THE SUNDAY TIMES: I spent 14 years in the Middle East, so I’m quite accustomed to Arab culture and its easily offended sensibilities. But the decision to arrest and jail the English school teacher Gillian Gibbons is so far removed from even the remotest sense of logic, I wondered if the date on my Arabic calendar was April 1.
Sadly, this was no joke. The truth is, as we’re beginning to realise, we’re locked into a battle for hearts and minds at the core of which lies a battle for the essence of Islam itself. And we can’t expect anyone to fight this on our behalf.
A few weeks ago Rod Liddle participated in a debate about whether Islam is good for London. His message, in a nutshell: I don’t have a problem with Muslims, I have a problem with Islam. I don’t share his views, though many do – and I can see how they’ve got there.
We’re at the point where the naming of a cuddly toy by children has become a international incident with the Foreign Office summoning foreign emissaries to Whitehall.
Gibbons isn’t the first to suffer under Sudan’s Islamist government led by President Omar al-Bashir. His visceral hatred for the West, repugnant literalism and repudiation of all reason sealed her fate.
Since taking over in 1989, Bashir has waged war against the Christian south, hosted Osama Bin Laden as a national guest during the 1990s, and, more recently, has backed the Janjaweed militia during their murderous rampage in Darfur.
Anglo-French attempts to send UN peacekeepers into Darfur this autumn enraged Bashir who personally vowed to lead a jihad against them. To Bashir and his supporters who wanted Gibbons killed, the UN represents “western interference”.
And it’s this “insult” which lies behind the witless incarceration of Gibbons who went from London to Khartoum to help educate children. Had the Sudanese court really considered Gibbons to have offended Islam her fate would almost certainly have been far worse than 15 days’ imprisonment. A failure to confront radical Islam >>> By Shiraz Maher
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Mark Alexander
