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How can an entire nation dismiss or be indifferent to being held hostage by Islamic extremists? Government and the voters fiddle with abstractions about religious freedom and human rights in the UK while Britain burns with terrorism and threats of terrorism. The Archbishop of Canterberry said that adoption of some aspects of Sharia law in Britain was unavoidable. That was the word he used. In the US such a credible supposition would be met with horror and enormous backlash, possibly a violent one at that. Perhaps few people remember it was all the Federal governnment could do to prevent escalating anger among the American public at large against Moslems after 9-11. Small wonder Americans do not listen to Europeans criticisms of them, this is another perfectly good reason why. Europeans are in grave jeopardy of losing what little freedoms they still have left. Eurabia seems just around the corner. Few seem concerned. They will pay a terrible price for their indifference.

"burning with threats"?

In case you haven't noticed, Britain isn't burning.

As for freedoms, I can see freedoms being denied on both sides. The freedom to a fair trial used to be guaranteed, for example. muslim extremists are not denying us that freedom. Your Government is.

"...amid fears of a violent reaction."

SUCH a peaceful religion, isn't it?

Marcus

I hope I haven't been misrepresenting your views on physics recently - I'm correct in saying that you think that physics has quite a long way to go, and that we'll end up with a simpler picture of the universe? And that we'll be able to get rid of most, if not all, of the quantum weirdness?

If not I owe you a HUGE apology. But I did say you were very clever.

GV

I can't remember who William discussed this with on his programme, but he made an important point.

I still think that Free Speech should be constrained by civility - but whoever the commentator was (help me out here William) he made the point that listeners also need to be sensible and civil if Free Speech is to survive. If a community is offended by an act of free speech, but can offer no reasons for their offence, then the picture changes somewhat.

On some occasions they may need to offer public reasons for being offended - reasons that we all can empathise with or comprehend. But if a section of one community cannot even offer reasons according to their own standard of rationality then they can be safely ignored.

I also think that once you have made the effort to be civil you should go ahead and publish. Civility simply means trying your best not to cause unnecessary offence. It does not mean that being offensive to a listener or reader is a good enough reason not to speak.

If Sherry Jones publicity is accurate she has gone out of her way to be as civil as possible.
GV

Bernards_Insight

Oh really. Suicide bombers and people who beheaded a Wall Street journalist on the internet gave their victims a fair trial before they murdered them. And people who stone a woman to death after she was raped and then convicted her of adultery also gave her a fair trial. Funny, I didn't catch those trials on Court TV. I'll have to write them a letter about that.

If you are referring to GITMO, even Geneva doesn't acknowledge irregular combatants not in any recognized military uniform as having any rights to a fair trial. America like the rest of the civilized world is in a war for existance against the terrorists some call "Islamic militants." Pardon us while we defend ourselves even if the rest of the world doesn't care to.

Is Britain burning? Five more "Islamic militants were just arrested in Britain today. Because of Britain's unwillingness to on the one hand assimilate large numbers of Moslems it allowed to immigrate while on the other ignoring the siren call of terrorits and their imam recruiters in Britain to the disaffected, a large internal threat has been allowed to grow largely ignored. So far Britain has seen only the tip of the iceberg. Those who thought the Titanic could never sink were also mistaken.

gveale, I don't know which of my posts you are responding to but it clearly isn't this one. Does physics have a long way to go? Are you kidding, it has barely started on its journey towards real knowledge. Despite what the media and physicists would have us believe and like to believe themselves, they don't know far more than they do know. For example, they have absolutely no idea of what gravity is or how it works. They don't even understand the fundimental nature of electrical charges or fields or magnetism yet. I'm very optomistic that in the coming five hundred to a thousand years, they will learn a lot more than they know now...if civilization lasts that long.

Marcus, calm yourself son.

The fact is that the US Government is denying people a fair trial....you can excuse that by crying "oh, but they did it first" if you want. The fact remains.

As for a few arrests in Britain, i don't think it warrants a hysterical shriek that "Britain is burning". I'm assuming that you have seen the rest of that iceberg, of which the rest of us can only see the tip.

:)

Bernards_Insight

I think it was CNN that did a one hour documentary on Islam in Britain about a year or two ago. Europeans mistake indifference for tolerance and have no concept of what real assimilation is or what the consequences of the hostility of a large alien presence in their nation that was not assimilated means. You would do well to check the web site on aljazerra that Justin Webb linked to on his blog site and compare Islam in America with Islam in Britain. According to CNN's documentary, many Moslems consider themselves Moslems first and Brits second or not at all. Some who were born in Britain consider themselves Pakistanis. When the threat of Imams indoctrinating recruits to Islamic terrorism was brought to the attention of British authorities by Moslems themselves, time and again the authorities turned a deaf ear to it. There is a real and dangerous alien presence in Britain and in the rest of Europe and it is growing. Britain and Europe have no one to blame but themselves for allowing it to happen.

A more arrogant person might suggest that a non British person couldn't hope to understand how the country works. Not me though.

Sounds like we have a lot to learn about this assimilation lark, wasn't that what the Borg did on Star Trek?

Yea Paul, we're all alike. Don't all Americans look alike to you?

No, they don't. Luckily they don't all blog alike too: maybe you need to improve your assimilation techniques?

Actually Paul, most of us in the US think similar thoughts on many issues of great importance to us. I expect a lot of people around the world to be greatly surprised at how Barack Obama will react if he is elected president to the first test of his mettle some foolish foreign country attempts. The difference...I'm not afraid to voice my opinions for fear of offending someone. I've noticed over the years many people from foreign countries were only too eager to volunteer their political opinions without fear of offending me. Funny how many of those same people don't like hearing a contradictory opinion that is not only unrestrained by backed up by facts as well. I hope you enjoyed the video links I provided above. Tell me which one got it wrong and why.

Marcus, sometimes it seems like your main aim is to offend, and the facts, well they're pretty few and far between.

I'll be sure to check out those videos and let you know.

Resistance is futile.

Isn't anyone going to defend the Islamists so that I can argue gratuitously with them?

I remember once attending a lecture by Bishop Richard Hanson in which he said no figure could really be said to have made-it posthumously until he had been outed as a homosexual and had his life story made into a musical.

By this standard Mohammed is seriously lagging behind Jesus. Perhaps someone could remedy matters in one fell swoop by writing 'A Desert Snog - Mohammed and Ali, the untold story'. I could see Julian Clary as Mohammed and Peter Kaye as Ali.

I thought he was brilliant as Geraldine!

Marcus, calm yourself lad, let's not get hysterical.

Marcus
Sorry for the confusion - I was responding to a physicist who was just using his authority as a physicist to say that skepticism about the Standard Model was unwarranted. Or something like that - it was difficult to see exactly what he was arguing for. I was just letting him know that there was one trained physicist on the blog who believed that the truth could turn out to be VERY different than what current theories propose.
As you know, I think it's better to be a realist. But your position seems very reasonable given the history of Science. I was annoyed to see it dismissed with a few quips.
Also be very careful. If you are skeptical of any scientific proposal you must be a believer.

G Veale

John
I could pretend to defend the Islamists - I'm not really sure what their argument is, but I'll try to find out.
Would that help?

GV

Marcus
I think the USA has a much better approach to Religion and State than Europe. My hope is that the Culture Wars will run out of steam. And I think that there is reason for that hope.
Whether Palin will help or hinder remains to be seen.

GV

Portwyne
Mohammed and Ali - that would be incestuous.
Have you some sort of death wish we should all know about?

GV

Bernard
I don't think you should blame the Bush/Cheney administrations abuse of power on USA as a whole. Hopefully Congress will be able to clip the Executive's wings a little.
Could Parliament clip the British governments wings if it needed to? For example - and I'm throwing this out as a question - could Blair have gone to war in Iraq even if Parliament had voted against it? Does Royal Prerogative give him that sort of power?

GV

Altough I'm pretty sure that America is getting a little hysterical about real and alien presences in Europe.

"I don't think you should blame the Bush/Cheney administrations abuse of power on USA as a whole"

Oh, I don't. Not at all. I'm just having a cheap dig at Marcus' renowned "we're right and everybody else is wrong" attitude.

I think he may need to lie down for a while.

Marcus baiting can be good sport, I have to admit.

Some ultra-violent Muslim reactions


Marwa Elnaggar on Islam Online

"I would have loved to ask the exasperated Asra Nomani why she thinks that "you still can't write about Muhammad", which was the title of her Wall Street Journal article."

"There is a lot of literature that has been written about Prophet Muhammad in the Muslim world. Muhammad's life, as well as the lives of his Companions and wives, including the Lady A'ishah, has been the subject of novels, plays, and even movies and TV series. Jones has done nothing new, except that she has taken much greater liberties with history and fact than others have."

"Yet given all its inaccuracies, its faults, and its biases, should publication of The Jewel of Medina be stopped? By all means, it should not, and it most probably won't be."


Etharel Katatney
"If she’d only just added the disclaimer "this book is loosely based on real facts," it would have been so much easier to stomach."

"It essentially converts Aisha of the seventh century into Aisha of the twenty-first century Western world."

"Rather than alienating her, Muslims should aim to win her over as an ally and use her novel to teach non-Muslims about the true history of Islam."




Fanatics.

John - Islam is a religion of peace; or to take the literal translation, "wait while I reload".

marcus is completely wrong about many things but not this one. America good - jihad bad.

Unless of course they elect B Hussein O who will display tolerance and understanding for everyone accept foetuses and babies that manage to survive an abortion.

Don't you guys ever get tired of getting the crap beaten out of you? My knuckles are starting to hurt. :-)