Once more we are being asked to believe the unbelievable. Once again the usual suspects in the media and politics are trying to defend the indefensible. An act of violence so obviously linked with a specific ideology has been committed, and yet we’re assured that the two are not connected.

Writing in these pages recently Rod Liddle mentioned Ahmed Hassan’s rather incompetent bombing of the Parsons Green Tube station, and the haste with which we were assurred it had ‘nothing to do with Islam’, which is in fact a, nay, the Religion of Peace.®️ As usual, we are asked to take comfort in the knowledge that young Ahmed’s vile actions are in fact repugnant to true Islam, and to true Muslims.

The Left’s desperate de-coupling of the perpetrator from his motivation is common enough in reporting jihadist attacks. But last week we saw a disturbing parallel within our same-sex marriage debate. The claim that the unacceptable actions of an individual promoting same-sex marriage somehow had nothing whatsoever to do with that cause. An SSM activist approached Tony Abbott, ostensibly to shake his hand, and then chose to head-butt him instead. Whilst we would never compare his pathetic and cowardly actions to those of murderous jihadists, it is the speed with which his motivation was dissembled by the media that was comparable. The head-butter was wearing Yes paraphernalia on his clothing, yet we’re expected to believe that the attack on the nation’s most prominent No campaigner had nothing to do with the plebiscite. Marriage Equality is the new euphemistic ‘Religion of Peace’, and its band of apologists wilfully turn the same blind eye to any aggressive or violent supporters. ‘Love is love’ covers over a multitude of sins, including assault, and any hateful bigot who says otherwise is really just giving succour to radicalised SSMists who would seek to pervert the true meaning of true love.

Yet there does appear to be a fanatical group among the SSM crowd who have adopted violence as a tool. (And there still remains the troubling event of the car-bomb and the Christian group).

As each day brings a new verbal attack, stage invasion, head-butt or instance of street harassment, so too it brings a renewed call for peace and tolerance ‘on both sides’. It’s the SSM equivalent of denouncing the Crusades every time a Muslim drives a truck into a crowd. Sure, No campaigners are threatened in the streets, banners are unfurled calling for churches to be burnt, chanting ensues calling for Christians to be crucified and former PMs are assaulted, but those hate-mongering Coalition for Marriage types who wrote VOTE NO in white smoke above Sydney are the real aggressors here, we are informed.

It’s worth recalling the head-butter’s commentary on the events in Hobart which he provided to Channel Seven: ‘I decided I’m never going to get the opportunity to head-butt that c*#t again – sorry, Tony Abbott again – so I seized the moment.’

When asked about the SSM issue, the man – obviously realising that the public perception of the Yes campaign seems to be, inexplicably, that it is made up of intolerant, violent thugs – claims it was pure coincidence… before confusing himself and launching into a diatribe about how he ‘believes in human rights,’ which is ‘largely why he hates Tony Abbott.’ But this has ‘absolutely nothing to do with Marriage Equality.’ Got it? In fact, that troublesome sticker on his jacket wasn’t even his own work. Somebody else had put it there. Who among us hasn’t been caught bashing a politician with someone else’s campaign message emblazoned on our lapel? Clearly, ‘nothing to do with those who advocate for a Yes case in the same-sex postal survey,’ according to the nation’s chief law officer, Attorney-General George Brandis. ‘Absolutely nothing.’

Egg timer

Malcolm Turnbull can no longer ignore the fact that, as assuredly as the last grains of sand appear to gather speed as they fall down through the narrow gap of an emptying egg timer, his own time is running out. Thus far, the Prime Minister has chosen to brush off any suggestion that the same ironclad rule with which he destroyed the leadership of Tony Abbott must by definition also apply to himself: 30 bad polls in a row means ‘the people have made up their mind about Mr [Turnbull’s] leadership’. Mr Turnbull must start preparing the groundwork for when that day arrives, in less than five months. At that point, he must resign and hand over the leadership of the party, or call a spill. Anything else would be the height of hypocrisy and leave us with a government and a PM devoid of any moral authority.