Anti-Muslim blogger Lionheart (who claims to be a “good friend” of Glen Jenvey) explains the meaning of “Paki” to some right-wing American radio hosts:
Prince Harry used a term recently in the news, you know, it’s not a big deal. He just called someone like what they call themselves, you know, like people call us as English “Pommies” or Australians as “Aussies”. He called a Pakistani a “Paki”, you know. It was on video, and there’s been uproar about that because he said that that, you know, because once the Muslims are aggrieved about something the whole race industry arises to condemn and to exert its influence over our nation…I’ve got Paki Muslims, from Luton, wanting to, you know, stick a knife in me, shoot me, do whatever to me…All because I’ve stood up to speak out against what these Paki Muslims are doing in my community and in our country.
As ever, Lionheart insists that he is not a racist, just opposed to the “ideology” of Islam.
Of course, everyone in the UK knows that here “Paki” is an offensive term of abuse used against Asians, just as “Yid” is an offensive term of abuse used against Jews. Yes, such words are sometimes used ironically between friends of different races, and in some cases they are appropriated by those who were originally labelled as such by bigots. But Lionheart is not using the word in either of these contexts, so that just leaves either colossal ignorance (cf Debbie Schlussel) or a deliberate – and opportunistic – decision to provoke. Given that on his blog he has been careful to use the adjective “Pakistani” before now, the latter seems more likely.
I suspect the idea is that if white people can be persuaded that “Paki” as a racist term is a Muslim fiction concocted to tar whites as racists, that’ll whip up some white resentment and encourage the word to be used more often. That in turn will anger Asians, leading to inter-communal strife.
UK Asians: Any problem with being called a “Paki” by this man?
(I covered the Lionheart “free speech” issue here)
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