For peace, there must be social cohesion regardless of belief
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Re: "What the fear mongers don't tell you about Islam", Letters, May 22.
Robin Grant refers to my “latest anti-Muslim tirade”. I am absolutely not anti-Muslim. I have associated with many Muslims and shared their food and shelter. Muslims are people. Islam is an ideology. My writing refers to Islam. My remarks are based on the Koran, the Hadiths and the history of Islam from inception as analysed by objective scholars.
I do not refer to “Islam’s medieval origins”. Its origins are seventh-century, not medieval. The two periods are 600 years apart.
There have been, throughout history, periods when man’s knowledge has been very advanced – events from which we now benefit – but these events are attributable to people, not religion.
In the case referred to by the writer, the people were Arabs and Berbers, but they also conquered with the sword. The Romans of 2,000 years ago and the ancient Greeks had very advanced ideas, but not because of religion. It is in religion that one will find bigotry, ignorance and minds indoctrinated with fantasy. Islam goes a step further, with apostasy being met with the death sentence. It was born of the sword and has grown through fear and hatred, particularly of Jews.
Muslims in the main are pleasant, peaceful people who suffer as much from Islam as does the non-Muslim world.
The unfortunate fact is that Muslims are perceived as a threat by millions around the globe (although certainly not by me). That is the point I’ve been making. Muslims and Islam are seen as one and the same, but they are not. Muslims are blamed for the atrocities committed by fundamentalist jihadists.
The writer suggests I evoke an apocalyptic vision of “European civilisation being engulfed by a wave of Islamic migration”. That’s not a vision. It is current reality, with a breakdown in social services, a shortage of housing, disruption of the education system and the building of hundreds of mosques. Even Christian churches have been commandeered for Islamic teaching. Islamists have created no-go areas in London. These are facts, not figments of the imagination.
As Lee Kuan Yew said of Singapore, all ethnic and religious groups integrate well, except Muslims. This is very sad but true. Reforming the belief in which Muslims are entrapped could be the answer. To achieve peace, there must be social cohesion regardless of belief.
JC Wilcox
