The Koran and Richard Dawkins’s survival instinct
I thought that readers might be interested in this new piece from me on Islam, the Koran and Richard Dawkins’s survival instinct.
Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray is associate editor of The Spectator and author of The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason, among other books.
Monday
Friday
What if the terrorists were Jews?
‘Would you say the same thing about Jews? Gays? Or any other minority?’ This is one of the witless questions asked of anyone who writes about Islamic extremism. And it is a fascinating point in a way, taking in – as it does – everything other than the facts. Yesterday another radical Muslim cell in
Tuesday
A model of diversity
There’s nothing quite like diversity. Take Manchester. It has a large Muslim population and a lot of gays. What could possibly go wrong? Last week Manchester University’s Student Union played host to the ‘Global Aspirations of Women Society’. This appears to be a front group of the extremists of Hizb ut-Tahrir and therefore by no
Monday
The BBC’s great public service: Cancelling the Today programme
Is it true that the Today programme did not go out this morning? If so the strikers have done a great public service. Giving the country a day off the Today programme is one of the kindest things anybody could do, in any economic climate. I hope the generosity continues. I stopped listening years ago
Friday
National Socialism: the clue’s in the name
How can conservatives ensure they always lose? A good place to start is to concede every lie of the left. The Conservative Party appears to be doing what it can in this regard. Take their decision to strike Rachel Frosh from their candidates list for the great crime of… linking Nazism to socialism. Frosh committed
Thursday
An interview with Lars Hedegaard
A couple of days ago I managed to interview Lars Hedegaard – the Danish journalist currently at an undisclosed location under police protection after an assassination attempt at his home in Copenhagen. The results are in this week’s magazine. Lars was his usual calm, eloquent and forthright self. If anybody thought they could silence him,
Lars Hedegaard interview: ‘I may be killed if I write this’
The assassin came to his home dressed as a postman. When the historian and journalist Lars Hedegaard opened his front door, the man — whom Lars describes as ‘looking like a typical Muslim immigrant’ in his mid-twenties — fired straight at his head. Though Hedegaard was a yard away, the bullet narrowly missed. The mild-mannered
Tuesday
George Galloway, The Great Dictator
The video (below) of Galloway really does have to be seen. It is best with the sound off (for what it is worth he is lambasting a student for asking a question which is critical of Hugo Chavez). It is best from about 3 mins 40 seconds in. As well as something innately comic, there
Friday
The cowardly and hypocritical media abandons Lars Hedegaard
It is now three days since a European journalist was visited at his door by an assassin. For three days I have waited for any response to this. The BBC reported the story in brief, as did the Mail and the Guardian posted the Associated Press story. But where are all the free-speech defenders? Where
Thursday
You must read this book
I was delighted to be one of the judges (along with John Rentoul, Heather Brooke and Tony McNulty) who selected Nick Cohen’s You Can’t Read This Book as the polemic of the year at the Political Book Awards in London last night. It is a terrific read from a strong list. I hope that anyone
Atheists vs Dawkins
Sometimes a perfectly good argument can be stretched too far. I heard the resulting snapping noise last week in Cambridge during a debate with Richard Dawkins. We were meant to be on the same side at the Union. But over some months the motion hardened and eventually became ‘This House believes religion should have no
Tuesday
An assassination attempt on Lars Hedegaard
It has just been announced that my friend Lars Hedegaard, a Danish journalist and frequent critic of Islamic fundamentalism, has narrowly survived an assassination attempt at his home in Denmark. The BBC is reporting: ‘Police said a gunman in his 20s rang the doorbell at Mr Hedegaard’s Copenhagen home pretending to deliver a package and
Bus bomb: It Was Hezbollah
The report of the Bulgarian authorities into the bus-bombing which killed a local bus driver and five Israeli tourists in Burgas last summer has confirmed what so many of us suspected: it was Hezbollah. Commenting on the release of the report, and the identity of the bombers, Interior Minister Tscetan Tsvetanov has said: ‘We have
Breakfast with the Supreme Leader
I have a piece in the Wall Street Journal (Europe) this morning: ‘Take Iran At Its Word’ can be found online here. The piece asks what is required to stop the Mullahs getting nuclear weaponry. And it relates a strange breakfast experience with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameini.
Monday
Video: Debating Richard Dawkins
The video of my debate with Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams and Tariq Ramadan is now available online. Richard Dawkins speaks third, and I speak last.
Saturday
Debating Richard Dawkins
I spent Thursday evening at the Cambridge Union debating the motion ‘This House believes religion has no place in the 21st century.’ I spoke against the motion. My opponents on the opposite side included Richard Dawkins. My opponents on my own side were Rowan Williams and Tariq Ramadan. Anyhow – there has been a certain
Thursday
No-go Britain
In 2008 one of Britain’s best and most courageous men, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, said that there were parts of Britain which had become no-go areas for non-Muslims. For these comments he was met with widespread scorn and denial. Nick Clegg – then merely leader of the Liberal Democrat party – said the Bishop’s comments were
Tuesday
Should Jews leave Britain?
Should Jews leave Britain? The question is prompted by this piece written by the Israeli journalist Caroline Glick. Glick recently came to London to take part in an Intelligence Squared debate. The debate was about Israeli settlements. Glick and Danny Dayan attempted to explain to the London audience that Palestinian rejection rather than Jewish settlement
Saturday
The EU must change | 26 January 2013
I have been out of the country for a couple of weeks and away from the sweet furore of the internet. I’ll be posting in the coming days on some of the bigger things which have gone on while I have been away. In the meantime, readers who are interested can read here a piece
Sunday
Harriet Harman confirms Labour are in outright denial over their economic record
An interesting if depressing edition of Any Questions on Friday. Interesting because of Sir Malcolm Rifkind and occasionally because of Simon Hughes. Depressing because of one person: Harriet Harman. There is a theory that the Republicans lost the recent US election in part because the wind they thought they had behind them — the economy
