Aside from this comment, which is I suspect dead on --
She used to work in the air-side branch of WH Smith’s at Heathrow; this
will not come as a huge surprise — everyone who works at Heathrow seems
infected with a gangrenous misanthropy. That’s why there are so many
signs around begging the public not to hit them. --
He is really saying, over & over again, this, with which we can only,
sadly, agree:
I’m sure that Samina Malik is — like Hamza and the rest — an
unpleasant human being. But there’s a crucial point at issue here. If
our conflict with Islam is a battle of ideas, as Tony Blair once said
it was, then we have to dredge through our memories to discover what
our idea actually is. And, when you boil it down, it’s not much more
than a belief in individual liberty, freedom of conscience, freedom of
speech — that rather ectoplasmic sort of thing. And so every time we
jail a Samina Malik for writing a horrible poem, we chip away at the
very principle which sustains us. So, on 6 December, be outraged for
Samina. She’s an objectionable cretin — but let her have her say.
Thanks for the link, Peter.
Doug
On 23-Nov-07, at 2:18 PM, Peter Cudmore wrote:
> Further to our recent discussion, this from perhaps an unexpected
> quarter:
> Rod Liddle in the Spectator
>
> <
> http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/365561/the-28-days-
> debate-i
> s-a-red-herring-compared-to-this-attack-on-free-speech.thtml>
>
> P
>
>
Douglas Barbour
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Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
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As one beauty
cancels another, remembrance
is a foolish act, a double-heded snake
striking in both directions
John Newlove
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