Melanie Phillips has been wowing her right-wing audience at Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. Joseph Puder reports:

“‘Britain stands at the precipice.’ Such is the view of British journalist Melanie Phillips in her recently published book, Londonistan, in which she argues that Britain and Europe are facing a civilizational test – and they are in danger of failing….

“In her book, Phillips pieces together the story of how Londonistan developed. Britain, she points out, is experiencing a collapse of self-confidence and national identity. The result is a paralyzing multiculturalism as well as a powerful instinct for appeasing extremists. In her remarks last week, Phillips suggested that the current climate threatens to ‘undermine the alliance with America and imperil the defense of the free world’….

“What Britons do not grasp, Phillips argues, is that they are in a war with an enemy that seeks to destroy them and impose an Islamic way of life governed by Sharia law – the latest polls indicate that 40 to 60 percent of British Muslims want Sharia law to govern Britain – thereby destroying their democratic institutions and nullifying their individual freedoms. ‘We do not understand in Britain that we are fighting a religious war. Instead, we’re appeasing it’, Phillips said.”

Front Page Magazine, 21 November 2006

“A Home Office official exposed as a leading member of an Islamic extremist group will keep his £40,000 job because Tony Blair has failed to ban the organisation. In the wake of the July 7 bombings last year, the Prime Minister promised to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, who refuses to condemn suicide bombers and has called for the destruction of Israel.

“But nothing has been done. As a result, Abid Javaid’s bosses at the scandal-hit Immigration and Nationality Directorate are powerless to sack the 41-year-old. He will stay on unless it can be proved that he abused his position as a senior executive officer in the IT department….

“Tory spokesman Patrick Mercer blamed a huge failure of political will by the Government for the shambles. He said: ‘This government talks tough, but fails to deliver, and here is a prime example. The result is the Home Office doing nothing about somebody working at the heart of Government who could be an enemy of the state.’ Mr Mercer warned that – as the rules stand – dozens more extremists could be employed in the Home Office and across Whitehall.”

Daily Mail, 16 November 2006

Meanwhile Robert Spencer condemns “Still more dhimmitude from British authorities. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been banned in many countries, including some majority-Muslim countries. Why not in Britain?”

Dhimmi Watch, 15 November 2006