RUTHFULLY YOURS

“Europe is not failing its Muslims. But Islam has failed Europe”
Watch the whole debate. Murray is particularly brilliant and brave. Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI.

The BBC broadcasts an IQ2 Debate: “Europe is failing its Muslims” between Douglas Murray, Tariq Ramadan, Petra Stienen and Flemming Rose.

Tariq Ramadan, the silver tongued jihadist in action. Of course, what Murray and Flemming Rose contend is never addressed. And of course for Ramadanit is an orgy of grievance mongering.

No one can get beyond the prohibition of criticism of Islam. It is de facto. Protestations are summarily ignored.

They equate the criticism of Islamic violence, supremacism, honor killings, oppression et al with racism — yet Islam is a religion. They talk of Europe seeing beyond color, but they will not acknowledge the violence, anti-semitism, and hate in the koran. 

Europe is not failing its Muslims. But Islam has failed Europe 
By Douglas Murray  

Just back from a trip to Cairo and Alexandria. While I was there at the weekend, my recent debate against Tariq Ramadan went out on BBC World. It is now available on YouTube among other places. And as I promised I would post it when it came out, here is the first section (of my and Ramadan’s opening speeches) below. The rest follows on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M-whjJs10 

The motion was “Europe is Failing its Muslims”. I’m happy to say that Flemming Rose and I convincingly won the argument, with the audience voting overwhelmingly (and despite considerable intimidation in the hall on the night) that Europe is not in fact failing its Muslims. 

The debate has been edited down for broadcast. My one gripe about this (except for the BBC’s inevitable censorship of my criticisms of the Muslim Council of Britain among other government-paid Muslim-groups – as reported by the Evening Standard here) is that they cut one crucially relevant case study I gave. 

One of the two clerics who whipped up hatred against Denmark around the world, in the wake of my colleague Flemming’s commission of depictions of the historical figure Mohammed, arrived in Denmark from Lebanon in the 1990s. He went to Denmark because he has a disabled son. The country which he came from could not look after his child but he knew that Denmark would. And it did. He repaid the society by inciting hatred and violence against it. When such cases can be repeated ad nauseum, it should hardly even have to be pointed out how obscene the motion Flemming and I found ourselves debating really was. 

It is grotesque to argue that Europe has failed its Muslims. It has been made repeatedly obvious that it is Islam that has failed Europe, indeed that it is Islam that has failed Muslims. I am delighted that the audience in the hall on the night agreed. And that most of the audience around the world who have emailed me since transmission – currently including people from as far afield as Nigeria, Pakistan and Iraq – appear to agree with that too. 

Douglas Murray 
Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist based in London. He has written for numerous publications including the Telegraph, Spectator, Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times. He is a columnist for Standpoint magazine and the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, a Westminster think-tank which studies radicalisation and extremism in Britain.