13 November 2015

[paydase]

Just to remember.
We can enjoy our passions because we live in a free world.
We'll have to learn living differently within a new paradigm because of obscurantists who reject freedom.
Beware and take care

[JagWaugh]

Sad indeed, not to mention senseless.

[rolando38]

in memory of the 120+ dead in Paris

[christopher storey]

Sadness indeed . It raises, however, the question of what we collectively have to do about it. Either we turn the other cheek in biblical terms, which by these madmen may well be seen as weakness, or we have to take draconian steps which inevitably will involve the innocent as well as the guilty and may involve the deaths of millions of people. This is one of the most difficult philosophical questions of this or any other time

[malcolm]

Interesting article below from Maajid Nawaz on this issue.

"Mohammed Emwazi or ?Jihadi John? may be a towering figure in popular imagination, but his targeted killing last week will not make a major difference to the threat we face. The true roots of this destructive militancy lie elsewhere ? much closer to home, however uncomfortable that might be for us to accept. Jihadism now has deep roots among an entire generation of angry young European Muslims, including many in Britain.
Thousands have left to join IS from these shores and elsewhere.
I know from my own experience ? and as a former extremist myself ? just how powerful the poisonous ideology of jihad can be.
For too long we have allowed it to permeate the minds of our young people.
Yet it is not, as many suppose, just a handful of imams who are to blame for this radicalism. There is a whole industry of activists ? sometimes in the guise of advocacy groups and campaigners for human rights ? who travel round mosques, universities, colleges and even community centres filling the heads of young Muslims with hateful ideology.
This does not by itself create a generation of terrorists, but it creates an atmosphere; a new world of non-violent extremists.
Who would tolerate a society of non-violent racists? Why, then, do we accept this culture of hate?
It is here that the answer lies.
No insurgency is sustainable, or even possible, without a level of residual support for its ideological aims among the core communities from which it draws its fighters.
Unfortunately, London is well overdue an attack similar to the one we saw in Paris on Friday.
There is not much anyone can do about this in the short term. We will never be able to kill our way out of this phenomenon.
The long-term solution cannot continue to ignore this truth, and cannot continue to neglect those few Muslims, and others, attempting to take on this threat within their own communities. We must take it step by step.
We must prevent these activists from gaining platforms in our education system. We must regulate private Islamic schools, which is where many teenagers are groomed away from scrutiny.
And then there are the jails, where thousands of prisoners have been radicalised.
But the key point is this. It is essential that we create a new generation of English-speaking, British-based imams, who not only understand the Koran, but also understand ? and live ? British values. Only this way can this pernicious culture of extremism be countered."