Democracy Now! Trump Indictment: Scholar of Fascism Says GOP Has Become an “Autocratic Party” Led by a “Cult Leader”

Who Is David Cameron to Say What the 'Real Islam' Is?
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 >>>

Scientology Arrest Makes a Mockery of the Law
Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The teenage boy facing prosecution for holding a placard saying that scientology is a "cult" serves to demonstrate the ridiculous mess that the Government has made of its attempts to protect religious observance in law.

This nameless boy has been served with a summons under section five of the Public Order Act, which seeks to restrict signs that might be considered "threatening, abusive or insulting." Meanwhile, we have a Racial and Religious Hatred Act, which passed into law in 2006 with the express purpose of making it an offence to incite hatred on religious grounds.

By co-incidence, it was in 2006 that militant Muslims demonstrated at the Danish Embassy in London over the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Their placards variously read

"Slay/Annihilate/Butcher/Massacre/Behead…those who insult Islam." I am unaware of any charges that were brought against the bearers of these placards under either the Public Order Act or, more pertinently, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act. That's because the provisions of the legislation are almost meaningless in action.

But if the law is an ass, those who enforce it are whipped mules. The police in these circumstances are too inclined to side with the bullies. The violent Islamists outside the Danish Embassy were protected; far easier to feel the collar of a teenage boy with a harmless slogan. The bullies in the latter incident are those who worship their own lifestyle at the Church of Scientology.

Theirs is not the brutish violence of the Islamists. The Scientologists mess with people's minds. That's why the BBC's John Sweeney memorably lost it on air, while shooting a documentary on them. The pity is that they now seem to have warped the minds of the City of London Police. [Source: Scientology Arrest Makes a Mockery of the Law] By George Pitcher | May 21, 2008

STEVEN ALAN HASSAN:
Freedom of Mind Center

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Tom Cruise Talking Nonsense: Tom Cruise Talking about Scientology
A drunken man wouldn’t talk more nonsense than this!

Tom Cruise, the Goebbels of Scientology?

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

No Outrage in the Muslim World: Neal Boortz
With many thanks to Jim Ball, Australia’s best known radio chat show host, for this. It was on his great website that I came across this most interesting audio/video:


WORLD NET DAILY: A controversial Washington-based Islamic lobby group today is highlighting as "Islamophobia" a heated radio talk-show exchange in which host Neal Boortz tells a Muslim caller Islam is a "cult," not a religion. Radio host condemned for 'Islam is a cult': CAIR cites Neal Boortz for angry confrontation of Muslim caller

Mark Alexander