.... While EDL leaders maintain that their concern is with Islamic extremism, Tarry says their marches target a far broader section of society. “They’ve actually hardened their position over the last two years,” he explains.
“Now they are pretty much saying they are against Islam itself as a religion, that it’s evil, that it’s incompatible with the West, and this feeds into a whole other set of arguments that they make about the general Islamification of Britain.”
.... Terrorism is surely a perfectly valid reason to be critical of Islam, alongside, for example, attitudes towards women or homosexuality. “The term is used to shield not only Islam but Islamism from criticism,” says Maryam Namazie.
“So anything from opposing stoning in Iran to demanding an end to Sharia courts in Britain is deemed racist. Whereas it’s actually the opposite – why must people, because of where they or their families were born, have different standards of rights available to them?” [New Humanist] Read more
