They're Going to Party Like It's 1399



Why is anti-Muslim feeling rising in America? See this news story from the September 8th Daily Telegraph about the organization of the "Islamic Council of Britain (ICB), which will aim to implement sharia law in Britain and will welcome al-Qa'eda sympathisers as members." "The people at this conference look at September 11 like a battle, as a great achievement by the mujahideen against the evil superpower."



Paul Johnson once described an intellectual as someone who loves ideas more than people, and that certainly describe this bunch. I keep waiting for moderate Muslims to create a groundswell of outraged response. After all, groups like this claiming to speak in the name of Islam makes anti-Muslim sentiment even stronger, and will eventually lead to the sort of bigotry and legalized religious discrimination that doesn't belong in America (but seems to be right at home in Saudi Arabia). Moderate Muslims need to speak out, now, and loudly, denouncing this sort of hate-filled nonsense, or raise the suspicion that the Islamic Council of Britain is just being honest about Islam.



Trade unionists in America in the 1940s and 1950s were in a similar position with respect to communism, and overwhelmingly, they spoke against totalitarianism. It was both morally right, and political astute.



Isn't it interesting how the left of American politics, so terrified that the Religious Right will exercise undue influence on America, isn't terribly concerned about a group whose goal is the worldwide imposition of an Islamic theocracy that would make Moral Majority look like an ACLUless convention? The Islamic Council of Britain's goal--imposition of sharia law worldwide--makes Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale seem positively liberal.