Heresy is another word for freedom of thought

This is a cross-post from Left Foot Forward by Ghaffar Hussain at the Quilliam Foundation

Whilst most ordinary people around the world have interpreted the protests in Egypt as good news, fears of an Islamist take-over have dampened the mood slightly in western policy circles. After all, Egypt’s largest Islamist party, the Muslim Brotherhood, is frequently described as the most popular and best organised opposition.
So, the logic goes, a free and fair election would result in an Islamist takeover of arguably the most important Arab state. But all of this misses certain importance points.

The Brotherhood is an important part of Egyptian political life. They have been around since the 1920s and they can certainly be described as very well organised. Their popularity, however, has wavered through the years but has often been helped by political events. The assassination of Anwar El Sadat in 1981 by militant Islamists, who were in large part inspired by the Brotherhood, ushered in an era of dictatorship, repression and martial law.

Birmingham University ISoc to host the master of the cult of death. This is a guest post by Mr Happy

Today, one of my contacts from the University of Birmingham forwarded me a message on an upcoming event hosted by the Islamic Society.

The event is called “A day in the life of a Gazan Child”. I think we can all guess how that’s going to be played out. But what I haven’t told you is that this talk is in two parts. The first is to do with the Gazan Child but the second is “a presentation on Death” – both hosted by a gentleman by the name of Jalal Ibn Saeed.

It’s well documented that Islamists have made an economy out of the cult of misery and death. Add the two together and don’t stop stirring, and you often form the soft cement of anti-western hatred that hardens into radicalization.