Islam versus Europe

Even by CiF standards, this article is poor. All ye olde classics are in there: racism, islamophobia, EDL.

Conservative thinktanks are in a bit of a bind when it comes to responding to the rise of Islamophobia. On the one hand they want to condemn the BNP and the English Defence League for their racism and violence, but on the other they want to downplay the extent and existence of anti-Muslim racism because it might deflect attention from "Islamism" – the catch-all term for politically active Muslims, which they see as the main problem facing the UK. The difficulty with their position is that they end up condemning the peaceful political activism of Muslim groups, while downplaying and even excusing the violent modus operandi of racist and Islamophobic groups such as the EDL.

Insofar as there is any coherent argument, it seems to be this: right-wing think tanks (the Centre for Social Cohesion and Policy Exchange) don't bash the EDL, BNP and the Counterjihadists hard enough. They also attack Muslims who are not engaged in violence, just as the intelligence services monitored hardcore commies during the Cold War. But many of those hardcore commies became government ministers in the last Labour government, so this proves that it was wrong to monitor them in the first place.

Actually, considering the damage those Labour ministers did to the country while in office, I'd say their prior monitoring has been retrospectively justified. Perhaps it should have been even more intense.

It's good to see that the article has been mercilessly shredded in the comments. The change in the tenour of CiF comments on Islam-related articles in recent years is one of the most heartening signs that the message is getting out. People are waking up to the threat Islam presents to us. But the Guardian management still keeps chucking out the same old drivel regardless.

Here is one particularly good comment:

Articles and thinking like this are exactly the reason groups like the EDL and savages like the Norwegian gunman are getting more followers. If you criticse Islam, or express concern about the impact it has on British society, you are a racist.

Lots of reasonable people have objections to Islam for a lot of reasons. Most of these reasons are not racist or due to fearmongering, but caused by what they see with their own eyes.

I would invite the author to come and live in the back end of Luton I inhabit. If he has a wife and kids, even better, invite her as well and it will make the point clearer. First thing you notice is that you are the only white person. Not a major issue for such a progressive author, I would imagine, so let's keep going. If you take your kid to the school, you will see a strange sight in the morning. Hundreds of women dressed head to toe in black taking their kids to school. You will be completely ignored and be the only person there speaking English. Your kids will be completely isolated in school. They may not care about skin colour or religion, being the kids of such progressive parents, but the others there do, because their parents define themselves and their children by their religion above all else. And Islam, like most religions, is intolerent of others.

So, kids are dropped off, you go to the shop. If you brought your wife with you and she is wearing Western clothing, this is when the fun really starts. She will be jeered at in the streets. Ignored by the shop owners. Hell, my girlfriend has even had people spit at her feet when she was wearing a skirt. You will be treated with either cold disdain or outright hostility, and will not be able to buy anything because the signs are not in English.

On your way home, you may notice some unusual stickers on the walls. Most of them are written in a language you do not understand, but when you see one in English you will be shocked to read that apparently only "apostates vote for man's law". Oh well, it's their choice not to vote right?

You will also notice that there is zero police presence. They are busy patrolling the fancy middle class white neighbourhood on the other side of town, no chance of a racism charge there should they stop somebody acting suspiciously.

That is my experience of Islam, and the experience of many others. There was no violence as such, it was Islamic culture. A culture stuck in medieval times, right in the heart of England. There is no interaction with the local community. It is, by definition, a ghetto. It creates suspicion. It creates hostility.