All My Life I Have Been A

There Can Only Be One Answer To This Hideous Act Of Jihad Against The Staff Of Charlie Hebdo. It Is The Obligation Of The Western Media And Western Leaders, Religious And Lay, To Protect The Most Basic Rights Of Freedom Of Expression, Whether In Satire On Any Other Form. The West Must Not Appease, It Must Not Be Silenced. We Must Send A United Message To The Terrorists: Your Violence Cannot Destroy Our Soul.

I'd Like Muslims To Look At Their Religion As A Set Of Beliefs That They Can Appraise Critically And Pick And Choose From.

Of Course, The Overwhelming Majority Of Muslims Are Not Terrorists Or Sympathetic To Terrorists. Equating All Muslims With Terrorism Is Stupid And Wrong. But Acknowledging That There Is A Link Between Islam And Terror Is Appropriate And Necessary.

Infuriatingly Stupid Analysts - Especially People Who Called Themselves Arabists, Yet Who Seemed To Know Next To Nothing About The Reality Of The Islamic World - Wrote Reams Of Commentary [after 9/11]. Their Articles Were All About Islam Saving Aristotle And The Zero, Which Medieval Muslim Scholars Had Done More Than Eight Hundred Years Ago; About Islam Being A Religion Of Peace And Tolerance, Not The Slightest Bit Violent. These Were Fairy Tales, Nothing To Do With The Real World I Knew.

When I Was With The Labor Party, I'd Get Into Trouble Because The Party Bosses Determined That Some Of What I Wrote, Or Proposed To Write About, Wasn't Conducive To Their Policies Or To Electoral Success.