.... Warsi further castigates those non-Muslim Britons who say the following sort of thing: ‘the family next door are Muslim but they’re not too bad’. But this is an almost perfect expression of indigenous British tolerance and in a sense the perfect riposte to Warsi’s muddled argument: the ideology of Islam frightens us with its implacability, with its severity, with its vindictiveness — but most Muslims are not like that.
They do not sign up to it. They are, like us, ‘not too bad’. Warsi says that we should view British Muslims as British Muslims, rather than making distinctions between ‘extremist’ and ‘moderate’. But it would be better if we saw them not as Muslims at all, just as people like us who happen to be derogated thus by the white liberal elite and the Muslim pressure groups. Even if, in the end, it would limit our conversations at dinner. [The Spectator] Read more
Responding to Rod Liddle. Sigh. .... Now, Liddle, in such columns, often claims, as he does here, that he draws "a distinction between Islam and Muslims" - i.e. Muslims as people = good; Islam as ideology = bad.
I tend to take the reverse view - Islam is a religion of morals and justice and peace; it is Muslims who fail to adhere to its tenets, pervert its principles and hijack the faith for self-serving, politicized and/or criminal purposes.
As George Bernard Shaw is said to have remarked, "Islam is the best religion but Muslims are the worst followers." I'd add: judge Islam on its own principles and not the barbaric and backward practises (female circumcision, suicide bombings, anti-Semitism) of a minority of its followers. [New Statesman] Read more
