By Edward
I realize there are those in certain quarters who will cry "what took so long?" as if there were no cultural, practical, or personal (including personal safety) obstacles, but two moderate Muslims are now clearly leading the way toward a brighter future for the followers of Islam who live in the West.
The first has been at it a while actually (and I don’t mind pointing out to those who feel homosexuals harm rather than help society, that it took a lesbian to find the courage to stand up the world and say what’s right here). Irshad Manji (whose book The Trouble with Islam Today sits on my nightstand for quick reference) voiced an opinion that I’ve long held regarding foreign-born Muslims who preach hate in adopted Western countries: they should be deported swiftly:
For a European leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain has done something daring. He has given notice not just to the theocrats of Islam, but also to the theocracy of tolerance.
"Staying here carries with it a duty," Mr. Blair said in referring to foreign-born Muslim clerics who glorify terror on British soil. "That duty is to share and support the values that sustain the British way of life. Those who break that duty and try to incite hatred or engage in violence against our country and its people have no place here."
With that, his government proposed new laws to deport extremist religious leaders, to shut down the mosques that house them and to ban groups with a history of supporting terrorism. The reaction was swift: a prominent human rights advocate described Mr. Blair’s measures as "neo-McCarthyite hectoring," warning that they would make the British "less distinguishable from the violent, hateful and unforgiving theocrats, our democracy undermined from within in ways that the suicide bombers could only have dreamed of."
Of course, there’s the danger that some folks will misconstrue what Blair said, and Manji applauds, and conclude "tolerance" in and of itself is a bad thing, so it bears pointing out that they’re clearly limiting their statements to a tolerance for for tolerance’s sake that forgives violence here. Any citizen of any nation can work, within the system, for change, but no one has the right to intentionally harm others in that quest. I’ve noted frequently (and long before the July 7th bombing) that the laws that permitted hate-mongering foreign-born Imams to remain in England were foolish. You don’t have to love it or leave it, but you damn well better let it live in peace or leave it. Muslims are obligated, like everyone else, to protect their nation, whether immigrants or born there.
My second hero is new to me, but precisely what the UK needs. Meet Shahid Malik: