Mick Hartley

From Ed Husain, former Islamist and now a strong voice in the battle against radical Islam:

The nation of Churchill cannot stand idly by while those influenced by the fascism of the last century, namely the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideological activists and allies, use London as a political capital. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood seeks to rule with hardline sharia as law, and views ordinary Muslims that do not share this vision as its opponents.

The rise in antisemitism in Britain since October 7 has many sources, including the far left and the far right, but the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies are ideologically committed to the destruction of the state of Israel. This matters to all of us, because what starts with the Jews never ends with them. Citing Benjamin Disraeli, Churchill used to say that the “Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews”.

The time has come to tackle the Brotherhood and shut down its financial, media, charitable and political arms in Britain. The government recently banned Hizb ut-Tahrir for advancing the same ideology as the Brotherhood after October 7. Follow this lead and relations will be strengthened with Arab nations in the Gulf. The Brotherhood is banned in Mecca, but thrives in London, including under names such as the Muslim Association of Britain.

Hamas is the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. They unashamedly killed Jews and have vowed to act again. The Brotherhood in Britain, operating under different “community representative” organisations, has been radicalising young Muslims against Jews. Islamist mosques and publishing houses have been disseminating calls for the destruction of Israel. After October 7, this is not an abstract issue. Sayyid Qutb, the Lenin of the Brotherhood, wrote Our Battle against the Jews in the 1950s, and Ayatollah Khamenei, now supreme leader of Iran, translated that text into Farsi. Their agenda against Jews and Israel couldn’t be more clear.

Our intelligence services do not take this threat seriously enough, because they do not understand the power of religion and are focused on Russian, Chinese and jihadist plots. Islamists are not democrats. Gaza, Iran, Algeria, Egypt and even Pakistan show us that Islamists when in power are not democrats but use opportunities granted to them by the ballot box to enforce anti-democratic measures.

This is an urgent and profound challenge. But I am hopeful it is one that can be resolved. There are five big political ideas, pioneered by Britain, that can help us unite as a nation and live in peace with our Muslim citizens.

The five "big political ideas" are:

"the rule of law, based on reason and the long English common law tradition, to ensure justice is upheld"
"liberal individualism, the rejection of oppression by any form of collectivism"
"gender equality"
"freedom of speech, thought and assembly"
"racial parity".

Free societies can self-destruct unless they are vigilant. For as long as we fly the flag with confidence in our national character, our Muslim and other fellow citizens will join the British mainstream with pride and a sense of belonging. We must not tolerate intolerance and terror. The future of our country depends on it.

Well I hope he's right, but, as the most recommennded comment puts it:

No rational person would disagree with any of this, but the religious fanatics and the far left aren’t rational. They believe that they are privy to a higher truth and that they have the right – the obligation – to use force to impose it on the rest of us.

Trying to reason with them, or bring them into a shared understanding of the rights and obligations of a democratic social order, isn’t going to work any more than it did for Chamberlain.