J.K. Rowling: Welcome Donald Trump To U.K.
J.K. Rowling says that Donald Trump should be welcome to visit the United Kingdom whenever he pleases. During the Pen Literary Awards Gala in New York City Monday night, May 16, 2016, Harry Potter author Rowling spoke of the Republican presidential candidate simply exercising his freedom of speech.
In the wake of some British politicians insisting that Trump be banned from the U.K. because of his opinion that Muslims be kept out of the United States, J.K. Rowling preferred to welcome Trump’s right to express his views, whether offensive or not, to the politically correct set. According to International Business Times, Rowling made the following statement.
“I find almost everything that Mr. Trump says objectionable. I consider him offensive and bigoted. But he has my full support to come to my country and be offensive and bigoted there. His freedom to speak protects my freedom to call him a bigot.”
Presenting a “Muslim Manifesto” in 2015 to parliament members from the three main parties of J.K. Rowling’s U.K., Ismail said the potential for Muslim voters to re-elect or unseat incumbent candidates was “absolutely extraordinary.” Another welcome development for him was that the 2011 census in the Greater London area reported 1,012,823 Muslim residents.
With this backdrop, London elected its first Muslim mayor on May 7, Sadiq Khan, baring a Muslim political clout not there before. Pundits point to the new reality as the reason British politicians walk on eggshells around their Muslim constituencies. The politically expedient tactic of accommodation and appeasement has reportedly made some leaders in J.K. Rowling’s U.K. welcome a ban on Trump for speaking offensively against a voting bloc.
According to The Guardian, J.K. Rowling, 50, who was honored for her work as an advocate for women’s and girls’ rights and as a “fierce opponent of censorship”, insisted that the U.S. presidential hopeful’s “freedom guarantees mine.” She passed this reasoning along to the New York audience that had turned up to welcome her.
“Unless we take that absolute position without caveats or apologies we have set foot upon a road with only one destination. If my offended feelings can justify a travel ban on Donald Trump, I have no moral grounds on which to argue that those offended by feminism, or the fight for transgender rights, or universal suffrage, should not oppress campaigners for those causes.”
Speaking of fellow Brits calling for a Trump travel ban to appease the offended sensibilities of Muslims, J.K. Rowling added her perspective.
“If you seek the removal of freedom from an opponent simply because they have offended you, you have crossed the line to stand alongside tyrants who imprison, torture and kill with exactly the same justification.”
According to Vox, the British writer has been less than welcome in some parts of the United States, has herself been the target of hateful speech, and her books have been banned by religious groups.
“My critics are at liberty to claim that I’m trying to convert children to Satanism. And I am free to explain human nature and morality. Or to say, ‘You’re an idiot,’ depending on which side of the bed I got out of that day.”
The British online poll agitating to ban Trump from entering the United Kingdom for “hate speech” gained national popularity in 2015, but has J.K. Rowling appalled. She maintains that despite Trump’s contentious suggestion temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States, he should be welcome to visit the U.K. if so inclined.
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