.... Nor is the hounding of liberal Muslims as astonishing as it should be. I have enjoyed the Guardian for decades. But too many of its contributors have lost their wits and abandoned their principles over radical Islam. They show no signs of finding either soon. As a matter of course, they publish a defence of the silencing of Maryam Namazie, an ex-Muslim feminist, or a piece denouncing Maajid Nawaz, the Muslim leader of the anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation.
In academia, speakers at Bath University, surely the most malign higher education institution in Britain, call ex-Muslims “native informants”, as if the decision of free men and women to decide for themselves what they should believe is the equivalent of collaborating with a colonial oppressor. For the religious right and the political and academic left, a liberal Muslim is their trussed-up version of the enemy, the alien, the “other”.
None of the above is astonishing. It’s been going on so long that we accept it as the “new normal”. What is astonishing and frightening was the look on Mughal’s face when I finished talking to him. He looked defeated. He thinks the extremists are winning and that Britain does not begin to understand the trouble that is coming. [Nick Cohen, 810 cmments]
[TOP RATED COMMENTS 261 votes] It is indeed ridiculous, on the face of it, how the (so called) 'liberal' left defends extreme Islam, even though the latter rides roughshod over so much that the left claims to stand for (homosexuality and equality for women being the obvious examples). It appears that the left's wish to support any group or process that undermines the security and culture of the civilised West trumps any other principle that they would otherwise stand for.
[2ND 206] Offended Muslims will kill cartoonists who disrespect the prophet, but have no animosity whatsoever against people like IS who allegedly use a distorted version of Islam to justify mass killing, rape and genocide. How come they are not offended by what appears to me to be a greater blasphemy than cartoons.?
The Muslim lawyer Aamer Anwar actually described the Scottish born IS terrorist Aqsa Mahmood as a "sacrificial lamb" whose family still love her.
No sign of offence there. This is typical Muslim behaviour towards Islamist terrorists. First the denial that they are nothing to with Islam and then a complete lack of being offended. I find Muslim behaviour to be hypocritical and offensive in regard to terrorism.
[3RD 195] "Those squalid victories belong to the Islamist right. “We are being targeted by charlatans who are leading Muslim communities off a cliff,” Mughal told me. “I think we have 18 months before we lose a generation of young Muslims.”
And what positive steps are they taking to ensure this doesn't happen?
Are they picketting mosques where hate preachers are known to hang out and then confronting them? Do they keep records of the movements of radicalised individuals and their recruiters?
No, they react with shock and horror whenever some "beautiful young person" becomes radicalised and swear "we didn't see it coming".
Are they writing letters to parliamentarians demanding that foreign hate preachers be deported and kept out? No. They give them the royal treatment and look stunned that anyone could possibly be upset at their message that it's ok to beat you wife and that Britain is your enemy.
Do they have programmes to reinforce the peaceful intolerance of their religion? No. They're keeping records of "islamaphobia" and reinforcing the down trodden victim mentality and then they'll wonder why they're set to lose a generation of young people.
And note that it will be someone else's fault that their self fulfilling prophecy comes to pass.
[4TH 180] "If British Muslims turn into Islamic State murderers, it must be the British government’s fault and anyone who says otherwise must be an Islamophobe."
I'd like a pound for every comment I've read on these pages from posters endorsing this sort of nonsense.
[5TH 157] Why do people on the left defend mainstream Islam?
If I came on this board and said that a man was worth 2 women (Sharia law), premarital sex was a crime (haddith and Sharia), husbands could strike wives to discipline them (read your Haddith and Koran) and that homosexuality was wrong (punishable by death according to Muhammad in the Haddith), I would be ripped to shreds.
But yet, the left defends mainstream Islam.
Why?
[6TH 149] Please to see someone within the Guardian/Observer fold standing up for Maryam Namazie after the appalling opinion piece in the week.
Still a shame it was written in the first place.
[7TH 135] I stopped reading after I was instructed to believe in Islamaphobia. I don't believe in such a thing. I do believe in fear of religion out of control and have solid reasons for doing so.
[8TH 120] Thank you Mr Cohen for another excellent piece. There is still hope. [Guardian Cif] Read more
