“I knew that immediately I would be accused of being a bigot, Islamaphobic and I was.  The interviewer accused me of being ‘divisive’ to which I simply pointed out that anyone who expresses an opinion of any kind can be accused of being divisive.”

I am sitting in Costas (letting my nerves settle) after having done a live interview with BBC Radio Scotland on my article on ‘Islam, the Elephant in the Room”  and my initial reaction is one of profound sorrow.  Here is why…forgive me if it is a bit emotional.

1) I am fed up of the dumbed down nature and ignorance of British politics and life – I knew that immediately I would be accused of being a bigot, Islamaphobic and I was.  The interviewer accused me of being ‘divisive’ to which I simply pointed out that anyone who expresses an opinion of any kind can be accused of being divisive.  Here are some examples of the responses I have already received “Don’t know if it was your intention, but you came across as an intolerant, ignorant bigot in that interview.”  “You give Christians and bad name if your BBC Scotland interview is indicative of your sect’s attitude to Islam.”

2)  I am depressed about the ignorance and spinelessness of our politicians.  They are so scared of being accused of Islamaphobia and the nature of our public debate is so dumbed down, that I think it will be impossible to have an intelligent debate about this.  Like the man who tweeted the BBC ‘Bet UKIP will be pleased to hear that”.  Thats the way to shut down debate!   When approached by the press only two of the parties made any comment. The SNP said my comments were “unfortunate and plain wrong”.  I issue here a simple challenge to the SNP – tell me where my comments are wrong and I will publicly retract them and apologise for them.  If you can’t then in effect you are confirming the view that people have about politicians and political parties….you are good at the soundbites but don’t really come up with reason and facts.   The Tories claimed that more people were worried about the economy than Islam. Well, as that great philosopher/politician Bart Simpson says ‘duh’!  Of course.  That is the point. The reason I raised the subject was because you are not raising it.  People are being killed all over the world in the name of Islam.  There are enormous problems of radicalisation in England’s cities. There are more British Muslims fighting for ISIS than are in the British army.  Every time we board a flight, go to a major public event, we are inconvenienced because of Islamic terrorism.  Our media cannot publish cartoons of Mohammed without facing death threats.  We have spent billions on fighting Islamic terrorism.  Are the Tories denying that this affects our economy?  There is a real pressure on freedom of religion in the UK – muslims who become Christians face severe persecution.   In the UK!   And you keep silent. Actually you don’t.  You blame all religions because you buy into the narrative that they are all basically the same.  And so in order to keep Islamic extremists out of schools you propose to keep ordinary Christians out as well!

3) I am depressed because of Islamaphobia and the thinly veiled racism that lies behind it.  Because normal mainstream politicians are too scared to speak about this, the field has been left open for the far right racists.  In saying what I said above I am not saying that all Muslims are terrorists or support terrorism. That would be foolish and completely wrong. But I despair that the spinelessness of our politicians, the hatred of militant atheists for all religions (and therefore lumping Christianity together with Islam), and the ignorance of Islam being a political theology – means that Islamaphobia and the political power of Islam will feed off one another, and both will grow together.

4) I am depressed at the spinelessness of the Church – The Church of Scotland and the Catholic church issued wet politically correct statements which were implicitly critical of me and again identified me as some kind of bigot. Ironically I have had more support from the Scottish Secular Society than I have from the Church!

To be honest I feel kind of alone.  And I am fed up taking the bullets.   Why should I be branded a bigot for speaking the truth?

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