“Bush is a polarising figure because these are polarising times. But, when the dust settles (metaphorically, I hope), his designation of Iran as part of an ‘axis of evil’ will seem a shrewder judgment than that of the Euro-appeasers or the snob Islamophiles. Facing profound challenges, most political leaders in the western world have shirked confrontation on everything from Islamism to unaffordable social programmes – and their peoples will live with the consequences of that non-confrontation long after those leaders are gone.”
Mark Steyn in the Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2005
“… if you try to discuss the Islamic religious and gender apartheid and its dangerous proliferation into Europe and North America (i.e. there have been honor killings in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Jersey City, Toronto, as well as all over Europe and in the Muslim world), this is what will happen to you: If you tell these truths in the Arab and Muslim world, you’ll be beheaded, probably tortured, certainly jailed, exiled if you are lucky…. If you are a North American intellectual, you may not be imprisoned or beheaded but you will be heckled, mocked, and shunned. You might need security in order to speak.”
“The fact is that Islam is not a religion among religions. Christianity, Judaism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism do not advocate killing off all those who do not agree with their tenets. Islam advocates that all non-Muslims, being ‘infidels’, must be slain. Cowardly Muslims who do not enter into the slaughter are to be slain by zealot Muslims. Therefore, Islam is not a religion. It is a killing cult. Civilized nations close down killing cults…. It is abhorrent that Charles, with the power attending his position, has been so duped by Islamic leaders he has courted. Yet it is so. And the world is in extreme danger because of it.”
“Qaradawi and western governments have a strong mutual interest in the struggle against Islamic extremism; he is as anxious as any western government to ensure young Muslim men don’t blow themselves up on tube trains, or hijack planes. He abhors the traducing and corruption of the faith that such actions expose, and says so to his audience of millions of young Muslims. The fact that the audience is still listening to this ageing scholar, is due to his independence of mind – and it is precisely that which, to western sensibility, can make him an uncomfortable ally.”