As Britain succumbs to sectarianism, the implications are grave for society as a whole.

On October 8, as the world was beginning to comprehend what had just happened in southern Israel, most decent people – including many who would go on to decry Israel’s retaliatory campaign – expressed genuine horror at what Gaza’s Islamist barbarians had done. But a substantial minority was openly cheering. Not just in Turkey and Iran, but in Toronto and London.

In these cities, Muslims and non-Muslims alike lost no time in congregating and marching to chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and other slogans known to glorify the disappearance of Israel. Some of those making merry sported the image of the paragliders used by Hamas to land in Israel just a day or two before. I cannot imagine the pain and disgust that friends and relatives of the victims must have felt on seeing those displays.

Nevertheless, as the body counts mounted, as the shredded and charred remains began to be identified in Kibbutz Be’eri and Nir Oz and among those who tried and failed to escape the Nova music festival only to be taken down by torrential gunfire and an army’s worth of rocket propelled grenades, the West’s emboldened pro-Palestine brigade got out their green, red and black flags and marched “in support of Palestine”.

It was grotesque enough then. But as time has worn on, along with Israel’s campaign, the grotesquerie has swelled. If it began with a celebration of butchery and terror that was generally seen as extreme, the pro-Gaza movement has dug in and grown. Its anti-Israelism is openly celebrated.

It is so respectable now that no fewer than four MPs have been elected on just that ticket, appealing to the “pro-Palestine” vote, of course. It’s hard not to feel a pulse of fear and loathing when one sees how our once-great liberal democracy has been hijacked to serve the agendas of people who appear to show solidarity with a regime heading an army of caliphatic Islamist butchers. “Resistance by any means” runs a popular chant in the pro-Palestine community; it’s not hard to imagine what “by any means” might mean.