Well, UKSUPPORT1, I read your thoughtful post to the Dan Pipes article. Mr. Pipes is a thoughtful and knowledgeable foreign affairs analyst — and has been for decades.
He sites the apparent recognition of bigamous marriage by the British government. Is that inaccurate?
I am a US citizen currently in Mexico. Daily I see the difference between Spanish and British Common Law. You would renew your appreciation of the legacy of Blackstone and basic fairness that flows from that British mainstay if you witness what I witness daily. Why a supposedly thoughtful archbishop wants to integrate a retrograde legal system (retrograde if you are a woman or an infidel) into that “fabric” is not “anecdotal.”
And the British government “de-linking” jihadi terrorism from its source is also adverted to in the article. It puzzles us on this side of the Atlantic that the source of violent jihad (Islam as expounded by more than a few British mullahs) is irrelevant.
What we see developing is more than disheartening.
I certainly do not wish to start a flame war about this, and I trust you understand my points here. We have similar trends in the US, though not as pronounced.
It seems to many that Britain is simply unwilling to call a spade a spade. That just deepens the hole being dug.
Thanks for your comments. Just to come back on a few points:
“Why a supposedly thoughtful archbishop wants to integrate a retrograde legal system (retrograde if you are a woman or an infidel) into that ‘fabric’ is not ‘anecdotal’.”
I completely agree and should have been more specific on this point. Rowan Williams has dominated the news headlines in the UK for the past few days. There has been a huge wave of criticism against his comments (as there should be). His actual speech referenced the horrendous treatment of people under Sharia law and he commented that his argument was regarding marriage/ divorce law etc. Even so he has been rightfully criticized with hecklers calling on him to resign in the street. My point is that this incident, rather than showing weakness on the part of British society has shown the exact opposite. The huge anger aimed at William’s comments were far more telling than the Archbishop’s speech in the end.
RE: the ‘Islamic terrorism’ label. To be honest, I have yet to hear a Western leader ‘call a spade a spade’ as you put it since 9/11. The British media oftens makes a fuss about ‘leaked memos’ etc that turn out to be a load of nonsense and I haven’t noted a shift in the language being used here (at least in the media).
I’m sure Dan Pipes is an excellent analyst (and alot smarter than me as well!). I fully accept that valid criticisms can be made of UK policy in some respects. However, I believe it important to keep a wider perspective on these issues. Keeping military forces in two Muslim countries does not look like appeasement to me.