In the centre of heated debates following the mass-arrest of an alleged British-based Islamic terrorist group in early August, a Labour MP, Shahid Malik, suggested that if young Muslims are seeking sharia law, they should essentially move to a country in which sharia law is the predominant doctrine of legal governance. Remarkably honest to the core of the established political process in the UK, Malik had condemned fellow Muslim leaders in calling for Islamic holidays and sharia (Islamic law). Such an appeal had been proposed earlier last week, following a meeting between the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, the communities minister, Ruth Kelly and a range of Muslim leaders.

A quote from Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal, 22 August 2006

There is also the amazing case of journalist Paul Belien, who edits the Brussels Journal, a pro-American, Euroskeptic, anti-Islamist blog. In February, the blog was one of the few news sources to republish the notorious Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad, thereby attracting some two million unique visits. It also attracted extraordinary scrutiny from the Flemish newsweekly Knack. Noting that Mr. Belien's blog had been cited by Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, Knack described the link as "no coincidence," but rather a "deliberate provocation by the neocons," the ultimate aim of which was to make Americans and Europeans believe "that all Muslims are violent and dangerous, after which the clash in Palestine, Iran and Syria can really kick off."

But that was as nothing compared to the reaction Mr. Belien provoked by an article following the Van Holsbeeck murder, in which he described the killers as "predators" and called for Belgium to decriminalize the possession of self-defense weapons (pepper-spray is what he says he had mainly in mind).

“We will not allow the Hezbollah flag to be lifted again on the fences of the state of Israel.” — Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, 27 July 2006.

“A car decorated with Hezbollah flags drives on the Lebanese side of the Israel-Lebanon border, near the northern Israeli town of Metula, Thursday Aug. 17, 2006.”

There is little to be said on the denouement of this round of the Hezbollah-Israeli war that has not been said already. Israel has failed: this much is certain. Hezbollah is neither disarmed, nor crippled, nor pushed off the northern border. The kidnapped Israeli soldiers who provided the casus bellum still languish in captivity. The Iranian sponsors of Hezbollah celebrate and push forward with their own plans. (On this count, it should be noted that the run-up to 22 August, cited by Bernard Lewis as an Iran-related date to watch, sees the indefinite war-footing mobilization of the Iranian armed forces; I am also told that there is substantive terror-related “chatter” as we approach that date.) Et cetera: that Israeli bellicosity is reduced to the occasional raid and anonymous posturing for the benefit of American print media is telling. In the absence of an actual victory, there’s nothing left.

The failure is hardly Israel’s alone — it is, rather, a result of a moral abdication afflicting the entire West.

I try to visit the United States at least once a year. It is something I do regularly to recharge my batteries. From time to time one needs to breathe the air of freedom before submerging again in the stifling atmosphere of Europe. I have never regarded America and Europe as two opposing entities. To me America is more European than Europe, while Europe needs to find its roots, which have remained intact in America, in order to become fully European again.

The attempts by terrorist to blow up planes heading for the US will make Transatlantic travel harder but that is not going to deter us. I look forward to being out of Europe, and especially Brussels, where the authorities are harassing us with investigations into our homeschooling as well as our writing.

I am planning to visit the US in the second half of October and will be in NY and DC before flying to the West Coast. My schedule includes a number of lectures and interviews, but is not completely filled up yet. Feel free to contact me and make recommendations.

Note: messages to and from aol.com addresses often fail to arrive. We do not know the reason. Correspondents with aol.com addresses can try to contact me here.

The jihadists are clearly winning their battle over the British people. In the UK, the Labour government has shown that it is more than willing to jeopardise national security in favour of its oppressive multicultural agenda. Violent Muslims – a hotchpotch of infantile soul-searching converts, theocratic barbarians and permanently incensed and uneducated nobodies – who are supposed to be living as British citizens are intending to kill the people they live among. Clearly, the European multicultural project is failing to such a degree that citizens not only possess a visceral hatred of one another but they are now at war with one another.

The modern world and its order – “Western Civ” would be, due to decades of global development, a dated term – has been repeatedly challenged by the foes of popular government and its economic pendant. The Fascist, National Socialist and Communist threat was repulsed when the states headquartering them were sunk. Still, the rejoicing in 1989 expressed more our euphoria than realism. A two-pronged leftist challenge remained. One comes from minor and therefore left-over rogue states committed to violent collectivism and self-genocide. It is welded to a third-world based racial-national world-view that is strong on mythology and weak on facts. The other, more dangerous wing of the assault comes from within. Not sailing under ones own flag has its advantages – the term “stealth” occurs. So this Left calls itself “Liberal” in the US and “Social Democratic” in Europe. If words have a meaning they are neither of these.

A quote from Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, in The Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2006

It is clear, therefore, that the multiculturalism beloved of our political and civic bureaucracies has not only failed to deliver peace, but is the partial cause of the present alienation of so many Muslim young people from the society in which they were born, where they have been educated and where they have lived most of their lives.

A quote from Neil Davenport on Spiked-online, 9 August 2006

The UK government is considering denying multimillion-pound contracts to companies that fail to employ enough black and Asian workers, it emerged this week. The Department of Work and Pensions confirmed that three pilot schemes have been approved which will see companies questioned on their workforce diversity before the government decides on the winning bid. […]

The idea to monitor companies seeking big government contracts was first proposed by an organisation called the Ethnic Minority Advisory Group (Emag). As an indication of how unrepresentative these ‘governmental advisers’ appear to be, Emag was only launched last month. Already their recommendations for ‘affirmative measures’ – to bring black and minority ethnic employment rates in line with the national population rate - have been backed all the way by powerful sections of the state and government, such as Jobcentre Plus, the Identity and Passport Agency and the Department for Education and Skills.

One of a whole raft of EU sponsored educational programmes [pdf]:

Currently, there is a humorous quip drifting through e-mail inboxes across the UK. The joke goes something like this: “Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.”