An excellent piece from the UK’s The Observer today about the beginnings of Islamic Jihadism in London.

In 1988, the novelist and British citizen Salman Rushdie published his novel, The Satanic Verses. A bitter satire on Islam which understandably gave serious offence, its publication provoked uproar in the Islamic world with protests in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, that led to the deaths of five Muslims. Shortly afterwards, in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, sentencing Rushdie to death for writing the book, along with ‘all involved in its publication who were aware of its content’. As a result, Rushdie was forced to go into hiding for many years and to live the life of a highly guarded fugitive, with a bounty on his head for anyone who succeeded in killing him.

This incitement to murder a British subject and his associates in the publishing world set the Muslim community in Britain alight. Literally so - they burned the book in the street, in scenes uncomfortably reminiscent of Nazi Germany. There was a positive feeding frenzy of incitement. Sayed Abdul Quddus, the secretary of the Bradford Council of Mosques, claimed that Rushdie had ‘tortured Islam’ and deserved to pay the penalty by ‘hanging’.

The important thing to note here is the reaction of many in London and their failure to stand up for democratic values under assault by radical Islamic Jihadism.

The importance of this episode and the no less significant reaction to it by the British establishment can hardly be overestimated. Such scenes were unprecedented in Britain. The home of freedom of speech was playing host to the burning of books and an openly homicidal witch-hunt. Yet not one person who called for Rushdie to be killed was prosecuted for incitement to murder. The most the government could bring itself to say was that such comments were ‘totally unacceptable’.

On the contrary, they seemed to be not only accepted but even endorsed by certain members of the British establishment. Far from universal condemnation of this murderous expression of religious fanaticism, various people used their public position to jump prematurely upon Rushdie’s grave. Eminent historian Lord Dacre said he ‘would not shed a tear if some British Muslims, deploring Mr Rushdie’s manners, were to waylay him in a dark street and seek to improve them’. In Leicester, Labour MP Keith Vaz led a 3,000-strong demonstration intent on burning an effigy of Rushdie and carried a banner showing Rushdie’s head, complete with horns and fangs, superimposed on a dog.

With this kind of history of appeasement, is it any wonder that Europe currently faces the gravest threat to it’s existance since WWII? Can we really be surprised at the emergence of Londonistan?

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