TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – ED WEST: David Cameron was in Turkey yesterday endorsing Turkish membership of the EU, as blogger Laban Tall says, “doubtless driven by that grass-roots Tory pressure for a few million Turks to come to the UK”.
Personally I’m quite happy for Turkey to have our EU place, if they really want it; or to be a fellow member of a new free trade area along EFTA lines, with restrictions on free movement until some point when its median income reach western European levels.
But until that happens membership of the EU is a non-starter, and everyone knows it.
And as well as being disingenuous about the EU, Cameron is also playing the disingenuous theologian. Rod Liddle points out that he criticises opponents of a Muslim country joining the EU by claiming:
“They see no difference between real Islam and the distorted version of the extremists. They think the values of Islam can never be compatible with the values of other religions, societies or cultures.”
Cameron is falling into exactly the same trap as his predecessors, by trying to play the theologian. Tony Blair called the Koran a “progressive” book, while Jacqui Smith called Islamic terrorism “anti-Islamic” activities, while the phrase “religion of peace” has been used so much by well-meaning politicians that it is now used, exclusively, in an ironic sense by cynics.
Who on earth is Cameron to say what is the real Islam? If a fresh-faced politician from the Islamic world told us that the fundamentalist Christians who funded settlements in the West Bank because they believed in some crazy end times were not “real Christians”, I’d be flattered that he recognised differences within a large and wide ranging religion, but I’d also think “Who are you to say?” Continue reading and comment >>> Ed West | Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Meanwhile, Damian Thompson, in his blog, tells us that Islam is not a cult. Then he goes on to define a cult. Here’s his definition…
My rough and ready definition of a typical cult involves a charismatic leader, radical teachings that tend to alienate adherents from their friends and families, and therefore a high degree of tension between the group and the surrounding environment.But surely, Mr Thompson, isn't this a perfect definition of Islam, for wasn’t prophet Muhammad the ultimate in charismatic leaders? Aren’t the teachings of Islam radical by anyone’s standards? Doesn't Islam alienate its adherents from their friends and family (if they are not Muslims), and isn’t there a high degree of tension between Muslim groups and the surrounding environment? Read on and comment >>>
