocably’ Changed?
In Megyn’s view, Kingston’s words take on new meaning in the midst of what is going on in the Middle East today. “While we’re all celebrating this peace deal today and absolutely want peace for the Middle East, one thing we don’t want here in America is a ton more Muslims emigrating into the United States. Sorry, but we don’t,” she said. “And in the U.K., it’s already happened… [and it] has already changed, it looks like, irrevocably.”
Kingston said that question of whether the change is “irrevocable” is what is on the minds of many Britons. “The concern that so many people have is that swift demographic change can’t just be reversed overnight. If you change your demographics – and make no mistake, the demographic change in the U.K. has been extraordinary in a short period of time – that is irreversible,” he explained. “And so a lot of people are looking at the next three to four years before a general election in the U.K., and they are saying this could be the last best hope for what was once the greatest country in the world before the U.S. took that mantle.”
Megyn said Americans must pay attention, too. “Just so the listening audience in the United States knows: This is our problem too. We’re a lot bigger than the U.K., but we have a similar issue,” she noted. “Muslims are now in the majority in Dearborn, Michigan. That’s where Rashida Tlaib is a representative. In Minnesota, there’s a huge contingent. That’s where Ilhan Omar was elected from. And you’ve now got the open call to prayer happening five times a day on the streets of some of these cities.”
Time to Speak Up
That means it is time to break the culture of silence. “There are legitimate questions to be asked around Islam when it comes to the treatment of women, when it comes to the treatment of minority groups, when it comes to the separation between church or mosque and state,” Kingston said. “No one is saying that there aren’t nice people who are Muslims, but the problem comes when you get to scale.”
Of the approximately 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world, Kingston said only three are democracies – and “pretty dodgy democracies” at that. Most of the rest are, in his words, “authoritarian hell holes.”
“So, it is very obvious that when you get to scale in Islamic cultures, you face these problems,” he said. “And the problem for the U.K. is that we are rapidly approaching a point where there is going to be at scale by the 2050s or 2060s… You’re going to get to a point where somewhere between 20 to 25 percent of the population could be following the Islamic faith.”
“In a country where there isn’t compulsory voting… [like] the U.S. or the U.K., you just need to have a sectarian voting block that can mobilize around an Islamic candidate,” Kingston cautioned. “And suddenly that scale I just mentioned means that you can have fundamental changes to the culture and an undermining of the Western liberal values that we in the U.S. and the U.K. hold dear.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kingston by tuning in to episode 1,171 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.