Facing up to Islamic (and other) extremism

There can be no justification, religious, political or moral for the absolutely brutal murder of a British soldier by two men claiming to be acting on behalf of "Muslims"on the streets of London yesterday. Our thoughts and condolences are obviously with the family and friends of Lee Rigby at this difficult time.

The time has come to face up to the fact that there are those in our midst who are being attracted to, and acting on behalf of Preachers of hate whose twisted views brainwash the weak and vulnerable minds of their followers. I was impressed by a post which appeared on Harry's Place an excellent blog which regularly covers and exposes such extremists in which Mehrdad Amanpour outlines his case as a British Muslim against these men. He writes:

....surely it’s time for Muslims everywhere to confront some of the extreme views held within their communities and face up to the fact that such views may act as stepping-stones for some ignorant and impressionable people who go on to carry out atrocious acts of violence.

It is a fact that far too many Muslim scholars promote, and far too many Muslims believe, interpretations of Islam that are anything but moderate– for example, that non-Muslims are morally and spiritually ‘inferior’ beings to Muslims or that in an ideal ‘Islamic’ society, the death penalty should apply for a Muslim who leaves Islam, for anyone who insults the Prophet, has sex outside of marriage or takes part in a homosexual act.

Whilst I’m not suggesting that any significant number of the Muslims holding such views would ever commit or even condone the events we saw in Woolwich, I am suggesting that if someone already believes such interpretations of Islam, it would be easier for them to believe that it’s morally acceptable to behead an off-duty soldier in the street.

He continues by urging that Universities ban "hate groups" from their premises and mosques, madrassas  and Islamic faith schools that promote such hate should be closed down. Mr Amanpour continues:

Stating that non-Muslims are inferior to Muslims or that people should be killed for leaving a religion or having gay sex is simple hate speech, whether or not the speaker believes that it is ordained by Allah. The fact that hate speech is illegal under English law recognises the fact that hateful speech can sometimes promote hateful action.

Surely it’s time for the people who promote the views outlined above are treated as the criminals they are.

This is a brave view which everyone should both applaud and frankly support.

At the same time there are those who will always try to make political capital out of such tragedies as we have seen in the form of George Galloway whose disgraceful tweet was widely reported last night as were the violent reaction of the boneheads of the English Defence League rioting on the streets last night.

Some of the far-left have avoided condemning the barbaric actions of these two terrorist criminals. The Socialist Workers Party (who incidentally refused to condemn 9/11, they simply stated they "understood why it happened) have issued an equally pathetic response today. Charlie Kimber avoids using the phrase "condemn" in his on-line statement published this afternoon;

For the Tories this is an opportunity to divert attention from austerity and their party splits. Instead all the talk is of “emergency committees”, “terrorist incidents” and “national unity”.

We should not allow them to get away with such hypocrisy.

Nor should the imperialist policies of successive British governments be forgotten. 

The SWP are part of a wide swathe of the far-left who have operated in an unholy alliance with the "islamist" movement world-wide. They are cheerleaders for groups such as the Hefezat-e-islam who wanted to kill atheist bloggers in Bangladesh and destroy women's rights at the same time. 

The far-left live under the illusion that the so called "anti-imperialism" of the islamists (which is actually more of a "islamic imperialism" with their talk of a world -wide "Caliphate") will help them build the world revolution.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They like those of us who believe in democracy and free speech will be the first against the wall if these dangerous cultists ever gained power.

There needs to be an ideological offensive against all forms of extremism whether it comes from the Islamists, the far-left or the far-right.

This means eternal vigilance against the enemies of democracy. In this we cannot and must not fail.

Time to end the politics of hate.