Douglas Murray

[[File:DouglasMurray2019 crop.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Murray.]]{{Pundits}}{{cquote|America has a great demand for fascists but a very small supply|||What on Earth did Douglas Murray mean by this?<ref>''The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam'' by Douglas Murray (2018) Bloomsbury Continuum. ISBN 1472958055.</ref>}}
'''Douglas Kear Murray''' {{lived|16 July 1979}} is a [[United Kingdom|British]] journalist and [[author]] born in Hammersmith, [[London]]. He is the associate editor for ''The Spectator'' (which has the same ownership as ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'') as well as ''[[National Review Online|The National Review]]''. Bolstering his amazing credentials, he has published articles in ''[[The Daily Mail]]''. Some of his books include {{wpl|The Strange Death of Europe|''The Strange Death of Europe''}} (the term borrowed from a classic political book ''The Strange Death of Liberal England''), ''{{wpl|Neoconservatism: Why We Need It}}'' and {{wpl|The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity|''The Madness of Crowds''|.}} In a similar fashion to the common [[racist]] [[conspiracy theory]] [[The Great Replacement]], Murray laments that [[mass immigration]] from [[Islam]]-majority countries will take advantage of [[Europe]]'s falling birth rates while Europe has somehow lost its sense of heritage and identity.

Although Murray is openly [[Homosexuality|gay]], he considers himself a [[cultural Christian]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy-Jones |first=Simon |date=2024-07-25 |title=Elon Musk says he’s a ‘cultural Christian’ – why some leading thinkers are embracing Christianity |url=https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-says-hes-a-cultural-christian-why-some-leading-thinkers-are-embracing-christianity-233601 |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref> and he has praised [[Roger Scruton]], a known vehement [[Homophobia|homophobe]], as an example of "the light of [[conservative]] [[philosophy]] burning in dark times".<ref>Murray, D. (January 13, 2020). "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/13/owe-roger-scruton-follow-example/ Roger Scruton kept the light of conservative philosophy burning in dark times. We owe it to him to follow his example.]" ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref>

Murray supports [[Brexit]].<ref>Murray, D. (December 19, 2019). "[https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/12/31/brexit-for-real-this-time/ Brexit, for Real This Time]." ''National Review''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> On Britain's divide, he diplomatically argues that it's really the "[[Psychological projection|ugly intolerant Left]] versus the rest of us."<ref>Murray, D. (December 14, 2019). "[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7793275/amp/DOUGLAS-MURRAY-Britains-divide-ugly-intolerant-Left-rest-us.html Britain's divide isn't North v South or red v blue. It's between the ugly intolerant Left and the rest of us."]. ''The Daily Mail''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref>

==Views==
===Immigration===
{{cquote|In their efforts to avoid war, Europeans are once again choosing dishonour. They refuse to cut back their welfare budgets or significantly increase their defence spending, and they still refuse to enforce the measures required to cease or reverse the disastrous effects of mass immigration.|||Douglas Murray, from a speech in The Hague to the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference on Europe and Islam.<ref name="2006_Conference">Murray, D. (March 3, 2006). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20080201133647/http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000809.php What are we to do about Islam? A speech to the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference on Europe and Islam]". ''Wayback Machine''. Retrieved February 3, 2020.</ref>}}
Murray is very worried about the large numbers of [[Muslim]]s immigrating to Europe, those who want to [[Benefit scrounger|join the "welfare-wagon"]], and that it's different from the scaremongering about Jews during the 19th and 20th century. He believes that time and time again, the Muslims demonstrated themselves to be a security threat to Europe.<ref>All Things Considered. (June 27, 2017). "[https://www.npr.org/2017/06/27/534597202/the-strange-death-of-europe-warns-against-impacts-of-immigration 'The Strange Death Of Europe' Warns Against Impacts Of Immigration]". ''NPR''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> In condemning [[Cultural relativism|relativism]] as being a disease for allowing Islam to "infect the West", he cited Mark Steyn's characterization of radical Islam as "an opportunist infection, like [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]]".<ref name="2006_Conference"/> For an example, he says Europe has been tolerant of sexual minorities in the past decade, but most Muslims in Europe want [[gay marriage]] to be illegal. Unfortunately, this is a very disingenuous argument: the British [[Christian]] conservatives ''are'' the ones that had made gay marriage illegal in the first place and fought bitterly against tolerance of sexual minorities.<ref group="note">A conservative demonizing Muslims for homophobia [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/07/homophobic-muslim-populist-bogeyman-trump-le-pen calls to mind this article from ''The Guardian''.]</ref>

In his speech during a conference on Europe and Islam in March 2006, Murray argued that the threat and potential destruction of [[Mass immigration|mass migration]] was as dangerous as, but bore no superficial similarities to, the threat to Europe back in the days of [[World War II]]. In that speech (in 2006), he also predicted that time was running out before the "demographic time-bomb" would cause European cities to fall to Muslim majorities, and so all immigration to Europe from Muslim countries needed to stop. He argued that while the enemy was often defeated on the battlefield, they would defeat "us" from "within" as if Muslim migrants were covert Al-Qaeda sympathizers for extremists and not more often victims trying to flee an unstable country or just people that find Europe to be an opportunity for better living. He realized this and argued that people who had fled from their countries should be persuaded to go back once the tyrannical government was removed and that if they condoned or assisted in violence against the West, they should be forcibly sent back. Also, their children should be sent back to their parents' or grandparents' country of birth for some reason.

===Cancel culture===
Murray really doesn't like [[cancel culture]]. He compared cancel culture as the beginnings of a new form of [[totalitarianism]]<ref>Murray, D. (January 31, 2020). "[https://unherd.com/2020/01/will-no-one-resist-the-new-totalitarianism/?=frbottom Will no one resist the new totalitarianism?]". ''Unherd''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> as well as calling those engaged "the jihadis of social media".<ref>Murray, D. (January 29, 2020). "[https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/in-defence-of-alastair-stewart/ In defence of Alastair Stewart]." ''The Spectator''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref><ref group="note">He also referred to ''[[New York Times]]'' handling coverage of [[Brexit]] [https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1218105944279785473 as a "jihad"].</ref> This was made in response<ref>Murray, D. (February 2, 2020). "[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7956545/amp/DOUGLAS-MURRAY-Alistair-Stewarts-forced-exit.html?__twitter_impression=true This needs to be the turning point when we all stand up to The Woke Totalitarians, says DOUGLAS MURRAY after Alistair Stewart's forced exit]." ''The Daily Mail''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> to how ITV made Alistair Stewart step down after some tweet, during a disagreement with Martin Shapland, that included a passage from [[Shakespeare]] (in ''Measure for Measure'') that included "angry ape".<ref>Blackall, M. (January 29, 2020). "[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/29/alastair-stewart-quits-as-itv-presenter-over-errors-of-judgment Alastair Stewart quits as ITV presenter over 'errors of judgment'"] ''The Guardian''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> He noted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's observations from ''The Gulag Archipelago'' related to why people are so complacent about their rights being taken away. He also displayed some self-awareness that the comparisons between cancel culture and [[gulag]] atrocities are absurd, though there is little reason the "[[totalitarianism]]" or "it reminds me of the gulags" bit is required rather than to argue about the potential damaging and unforgiving influence of social media and [[crowd psychology]] (including the [[bystander effect]]) as well as the overwhelming power of bosses that forced Stewart off in the first place.

===Climate change===
Murray believes the "climate alarmists" educating [[children]] on the threat of [[climate change]] is [[child abuse]] due to children expressing valid anxieties of climate change after watching BBC "parrot untrue claims" by [[Extinction Rebellion]].<ref>Murray, D. (January 18, 2020. "[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7902895/DOUGLAS-MURRAY-Terrifying-children-propaganda-climate-change-abuse.html Terrifying our children with doom-mongering propaganda on climate change is nothing less than abuse]". ''The Daily Mail''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> He likened [[Greta Thunberg]]'s arguments to lies that are "preaching her gospel of imminent hellfire" and that her solutions would be to "destroy [[Free market|free-market]] [[capitalism]]". He also used [[George Monbiot]]'s failed predictions (Monbiot is not a scientist) as well as pushed a [[denialist]] trope that back in 2004 the [[Pentagon]] apparently failed to predict that Britain will experience Siberian climate in 2020 (the actual report is to "imagine the unthinkable to push the boundaries of current research on climate change" and acknowledges that it is extreme and only at the boundaries of plausibility).

===Right-wing populism===
Murray had a tendency to play down the threat of right-wing populists in the USA and Western Europe.<ref>@HertsSid. (September 25, 2017). [https://twitter.com/HertsSid/status/912383164999495681]. ''Twitter''. Accessed May 2, 2021.</ref> Also, despite his ostensible defense of free speech, Murray has personally met right-wing authoritarian Hungarian prime minister [[Viktor Orbán]],<ref>Miniszterelnok. (May 24, 2018). "[https://miniszterelnok.hu/prime-minister-viktor-orban-met-with-several-speakers-of-the-conference-the-future-of-europe/ Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with several speakers of the conference 'The Future of Europe']". Accessed May 2, 2021.</ref><ref group="note">Really funny how [[Jordan_Peterson#Ignoring_real_threats_to_academic_freedom|Jordan Peterson]], another right-wing free speech™ promoter, ''also'' met with Viktor Orbán.</ref> and Orban has endorsed Murray's book.<ref>''Hungary Journal''. (March 18, 2018). "[https://thehungaryjournal.com/2018/03/18/orban-endorses-douglas-murrays-book/ Orban endorses Douglas Murray’s book]". Accessed May 2, 2021</ref> In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. election, Murray implied that since the left (according to him) has become the faction of political violence in the United States, there was no reason to fear violence from the right.<ref>@DouglasKMurray. (November 9, 2020). [https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1325849833593298944]. ''Twitter''. Accessed May 2, 2021.</ref> He would be proven wrong when [[2021 U.S. Capitol riot|Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol]] two months later, after which he wrote an article disavowing Trump's actions post-election.<ref>Murray, D. (January 6, 2021). "[https://spectator.us/topic/only-trump-blame-capitol-chaos/ Only Trump is to blame for the Capitol chaos]". ''Spectator''. Accessed May 2, 2021.</ref>

==See also==
*[[UnHerd]]
*[[Peter Thiel]] and [[Toby Young]] — Reportedly, Murray was involved with an academic "Thiel network" that went on to influence Young's "Free Speech Union".<ref>Nafeez Ahmed (December 10, 2021). [https://bylinetimes.com/2021/12/10/peter-thiels-free-speech-for-race-science-crusade-at-cambridge-university-revealed/ "Peter Thiel's Free Speech for Race Science Crusade at Cambridge University Revealed"]. ''Byline Times''.</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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