In the immortal words of Jeff Goldstein: "{This}, my friends, is called throwing down the gauntlet, hard..."
Muslims who resent the British way of life should leave the UK, regardless of whether they are citizens or not, a senior Conservative said last night in comments that have heightened already tense community relations.Gerald Howarth, the shadow defence minister, last night told The Scotsman that extremist Muslims who see the Iraq war as a conflict against Islam should be considered as treacherous as Soviet sympathisers during the Cold War. His remarkable claim shatters the tri-party consensus which Michael Howard, the Tory leader, sought to make with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Howarth said yesterday that he is incensed by suggestions from Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, that Britain is "part of the problem" in Iraq - and said that the problem in the UK lies in fanatical Muslims living within our shores.
He is the first mainstream UK politician to suggest that extremist British Muslims should leave for Islamic societies. The government is looking at deporting foreign-born nationals and imprisoning British Muslims who incite or glorify terrorism.
"If they don't like our way of life, there is a simple remedy: go to another country, get out," Mr Howarth said. Asked what if these people were born in Britain, he replied: "Tough. If you don't give allegiance to this country, then leave."
He added: "There are plenty of other countries whose way of life would appear to be more conducive to what they aspire to. They would be happy and we would be happy." {...}
Gauntlet, indeed.
The fact that this is a war against those who would advocate civilization and those who wouldn't is coming home to roost, it seems.
It's too damn bad that it took two bombings---one which, of course, failed---to get that message across.
Related: Gorgeous George Galloway also has been at it again.
Someone needs to slap a burqua on gool ol' George and then we'll see how much he enjoys Muslim "civilization."
Posted by Kathy at August 3, 2005 05:19 PM | TrackBack