Elephant in the room

[gizmo]

I don't think for one minute anyone was suggesting the EDL route was the way to go.
I do think Choudry and his like should be booted out of here PDQ. It won't happen of course because we are too damn civilised, human rights lawyers would be raking it in if it were attempted.
No-one in their right mind would blame an entire religion for the actions of a couple of murdering scumbags..

[lochend]

Shona,Good post and well argued.You are correct to say that the biggest problem is the fact that people who wish our society harm are able to get access to these impressionable youths and able to to pusuade them to carry out these acts by proxy.There is, however, another larger minority, who would like to establish Shariah law and think it is quite reasonable to flout British law and marry off their daughters against their will, many of whom are borne in the UK and are westernised. I must admit that all the daughters do not object to this custom but those that do should be able to have freedom of choice surely? We have seen several instances of "honour killings" down here. How killing a child who objects to being forcibly married to someone they have yet to meet can hae the word "honour" attached to it I cannot fathom! If you look up a rather interesting spech made by Winston Churchill going back to 1899 you will see that he predicts, even then, that the biggest threat to the European cultures was going to be from Islam slowly taking over these countries.I have no objection to Islam I just hate to to think that my great great grandchildren will grow up in a Britain which is very much different to the fairly tolerant and free conditions that obtain now.

[Martin]

20th April, 1968.

[lochend]

Forgive me for attaching part of the Churchill speech from 1899."Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralysis the social development of those who follow it. No stronger
retrograde force exists in the world.Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step! And, were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the
strong arms of science, the science against which Islam had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome..."

Sir Winston Churchill; (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50)
Now, to be fair ,this is a well reasoned speech ,must less inflammatory than Enoch Pwell's "rivers of blood" tirade. Since Churchill wrote those lines practically all of the North African continent has become dominated by Islam,even Nigeria has now a Islamic majority who have taken power and even moved the capital to a moslem dominated area.Indonesia has now become the largest Islamic dominated country in the world.Currently Turkey, which has remained defiantly secular since the days of Attaturk, is seeing attempts to curb its long standing freedoms and it's people are taking to the streets in protest.

[Govangirl]

Shona, it was indeed a good post but I am a bit confused.

It's wrong to demonise an entire religion because of a crime committed by deluded extremists with a perverted interpretation of their own faith.

I agree but I have not seen anyone on here deny that or even attempt to demonise any religion.

it seems to me that Islam is the Elephant in the Room referred to the thread title

Sorry but I just do not agree. It is clear from the first few posts on this thread that this was not the case, rather it was about where it actually went - folk are afraid to discuss it for fear of being branded racist. Right from the very beginning it was made clear that it was wrong that folk were putting the blame for such a sick act on all Muslims.

I agree with all you wrote and it was a great post but as an addition to Bobh's post, not as a way to defend what wasn't said.