31 July 2011

Be warned: Real courage is being ready to step on a few 'cultural' toes

.... The local Imam, when I challenged him about such a barbaric practice, which he justified as a religious and cultural necessity to ensure their purity at marriage, had steely eyes which bored through me. ‘In the not too distant future,’ he intoned, ‘all British girls will be circumcised when Islam rules this country.’

That kind of thinking has not gone away. Last week we saw posters declaring that areas of East London are now subject to Sharia Law – a clearly unacceptable concept in a society with its own, highly developed legal system.

My second moment of terror came last Monday when Stephen Lennon, who leads the English Defence League (EDL), warned in conversation with Jeremy Paxman that the kind of extreme Right-wing violence witnessed in Norway was likely to be happening here in five to ten years. [MailOnline] Read more