“Happen to be” is the Anglican for “is”, just as “I happen to believe” means “I would go to the stake for”. It’s a tactful way of glossing over really important things. There was a gorgeous specimen of this in Roy Hattersley’s Guardian piece today about the rising power of Muslim voters in Birmingham, and their tendency not to vote automatically for labour any more:
Nobody to whom I spoke during my visit to Birmingham chose to talk about the postal vote rigging which had been exposed and condemned the previous day. Reaction to my own inquiries confirmed the reason for their reticence. The six corrupt councillors happened to be Muslim.
Well, stone me!
Then there’s “Respect”, the unlikely alliance of the the Trotskyite SWP and the disgruntled Muslim vote, which is left-wing in the sense that the Texas Republican party is right-wing. Hattersley bumped into them, too:
Dr Naseem – a retired general practitioner, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque and Respect candidate for Perry Barr – believes the attack on the New York trade centre was orchestrated by the CIA. Dawn, the mosque’s newsletter (distributed to the 4,000 worshippers who attend prayers each weekend) publishes what he regards as evidence to support that fantasy.