The British Liberal and Religion: A Paradox

Battling through yesterdays Telegraph Review, I came across a two page feature on Lloyd Newson's "Can We Talk About This" a dance production scheduled to run at the National Theatre from March 9th to 28th.

Newson's work looks at the clash between Western values of freedom of expression and the rise of Islamism in the West, and covers the era from the Rushdie affair to the murder of Dutch artist Theo Van Gogh. What struck me about the article was how closely Newson's experiences matched some of my own, both around the British left and within academia. He states:

"A lot of my liberal friends are very happy to criticise Catholicism, Christianity and Judaism but when it comes to Islam, it feels as though all the same principles are disregarded."

And that is one of the great paradoxes of our age......

Comments

[Gitane]

Welcome to the world of absolute atheism. Apparently you will suffer eternally for your disbelief; sometimes.

[Posh Phil]

No doubt we can expect lots of whining from internationalist, our resident Fellow traveller of Islamism.

[SG]

At the UAF conference last Saturday it was all about solidarity with the Muslim community and fighting Islamophobia, and nearly every session had someone on the platform from an organisation such as Muslim Council of Britain, East London Mosque, Federation of Student Islamic Societies or Islamic Forum of Europe. Of course Islamophobia is a form of hate and is unacceptable, but there appeared to be no concern that some of these organisations hold discriminatory views of their own, eg on homosexuality and the rights of women.

Tommy Robinson in Monday's C4 programme expressed his opposition to women dressed head to toe in black with just a slit for their eyes. Well I as an antifascist find it disturbing too, but the left generally ignores the issue as "too difficult". Sayful Islam is extreme in wanting to impose Sharia in Britain, but Sharia already governs some relationships within the Muslim community and often does not give equal rights to women, who are pressured to agree to being governed by Sharia, which is recognised under English law in several areas.

Some antifascists such as Hope Not Hate say "a plague on both their houses" about the EDL and people like Sayful Islam, but that ignores the wider issue of the spread of Islam that is not clearly extreme, but still is a threat to freedom for all, whatever religion (or preferably none) they choose to believe in.