Seven lie dead after another horrific attack on London. The targets were, as usual, innocent members of the public enjoying the vibrant, enlivening freedom of a buzzing, friendly, cosmopolitan western city. And as the first news reports spread across the globe, millions correctly guessed the religion of the perpetrators.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May observes, rightly, that enough is enough. However, she goes on to say, much less correctly, that jihadist violence is a perversion of Islam, caused by extremism. She is wrong, and not just because we see no extremist beekeepers yelling the praises of their beloved hive god as they smite and behead those who don't keep bees. Extremism is a euphemism for a literal interpretation of Islam. The Quran is clear in its call to Muslims to strike out against the enemy until the entire world is subsumed by Dar al Islam and Sharia law reigns supreme.
Using motor vehicles to run down pedestrians is a foul and murderous perversion of driving. Taking a kitchen knife to the chest of an innocent bystander is a violent and deadly perversion of culinary equipment. But to follow, verbatim, a revered written instruction to visit harm on those who don't belong to your chosen in-group, is not a perversion of anything. It is an understandable, inevitable response to a global convention that anything characterising itself as a religion must be respected and given the status of unquestioned truth.
Mrs May pledges to take immediate action. Sadly, her noble intentions are misdirected. Increasing custodial sentences may please the vengeance-driven consumers of the gutter press, adherents of the perversely oxymoronic 'punitive justice', but it will have little effect on the smugly smirking, virtuously bearded, self-interested wannabe martyrs lining up to emulate their exploded and shot-up heroes.
She refers obliquely to 'difficult conversations'. This is the most encouraging part of her speech. What is needed, right now, is an end to the undeserved respect that religion has for far too long enjoyed. Children should be taught, in schools, from an early age, to question everything they are expected to believe on no credible authority whatsoever. Tiptoeing around religious sensibilities may seem the right and decent thing to do but it is not. Politically correct 'respect' (all too often, in fact, a front for self-preservation, to avoid being targeted by mobs of religious bullies) puts us all at risk because it legitimizes baseless religious claims.
Children of all ethnicities, confessions and nationalities must be taught that unsupported assertions may be - indeed, should be - immediately dismissed. If someone tells you that the prophet flew through the night from Makkah to Madinah on a winged horse, you should demand at least basic evidence before revising your learnèd opinion that horses cannot and do not fly.
Enough is indeed enough. But the battleground for a truly effective campaign is the classroom.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May observes, rightly, that enough is enough. However, she goes on to say, much less correctly, that jihadist violence is a perversion of Islam, caused by extremism. She is wrong, and not just because we see no extremist beekeepers yelling the praises of their beloved hive god as they smite and behead those who don't keep bees. Extremism is a euphemism for a literal interpretation of Islam. The Quran is clear in its call to Muslims to strike out against the enemy until the entire world is subsumed by Dar al Islam and Sharia law reigns supreme.
Using motor vehicles to run down pedestrians is a foul and murderous perversion of driving. Taking a kitchen knife to the chest of an innocent bystander is a violent and deadly perversion of culinary equipment. But to follow, verbatim, a revered written instruction to visit harm on those who don't belong to your chosen in-group, is not a perversion of anything. It is an understandable, inevitable response to a global convention that anything characterising itself as a religion must be respected and given the status of unquestioned truth.
Mrs May pledges to take immediate action. Sadly, her noble intentions are misdirected. Increasing custodial sentences may please the vengeance-driven consumers of the gutter press, adherents of the perversely oxymoronic 'punitive justice', but it will have little effect on the smugly smirking, virtuously bearded, self-interested wannabe martyrs lining up to emulate their exploded and shot-up heroes.
She refers obliquely to 'difficult conversations'. This is the most encouraging part of her speech. What is needed, right now, is an end to the undeserved respect that religion has for far too long enjoyed. Children should be taught, in schools, from an early age, to question everything they are expected to believe on no credible authority whatsoever. Tiptoeing around religious sensibilities may seem the right and decent thing to do but it is not. Politically correct 'respect' (all too often, in fact, a front for self-preservation, to avoid being targeted by mobs of religious bullies) puts us all at risk because it legitimizes baseless religious claims.
Children of all ethnicities, confessions and nationalities must be taught that unsupported assertions may be - indeed, should be - immediately dismissed. If someone tells you that the prophet flew through the night from Makkah to Madinah on a winged horse, you should demand at least basic evidence before revising your learnèd opinion that horses cannot and do not fly.
Enough is indeed enough. But the battleground for a truly effective campaign is the classroom.
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