Reproduced below is my latest blog for Standpoint.
The
recent emergence of the English Defence League (EDL) is the inevitable outcome
of the failure of a government to properly address Islamic extremism topped off
with good old fashioned British hooliganism and bigotry. The involvement of groups like the EDL in
working against Islamic extremism serves to give ammunition to those who
already claim that all anti-Islamists are racists at heart.
My
co-blogger, Michael Burleigh, claimed yesterday that the English Defence League
had no demonstrable connections with the British National Party. I would have to disagree with this, as I am
aware of at least two. Firstly, as revealed
by the Times, the EDL's web designer
is none other than Chris Renton, who also acts as the BNP's 'web guy'. The indispensable Searchlight Magazine have
also identified another BNP member at the heart of EDL operations, Davy
Cooling, who they claim is an activist for the EDL's Luton wing. Despite
this, the EDL insist they do not support the BNP and are not a racist
organisation. It is also important to
consider at this point that two of the country's nastiest racist groups were
present at the EDL demonstrations in Luton.
According to the Blood and Honour (a UK neo-Nazi group formed in the
1980s) online forum, a number of its members attended the EDL's Luton protests
(screen shots of this closed forum are in my possession) and Searchlight make
the claim that a member of the National Front had also attended.
Although
unlikely, the EDL's rejection of accusations of racism and BNP support may be genuine
(it is difficult to prove this beyond any doubt), but charges levelled at them
as being anti-Muslim bigots will be far more difficult to swat away. In a recent interview (45 seconds into the below
video - try your best to ignore terror apologist Salma Yaqoob) with talkSport
radio, EDL spokesman Paul Ray admitted that they are not only protesting
against Islamic extremists, but in fact the EDL's beef is with 'all devout
Muslims'. Similarly the BNP's Nick
Griffin has also made accusations that all Muslims who devoutly follow their
religion are by definition a threat
to this country and Europe.
This
is no way to approach a very serious issue, and in fact makes the job of
liberals who do recognise the problem many times harder. As it stands, and with only a handful of
notable exceptions, the subject of Islamic extremism is only being properly
dealt with by people and organisations considered to be 'right wing'. It therefore becomes all too easy for those
who (somehow unashamedly) call themselves part of the left and have allied with
Islamists, to accuse people of being far right racists if they dare to identify
Islamism as a problematic ideology (at a recent Stop the War Coalition event
Lindsey German made
this very accusation). The recent
adoption of the cause against Islamic extremism by the far right simply feeds
into already established perceptions of anti-Islamists that exist among
Islamists and their apologists, and allows their scurrilous accusations to be
taken mildly seriously.
Whereas
progressives are able to make the distinction between a devout Muslim and an
extremist or an Islamist, the BNP and EDL insist on the rather patronising assumption
that whether a practicing Muslim likes it or not, they are an extremist. This is based on a very simplistic understanding
of the core texts of Islam which discounts 1400 years of interpretation and
scholarship and ignores the possibility that, rather than forever seeking to
convert or kill all of us, the vast majority of Muslims follow their faith in a
private and personal manner.
Within
the world of anti-jihadism, there is a clear divide between those who consider
all Muslims to be a threat and those who understand that the problem lies
within a small but very influential section of the Islamic world. Siding with the former should not be an
option as it requires a total disavowal and abandonment of liberal and
pluralist values based solely on the basis of a mutual foe.
Mr Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, what evidence do you have that the EDL are racists?
Does opposing Quran instigated terror amount to racism? Are Muslims a race?
How many Quarans are there? Extreme and non-extreme?
You say: ...Whereas progressives are able to make the distinction between a devout Muslim and an extremist or an Islamist...
What are the distinctions?
You also say: ...a very simplistic understanding of the core texts of Islam which discounts 1400 years of interpretation and scholarship ...
Can you site any interpretation or scholarship of the Quran (from the 4 Sunni schools and the major Shia school) that change, among other things, Surahs 9:5 and 9:29 and interpret them into loving and kissing ones?
I am sorry to say but I sense middle class shallowness and hypocrisy in your article.
Do you know who died/dies for this country during its wars? They are the working class (which you call hooligans) and conscripts from former British colonies.
Yacob Yemane.
Yacob,
You have asked too many questions for me to respond to all at once. But here is a start:
I did not call the EDL racists, but rather bigots. I am afraid that holding the view that all devout Muslims are a threat to the UK is by any definition a bigoted and unhelpful view.
You clearly think that all devout Muslims are extremists, and I am afraid that is a view which is slowly but surely dying out.
Dont put words in my mouth, I did not call those who are working class 'hooligans', I called those who come from football firms to give Nazi salutes in front of Mosques and have fights with Muslims hooligans.
I have a problem with Islam, but not with all Muslims. I judge Islam by its texts, the life of Mohammad, Islam's history and by those Muslims who take Islam seriously and want a theocracy. This article seems to judge Islam by those Muslims who pick and choose from the text and ignore or reinterpret the barbarism, or those Muslims who are less concerned with memorizing Iron Age superstition and are drifting towards secularism.
You speak of 1400 years of interpretation and scholarship. Has this been a worthwhile project? How many more years do we have to wait for it to be completed and Islamic Imperialism to end; another 1400 perhaps? There seems to be a never ending line of clerics who will interpret texts and tell us what they think god wants, but none of them can actually give us any evidence that God exists. Surely it would have been better to spend this time separating mosque and state, ending childhood religious indoctrination and undergoing an enlightenment.
You have two standards. One for Muslims whereby a violent minority should have no effect on how you view all Muslims or Islam. However, when you talk about the EDL, all you have to do is find a couple of its members who support the BNP and you conclude the whole group are bigots.
If you are against the EDL then under what circumstances would you attend an anti-Islamic extremists demonstration?
I think the EDL are bigots because they seemingly make the claim that all devout Muslims are by definition a problem. Am i wrong in this assessment? If so, please direct me to any evidence you have to prove i am wrong, and I will gladly admit my mistake.
Furthermore, I dont support "Muslims who pick and choose from the text and ignore or reinterpret the barbarism", but rather those who believe in and understand the faith in its most moderate and private form. You seem to think that someone cant be a believing Muslim without being devoted to the suras calling for the killing of unbelievers - well I am afraid if that is the case then you are quite simply wrong.
Surely you dont think that a demo organised by football firms is the best example of an anti Islamic extremist demo? I could name you quite a few better ones, including those I attended outside of the Iranian embassy recently where I chanted along with thousands of other Muslims: "Down with the Islamic regime of Iran!".
Alexander,
You argue your point very well and I commend you for it. I would also like to take this chance to thank you and the CSC for it's great work, especially the sublime Douglas Murray.
However, I personally have come to the conclusion that Islam is no good to the world let alone the UK.
You are right when you state the rise of the EDL is inevitable.
You are wrong in my opinion to write them off as bigots. I personally believe they are Normal working class people that are sick to the back teeth of this intolerant cult. Furthermore, I believe there members would probably number about 30 million plus if people had the courage to speak their true feelings. Yet with little investigation of how REAL people are thinking and to what this site (EDL) is actually saying, you are quick to pigeon hole them. It would be nice if you gave as much of yourself to understanding the "bigots" fears and frustations as you do the cult of Islam.
Your work is honorable but you're trying to fight a fire with petrol.
I do not agree it is only the minorities that are radicalised.
How can only these minorities currently be engaged in military conflict with every other major religion across the planet?
Religions across the world and freethinkers alike are coming together better than ever before thanks to the internet. The war has begun.
There's hardly a country, religion or race that has not suffered at the hands of this brutal cult.
Look back and learn from history what happens when Islam takes control.
There is no good to come from this cult and there never will be.
The scruffy working class realise it, isn't it time the middle class did too?
I wouldn't hold my breath though, when the controlling middle class realise what state we're in, it will be the working class that bleed to rectify it!
Still, you'll get to write the commentary on it when they do. (sorry low blow)