A Collection of Opinion Pieces

Here are four opinion pieces all discussing pretty much the same topic. Two worth reading and two which are just interesting to know about.

The first is a piece in The Telegraph written by Denis MacShane MP. He makes all the points that we in the blogosphere have been going on about; Islamism, government inaction; the alliance of left and radical Islam, etc. It's all there and I recommend it if you have 6-7 mins.

Another article appears in The Guardian. A Muslim journalist tries on a niqab and tells of her feelings. In an interesting piece we discover that, yes, the veil is a barrier and, something we have all been thinking for a while now, it is more of a statement than a religious necessity. Her conclusion is what you might expect from The Guardian, but don't let that stop you drawing your own conclusion from her report.

Finally, compare these two headlines; "Labour accused of aiding extremists by its focus on Muslim issues" and "Debate about veils is 'healthy'". The first is from The Independent, the second, amazingly, from the BBC (although they do include the famous quotation marks to cast doubt on whether or not it really is healthy to talk about things).

The stance that The Independent takes is the standard leftist stance. This is the same bunch who declared that the fight against terrorism just made it worse and so we should give up. No doubt they would be the people shouting that fighting Nazis made them worse (stirring up more nationalistic feelings) and we should give up fighting them too.