"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.
The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the infence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.
It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
Since 9/11 the BBC and other leftist media have eschewed the T-word and disdained the very notion of a War on Terror. Hopefully the Boston Marathon Massacre will finally bring them to their senses and at least unite in a determined War on Islamic Incitement & Radicalisation. This is the true enemy. But this enemy cannot be destroyed by drones and M16s. Because this enemy doesn't live in the the streets or the canyons of Tora Bora. Instead it lives and operates in Islamic schoolrooms and madrassas for the very young and, for those who've missed out, there is the Open University of Islamic Terror on the internet. This is what has turned students like Mohammed Atta and the Boston brothers into cold-blooded mass killers.
Israel has been pointing to Islamic incitement for a very long time as the main cause of the ongoing conflict. The Palestinian propaganda machine continues to blame the 'Occupation'. But the most damaging occupation is of the minds of students and even preschoolers by their Islamic teachers.
It's been a great Pesach here in Jerusalem - always such wonderful sights, sounds and smells from the burning of the chametz to people dashing in all directions preparing for the Seder and the songs of the Hagaddah wafting from every building throughout the evening. Friday night we were invited to friends and were astonished to see a black chassid sitting at the table. Here in Israel we are very accustomed to seeing African Jews - but rarely in sidelocks and such serious chassidic garb. And this was not one of the many thousands of our Ethiopian immigrants - but a West Indian of Jamaican parentage almost as black his traditional chassidic topcoat and hat. I tell this story not as one of my usual ripostes to the canard of Israel Apartheid. It is just about a really charming fellow and to share his heartwarming story. As if the appearance was not striking enough, he introduced himself with a strong east-London cockney accent before launching into a faultless kiddush, all by heart. Needless to say, everyone wanted to know what brought him to Judaism, Israel and Chassidism. Turns out, his family lived in a house formerly owned by Jews. At the age of 9 he got to wondering what the tiny box screwed to the doorpost was all about. So when the builders came to renew the door, he unscrewed the box - the mezzuzah - and took out the parchment from within. Unable to decipher the hieroglyphs, he took it to one of the many Jewish neighbors in the area who read it to him and explained why it goes onto the doorposts of Jewish homes. From that little mezzuzah, he became interested and then enchanted with the faith, its history and heritage, and 22 years ago came to Israel as a Jewish convert. He loves the life here and the way people have taken him into their hearts. Two of his 3 children are already serving in the army. The festival of Pesach is all about doorposts - that, on the night of the 10th plague, G-d passed over the homes of Jews in Egypt who had put a sign on their doorposts. Clearly it's still working.
Palestinian Authority President Abbas went to Jordan last weekend to sign an agreement with Jordan's King Abdullah to 'defend Jerusalem' and its holy sites. Here they are happily embracing. A president with no state and a king with no future, signing an agreement over a city which belongs to neither.