“poor, brave Benazir Bhutto. Will the Muslim world reel back from the precipice of this dastardly act and reform itself” 

“Much of what Islam wants directly confronts treasured and hard won rights that our fathers shed blood for over the centuries. They are simply not up for grabs or negotiation of any kind. Any incomers must accept them.” 

It must be obvious by now to everyone with eyes to see the carnage and ears to hear the explosions that Islam is a wonky religion in desperate need of repair. Sure, it has many admirable qualities, but Islam’s underlying problems make it so dysfunctional that a serious makeover is required for it to be allowed to operate freely in Britain.

Our cowardly leaders don’t have the courage to confront this.

Because important parts of the Koran are so loosely worded that they can be interpreted by the evil to justify their despicable crimes, in Britain we must insist that only a version of the Koran which is compatible with our customs can be adopted by mosques. Only mosques which subscribe to this version, which of course will only be in English, will be licensed to operate. It will be a bit like our New Testament, which sought to bring Christian values into line with scientific discoveries and modern ideas.

To carry on as our government has, weak and eager to please, only guarantees an eventual bloody clash of cultures. But all neo-Labour can do is pump millions of pounds into this or that deprived area. Another neo-Labourite will wring his hands and talk about moderate Muslims and how we must all live together and respect each others religions.

Lethal wobbly
Nobody argues with the concept of respect for other religions. But this does ignore an important step. Surely, if we are to respect other religions, we need first to know what these religions want to do. This respect shouldn’t be handed over automatically. I can’t see many reasons not to respect Hindus, or Sikhs or Roman Catholics or Shintoists. They tend to preach sweetness and light and won’t throw a lethal wobbly if slighted in some obscure way. But much of what Muslims subscribe to in the Koran is incompatible with British culture and customs. Much of what Islam wants, directly confronts treasured and hard won rights that our fathers shed blood for over the centuries.

They are simply not up for grabs or negotiation of any kind. Any incomers must accept them.

Freedom of speech, assembly and movement, separation of church and state, secret ballots, the right to be educated to the limit of your potential, male or female, the right to choose your marriage partner, the equal value of a child, male or female, the right to dress as you wish, these are the front line rights that Britons have fought for over the centuries. Any religion that seeks to operate in Briton must accept these bedrock features. Many Muslims either don’t think these rights are important, or because of their religion are actively hostile to them. Or worse, they assume that Islam trumps our freely elected government.

Better Dead Than Red
This isn’t some boring argument about philosophy which we can shrug our shoulders and leave to others. It is not just another way of looking at the same thing, an argument about nuance and details. This schism with Islam is becoming a bit like the better Red than Dead thing. Back in the 1950s and 1960s most of the left was unwilling to face up to the challenge posed by the Soviet Union, and to its eternal disgrace, really rather liked the utopian, top-down dictatorships which were created. They would have happily conceded defeat to the Communists. The ideological divide is similar today, although how lefties can live with themselves and their tacit support of the medievalist wife-beaters of Islam is beyond me. I suppose it is self-loathing. The communist traitors of the 1940s and 1950s were motivated by hatred of Britain and the West. Those that would trash our traditions are still trying to do that today.  

This battle with Islam has become crucial to the future of our liberal democracy and if you don’t agree, maybe you will after taking on board the words of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali knows about these things. She moved to Holland from Africa in 1992 after suffering circumcision, forced marriage, and beatings. She became an MP for the centre-right Dutch VVD party. Hirsi Ali renounced her Muslim faith, and that was her first “mistake”. Fundamentalist Muslims believe that apostasy is a crime punishable by death. (This will be denied in the British version of the Koran) She also wrote the script for Theo Van Gogh’s movie “Submission”, which ridiculed Islamist attitudes towards women. Van Gogh was brutally murdered in cold blood for his pains by a Muslim who then mutilated his body. Hirsi Ali has since escaped to America and the American Enterprise Institute, where she continues to shine light on the truth about Islam. Islam, the religion of peace? That’s a “fairytale”, she says.

Islam is hostile to reason
“Christianity is different from Islam because it allows you to question it. It probably wasn’t different in the past, but it is now. Christians - at least Christians in a liberal democracy – have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state. In Islamic doctrine such a separation has not occurred yet. This is what makes it dangerous. Islam – all Islam, not just Islamism – has not acknowledged that it must obey secular law. Islam is hostile to reason,” said Hirsi Ali in an interview with The Spectator in early December.

Hirsi Ali believes Britain is in the forefront of this battle with Islam.

“You, here in the U.K, are in danger. Of course you can’t ban Islam outright, but you need to stop the spread of ideology, stop native Westerners converting to Islam. You definitely need to ban the veil in schools, and to close down Muslim schools because that’s where kids are indoctrinated,” she said.

If you doubt the seriousness of the problem of radical Islam in the U.K., remember the report by the Policy Exchange, the centre-right think tank, in October.

The Policy Exchange reported that books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, the stoning of adulterers, hatred of homosexuals, enslavement of women, were freely available at books stores at Britain’s main mosques.

The Policy Exchange said many of the publications were aimed at forcing a rift between Muslims and the host nation.

Insufficiently rigorous
“The individual Muslim must also feel an abhorrence for non-believers, hypocrites, heretics and all that is deemed Un-Islamic. The latter category encompasses those Muslims who are judged to practise an insufficiently rigorous form of Islam. Most books stopped short of calling for violence. But they created a climate of intolerance and contempt for non-Muslims that could be exploited by violent jihadists,” the report said.

And if you don’t think that is an example of clear and present danger, I would refer you to a letter in the Daily Telegraph last September from Winston S. Churchill, former Tory MP and grandson of the great man.

Churchill maintained that the Deobandi group, which spawned the Taliban in Afghanistan, has taken over 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques, and is a “vipers’ nest in our midst”.

“The Deobandi, an ultra-conservative sect, outlaws music, art, television and football, and also demands the entire concealment of women. While not all Deobandis are extremist, leading preachers of this sect aim to radicalise the Islamic youth of Britain, and to mobilize them against our society and the freedoms we hold so dear,” Churchill said.

Churchill urges government action to avoid strife and bloodshed, but doesn’t offer any practical suggestions. I wonder if he will approve of my idea to license mosques by dint of their acceptance of our great principles of freedom.

Hirsi Ali is clear about the extent of the problem.

Not just a faith, a political ideology
“Islam is different from other faiths because it is not just a faith. It is a political ideology. Children learn that Allah is the lawgiver, and that is a political statement. You wouldn’t allow the BNP (Banque Nationale de Paris) to run a school, would you,” she said. Hirsi Ali has written a book called “Infidel”, about growing up in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

There is clearly a problem that is not going to go away. To address it, our Muslim fellow citizens must first of all acknowledge that this problem exists.

When the time comes to edit the U.K. Koran and bring it up to date, it will not only underline its adherence to modernity and an open society, but hopefully it will tidy up some ugly peripheral issues too. 

The Koran should acknowledge that one of the reasons their compatriots in the Middle East live in poverty is the Koran’s apparent incompatibility with economic growth by the ban on interest payments. Why would a religion ban interest? What was the problem a thousand odd years ago that outlawed paying a fee for the use of someone else’s money? It just beggars belief. Cruel and barbaric hallal killing will go. The ban on eating pork, which only exists because many moons ago uneducated people didn’t understand the science of cooking, will be rescinded.

Line one, paragraph one – homicide bombers fry
But line one, paragraph one of a new reformed U.K. Koran will make clear to every Muslim that suicide bombing of innocent civilians is never acceptable, and will offer a direct route to purgatory. Homicide bombers and their nominees will not be serviced by 72 virgins, or sate their hunger on 72 white raisins, depending on the translation believed at the moment. “Honour” killing will be an oxymoron to them too.

The problem will fester unless the British government stands up and insists. And under the present management that is not going to happen. Surely, doubters may ask, Muslims will only get mad if they are constantly prodded about the stone-age nature of the religion?

“Well perhaps anger is no bad thing,” said Hirsi Ali. “Perhaps it will make Muslims more aware, help them question their beliefs. If we keep on asking questions, maybe Muslim women will realise, as I did, that they don’t have to be second class citizens,” she told The Spectator.

As I wrote this story, I heard the news about poor, brave Benazir Bhutto. Wouldn’t you think that the Muslim world might reel back from the precipice of this dastardly act, reform itself and decide once and for all to be the religion of peace it so clearly isn’t? 

 Neil Winton – December 27, 2007