Efforts by groups such as The Centre for Social Cohesion, Policy Exchange and the Quilliam Foundation, and by individuals such as Michael Gove and Baroness Cox, to draw our attention to the threat of rising radical Islamism reminds me of Winston Churchill's warnings about Nazi Germany, as documented in The Gathering Storm. Churchill was largely ignored, dismissed, at best regarded as talking about a very marginal issue, and often derided as a war-monger. Yet his warnings were proven right, and in the end we had to confront Hitler.
Anjem Choudary's appearance on Newsnight earlier this week (watch 17.45 minutes in to the link) is just the latest Churchillian warning of the sheer fascism of radical Islamism, yet still we are at best only half-awake. The decision to ban Islam4Uk, an offshoot of al-Muhajiroun, is a sign that the Home Secretary is starting to take these groups seriously - but very belatedly.
The latest example of Britain's sleepiness on this issue is the news that a senior figure in Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE) who reportedly groomed a suicide bomber. According to The Times today, in addition to preaching regularly at the LSE's Islamic Society, Reza Pankhurst holds secret meetings with a group known as "Brothers' Circle". How is it that Britain's universities are giving not only religious preaching slots but also academic teaching slots to known radicals?
On Newsnight, the clash between Anjem Choudary and Quilliam's Maajid Nawaz was extraordinary - and worth watching. Choudary accused Nawaz of being an apostate, and his refusal to answer the question as to whether, in his proposed 'Caliphate', Nawaz would be executed was chilling. Furthermore, despite his eagerness to utilise the benefits of freedom and democracy to spread his message of hate, he said that "democracy and freedom is no good for the British". Well thanks, Anjem, but I'd rather have our broken democracy, as full of faults as it is, than a society in which adulterers are flogged, gays are executed, women are stoned for not being veiled, churches are burned, so-called apostates are killed and non-Muslims are forced to convert or be treated as 'dhimmis' or second-class citizens. I'd rather a society in which we can speak freely and practice our faith freely, within the rule of law and as long as it doesn't threaten others. So too would many Muslims.
