I haven’t seen much evidence of debate. I’ve seen plenty of condemnation. I’ve seen posts and links to stories - including the one above - in which the author assumes the only opinion which matters is their own.
It seems to me this is an issue of culture rather than race. I’d enjoy a week in which I didn’t hear the word Islam. I’m sick to the back teeth of it. I’d like a few days in which it didn’t dominate the news. Some can pretend all they like, but Islam isn’t a race. You can join it if you’re mad enough, or leave it if you’re brave enough.
I’d be grateful if, when another atrocity is committed in its name, the next day I didn’t turn on Sky News to be told how wonderful and peaceful it is really and then go to an ad break in which an NGO tries to tap me up for a fiver a month to stop men abroad who follow that credo marrying eight year old girls. It’s almost the definition of mixed messages.
I’d like it clarified. Is it marvellous or does it also allow in its teachings the raping of young children? Or perhaps it hits that minuscule sweet spot where the left are happy for it to apparently endorse peace, love, understanding on one hand and child rape on the other? Why can I donate by text to help stop such practices in the third world, but potentially face arrest for being appalled when it happens in the mill towns of Northern England under the direct and deliberate protection of Labour councils and the police?
Why is Saudi Arabia, one of the great bogeymen of world politics, and the home of Islam, excoriated by the left, yet those same people welcome its teachings in the West? Do they expect a more liberal, reformed Islam to take root? I mentioned the other day the fate of the Iranian hard left who sought to co-exist with Khomenini’s vision after the fall of the Shah. They were immediately killed.
I get the impression that there are some on the left who look at Islam, see parallels with communism, and think, like their Persian predecessors, they can bring about their own revolution in Europe. I’d advise them to think again. They are only competing to be last in the mass grave.
