The National Theatre of Scotland is over-funding Pakistani/Bangladeshi productions. In 2019 (pre-COVID), these creatives were receiving 500% more money than their Christian counterparts. “Asians,” and by this they mean Pakistani/Bangladeshi Muslims, are 2.7% of the population of Scotland; yet they are being awarded 14% of the National Theatre of Scotland’s yearly budget in order to stage shows that are created by Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists. Writes Joshua Winston
In a bid to create equality and confront the abysmal “systemic racism” of Christians who are living and working in the land that their forefathers built, the National Theatre of Scotland is on a mission to make amends for present-day oppression that exists nowhere except in the minds of their creative board. And “equality” to them seems to mean giving a disproportionate amount of money to Muslims.
Their latest statement is one long diatribe of apologies for being white and non-Muslim. The National Theatre of Scotland is based in Glasgow; Scotland is as yet a country that is roughly 92% white and non-Muslim, with 4% being “white other.” Only 4% of the population are BAME (“Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic”) according to 2011 census figures. (The next census is due out this year, so these figures will be out of date and the Christian count will be much lower). “100% of the senior management team identifies as white, non-disabled and female.” You’d be forgiven for thinking that an all-female board is a sure sign of progressiveness, but in today’s woke climate you’d be wrong. They’re now, apparently, on the hunt for some disabled BAME people to help shape the theatre’s vision for the future, and if they’re Muslim, then all the better.
Humza Yousaf, the Pakistani Muslim Justice Secretary for Scotland, has also attempted to assert some control over theatrical productions in Scotland. As part of his Hate Crime bill, he was looking to censor plays, and wanted to have producers charged with criminal offenses if anyone came away from a night’s entertainment with feelings of rage in his or her body. He was ridiculed in the media by everyone from actors to police, fellow ministers and barristers, and he has now given up his dreams of having us all live in a sharia state, although we can still get charged with a hate crime for private conversations we have in our homes.
This fetish for Islam extends from the stage to the gallery walls. Post-covid, now that things are opening up again, a major exhibition in Edinburgh by the National Galleries will showcase photographs of the “new Scots.” “Due to open in Edinburgh in the spring, it will feature selections from a series of portraits by photographer Arpita Shah of women who practice the tradition of head covering or veiling.” We will see pictures of women in hijabs next to historic paintings of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns. The messaging couldn’t be clearer. Christian Scots are things of the past, and Muslims are every bit as Scottish as our forefathers, as Scottish as haggis and malt whisky.
Why is any of this important? It’s because this is one more sign of the death of the Christian West. With Christianity suppressed, you no longer have the West. Muhammad and Islam do not contribute anything to our spiritual unity. This fetish for and addiction to self-destruction that is being imposed on us all by white liberals is growing day by day. What will those white female board of directors do then when they’re out of jobs and no longer employable in an Islamic state? Will they smile and feel a sense of completion?
I emailed the National Theatre of Scotland to alert them to this overrepresentation of Muslims, as well as to their racial and religious favoritism, and I asked them if they plan on addressing the issue to ensure that budgets get allocated in exact financial accordance commensurate to every group’s percentage of the population. They have as yet, months later, still not replied to me.
