Our Lot
Prime Minister Keir "Two Tier" Starmer and his ambitions to codify "Islamophobia" into law turns the British citizens into Lot's daughters, offered up to modern Sodomites.
Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. “Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing! Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Genesis 19:6-8
As we’re rounding up the first quarter of the 21st century, few would have guessed that blasphemy laws would make a comeback in Western societies, and even fewer could have predicted that the religion being singled out for protection in against thought-crimes in Britain would be Islam.
In the land of Locke, John Stuart Mill, Hume and Churchill, we now have Sir Keir “Two Tier” Starmer, pushing to introduce draconian measures against anyone critical of a set of doctrines written in a 1, 400 year old book, to protect the sensitivities of a minority population at the cost of liberties paid for by the majority.
I have previously written about how “Islamophobia” is a myth, and won’t regurgitate the arguments here.
What this essay will focus on is the logic, reason and ramifications of the latest initiative to erase people’s freedoms, under the guise of virtue.
A meaningless word
First of all, how does one define “Islamophobia”? Is it the same as antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotries against people? Or is it, as the vast majority of Muslims in The West claim, any criticism, satire or ridicule of the doctrines of Islam and its prophet?
Am I allowed to joke about Mohammed, same way that I joke about Jesus or Buddha? Very few Muslims, and certainly no fundamentalists, acknowledge such right. If I were to write a musical called “The Book of Muslims”, will I be allowed to perform it next to “Book of Mormons” on the West End? Or will security risks be so high as to reduce the idea into a delusion?
If so… does Sir Keir admit that he is cowering to threats of violence, and - in line with his party’s history of appeasing the most grotesque, violent and anti-liberal forces of the era - bending over to please people who reject our values?
Am I “Islamophobic” if I just critically discuss the tenets of the Quran?
For example, in Sura 4:34 we read:
Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand.
Am I an “Islamophobe” who questions whether it is moral to consider men in charge of women, and deny them the right to beat women, should they show arrogance?
I’m curious what Sheikh Starmer thinks the punishment for homosexuality should be? His party has been exceptionally vocal about “LGBTQIA+” rights, and I’m just curious how he squares that with Surah 7:80-82:
And (remember) Lot, when he said to his people: ‘Do you commit the worst sin such as none preceding you has committed in the ‘Alamin (mankind and jinn)? ’Verily, you practice your lusts on men instead of women. Nay, but you are a people transgressing beyond bounds (by committing great sins).’ And the answer of his people was only that they said: ‘Drive them out of your town, these are indeed men who want to be pure (from sins)!’ Then We saved him and his family, except his wife; she was of those who remained behind (in the torment). And We rained down on them a rain (of stones). Then see what was the end of the Mujrimun (criminals, polytheists and sinners)
From the world’s largest Islamic forum:
Of course, here is where they wish to play “The Bible contains some quite horrific mandates too” card. But that’s exactly the point - we are allowed to challenge, criticise, and ridicule such verses in other religious scriptures ad nauseam. We can say Deuteronomy and Leviticus are barbaric, without needing to worry about being accused of being a Judaismophobes or Christianophobes. We can watch “Life of Brian” without fearing that Christian or Jewish fundamentalists will blow up theatres running it, or have John Cleese shot, stabbed and mutilated in broad daylight, as happened with Theo van Gogh for producing “Submission”.
No other people behave this way.
A history of censorship through violence
We tend to use the word “religion” as a blanket term for spiritual convictions and beliefs, and assume that all religions are similar in their teachings, mandates and pronouncements. This is not just lazy, but dangerously wrong.
“Religion” is a word like “sports” - though both badminton and mixed martial arts qualify, they have very little (if anything) in common.
Same is with Islam and the other major monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity.
Islam is an inherently totalitarian ideology, permeating and imposing itself on every domain of life, and even afterlife. The Quran contains mandates on taxes, divorce, diet and fashion. Where Jesus said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17), Mohammed commands complete submission to his every whim and desire.
When the Samaritan villagers did not accept Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, he rebuked Mark and John’s suggestion of commanding fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, saying “ For I have not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.” (Luke 9:56).
Compare this with Mohammed’s treatment of the Jewish poet Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, whom he believed had mocked him. According to numerous Hadiths, including the most authoritative ones, Sahih al-Bukhari (Hadiths 4037 & 4038), and Sahih Muslim (Hadith 1801), Mohammed ordered his followers to murder al-Ashraf for this unforgivable crime of blasphemy.
Or Abd Allah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh, Mohammed’s own scribe, who abandoned Islam when he questioned the veracity of Mohammed’s claims of receiving revelations from Allah? For this crime, Mohammed ordered his soldiers to murder al-Sarh when they laid siege to Mecca, codifying the punishment for apostasy with death:
Who does more wrong than the one who fabricates lies against Allah or claims, “I have received revelations!”—although nothing was revealed to them—or the one who says, “I can reveal the like of Allah’s revelations!”? If you ˹O Prophet˺ could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death while the angels are stretching out their hands ˹saying˺, “Give up your souls! Today you will be rewarded with the torment of disgrace for telling lies about Allah and for being arrogant towards His revelations!”
Quran 6:93
"Whoever changes his religion, kill him."
Sahih al-Bukhari 88:5
Then there’s Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul, whom Mohammed had killed for suspicion of slander against Aisha, Mohammed’s 6 year old wife, whom he betrothed when he was 53 and raped three years later.
These are just some of the injunctions within Islam to kill those sceptical of the religion and its prophet.
And what of those who do not convert to “the one true faith”?
"The Prophet said: 'I have been commanded to fight against the people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah.'"
Sahih Muslim 1:33
These injunctions have real-life consequences, as we see in many Islamic countries where the charge of apostasy carries with it certain death. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia. Just in June of this year, a 36 year old local tourist was tortured and burned to death in Pakistan for the mere accusation of having “insulted the Quran”.
This follows last year’s unanimous decision to “to expand the country’s laws on blasphemy, which carries the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The new law now extends the punishment to those deemed to have insulted the prophet’s companions, which could include thousands of early Muslims, with 10 years in prison or life imprisonment.”1
Of course, the “unanimous” vote should be viewed in the shadow of the killing of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer by Mumtaz Qadri in 2011, after Taseer had suggested a relaxation in Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws.
This is not just a case of tyrannical regimes, imposing Sharia on its populace - rather, the more devout a population, the higher the support for such draconian measures. And having imported a large number of such people onto our shores, is it therefore a surprise to see their convictions manifest themselves in corresponding actions?
Asad Shah was, by all accounts, a kind, welcoming and gentle man, beloved in the Glaswegian community where he worked as a shopkeeper. In his spare time, Shah uploaded videos about his faith as an Ahmadiyya Muslim on YouTube. On the 24th March, 2016, Tanveer Ahmed, a 32 year old Sunni Muslim from Bradford travelled approximately 4 hours by car to stab Shah to death for the crime of having “disrespected Islam”2. This happened in Britain. In the 21st Century.
In 2021, a schoolteacher in Batley Grammar School found his world turned upside down following credible threats against his life for the crime of showing cartoons of Mohammed to his students - the same cartoons that resulted in the deaths of satirists in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2015. The Muslim Action Forum (MAF) and Islamic “community leaders” stirred up crowds to demonstrate outside the school, forcing the teacher to uproot his life and go into hiding, where he remains more than three years later. This happened in Britain. In the 21st Century.
In July 2021, Hatun Tash, a former Muslim who had converted to Christianity and become a vocal critic of her previous faith, was slashed with a knife in broad daylight while standing in central London, her Charlie Hebdo shirt a silent statement. The attacker vanished into the crowd, and despite police efforts, he remains at large. A year later, in September 2022, Tash once again found herself in the crosshairs, this time targeted in a plot to shoot her as she spoke at Hyde Park Corner. The would-be assassin, Edward Little, was intercepted en route and later sentenced to 16 years for preparing to commit acts of terrorism. This happened in Britain. In the 21st Century.
I could go on - the examples are too voluminous to even scratch on the surface, and would bore most readers - but the point is to give an indication of what a state-sponsored “Islamophobia” law is not only instilling, but promoting. It empowers people like Tanveer Ahmed and those with his mindset to be more determined in their zealotry.
No other people behave this way.
TLP and MAF
In 2023, Rishi Sunak banned the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir - 56 years after they were banned in Turkey, 49 years after they were outlawed in Egypt and 20 years after Pakistan prohibited their forming within its borders. That’s where the UK is, in relation to extremist Islam. But Hizb ut-Tahrir is only one of dozens of radical, Islamist movements in Britain, seeking to enforce their doctrines on our societies.
From Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “Understanding and Responding to Blasphemy Extremism in the UK”:
The most alarming recent development covered in this study is the emergence of a UK wing of the extremist Pakistani anti-blasphemy political party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP). Before his death in 2020, TLP founder, Khadim Rizvi, had a long record of calling for and supporting vigilante violence and murder against accused blasphemers. He also celebrated the 2016 murder of Asad Shah in Scotland, which was inspired by anti-blasphemy activism.
A number of influential UK anti-blasphemy activists have links to TLP-UK or have publicly praised Rizvi and called for British Muslims to learn from his teachings and support the work of the TLP. Since Rizvi’s death, there have been three annual events in the UK organised by TLP-UK commemorating him and celebrating his work to violently eliminate blasphemy against Islam. 3
The movement to introduce Sharia inspired blasphemy laws into Britain isn’t new, but it does have more momentum now than in the past 16 years of Tory governments. The MAF, formed in 2015 as a reaction to the Charlie Hebdo cartoons (not the murders - the cartoons), when they demonstrated outside parliament to ban any republishing of those drawings. Their goal, as Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens explains, is to explicitly campaign for Islamophobia to be incorporated into British Common Law.
“…MAF campaigns to make what they define as Islamophobia a criminal offence in the UK, asking MPs to amend the 1986 Public Order Act so that “malicious depiction of images and use of malevolent language against revered personalities of all religions.”4
Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) started in Pakistan after the aforementioned murder of Salman Taseer by Mumtaz Qadri, when blasphemy activists mobilised protests in support of Qadr (not in defence of Taseer - but of Qudr). Its founder, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, was a prominent follower of the Sunni revivalist Barelvi movement. This is an extremist fundamentalist school of Islam, with millions of followers, whose core principles are founded upon Ahl-i-Sunnat wa-al-Jamāʿat (The people who adhere to the Prophetic Tradition and preserve the unity of the community);
“To revive the Sunnah (body of traditions and practices of Muhammad) as embodied in the Quran, literature of traditions (Hadith) and the way of the scholars, as the people had lapsed from the Prophetic tradition.”5
Since its founding, they have focused their efforts on “encouraging violence and praising Muslims who take matters into their own hands and kill or attack blasphemers” (Meleagrou-Hitchens, 2024), primarily Ahmadiyya Muslims and non-Muslims. Tanveer Ahmed was a follower of Rizvi and TLP, and was even praised by the leader for murdering Asad Shah.6
TLP’s British offshoot TLP UK has 3, 300+ followers on social media and were instrumental in organising demonstrations against the Batley Grammar School teacher, as well as protests outside the Swedish Embassy in London, following the burning of the Quran by a Danish citizen in Stockholm.
When a 14 year old autistic boy in Wakefield had allegedly “disrespected” the Quran (some of the pages were smudged, see below), the local Jamia Swafia mosque felt it their obligation to chair meetings with the boy and his family, the school and the police, condemning the boy’s actions, stating “The slightest bit of disrespect [against Islam and the Quran] is not accepted and is not going to be tolerated at any point in any city in any country by any Muslim.”7
Although the case itself is nefarious in its own right, what is left out is equally odious. The Jamia Swafia mosque has many ties with the TLP UK, and its prominent Imams, like Hafiz Abdul Qadir Naushahi, have been seen speaking at TLP UK events, in honour of Khadim Rizvi.
These are just some of the groups who are now controlling the dialogues about the correct manner in which to approach Islamic topics and objects, with the full backing of British police, media, academic institutions, local and national government. Others can be mentioned, such as Mujaheddin e Khalq (MeK), al-Muhajiroun, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), The Khatme Nabuwwat network, Faizan-e-Islam etc.
Will the fact that a mosque so closely associated with them was in a position where they could dictate to British establishment, police force and citizens of the correct way to handle a book with no importance in the country, have empowered or weakened the TLP?
Will they feel emboldened or discouraged to dictate how Britons can act towards their holy scriptures?
Will an Islamophobia law invigorate or dampen their fanaticism?
No other people behave this way.
Our Lot
By succumbing to the very feasible threats of violence - expressed or insinuated - Sir Keir Starmer is realising three distinct notions:
Creating a rod for our backs, by signalling to the Islamist extremists that their threats of violence works, and they will be appeased with full backing of the Labour government
Further eradicating British and Western values to replace with Islamic Sharia with no clue of how to reverse course, or even pull the handbrake, in the inevitability of sectarian violence and uprising
Turn British citizens into sitting ducks, helplessly subject to the claims of offence by any Islamist, without any feasible recourse to prove otherwise
We become Lot’s daughters, offered up to the Sodomites, ironically to spare the feelings of the same Sodomites.
There will be no process of appeal for posting a satirical cartoon of Mohammed on Twitter. No refuge for the father who posts on Facebook about how predominantly Pakistani Muslim men are grooming, drugging, and gang-raping British girls by the tens of thousands. There’s no point in insisting that one is simply following their conscience when criticising a 1,400-year-old doctrine.
Guilt is evident by claims of offence.
That is the door Mr. Starmer wishes to open. And once ajar, it cannot be closed.
“Resist it while you still can and before the right to complain is taken away from you, which will be the next thing. You will be told you can’t complain, because you’re Islamophobic. As if it was an accusation of bigotry, or race-hatred, when it’s only an objection to a very extremist and absolutist religion. Watch out for these symptoms, these are not just symptoms of surrender, very often ecumenically offered to you by men of God in other robes - Christians and Jewish. These are the ones who will hold open the gates for the barbarians. The barbarians never take a city until someone holds the gate open for them. And it’s your own preachers, and your own multicultural authorities who will do it. Resist it while you can.”
- Christopher Hitchens, 2009
https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-blasphemy-why-pakistan-and-some-other-muslim-countries-are-passing-new-blasphemy-laws-198647
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-36733744
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “Understanding and Responding to Blasphemy Extremism in the UK”: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism-in-the-uk-accessible
Muslim Action Forum Press Release, 8th February 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150310145801/https://www.muslimactionforum.com/Press_Release_8thFeb.pdf
“The Barelvī School of Thought”, Khan Shairani and Ebrahim Moosa, 2022: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0288.xml
“Murderer Tanveer Ahmed inspires Pakistani hardliners from Scottish jail”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39112840
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “Understanding and Responding to Blasphemy Extremism in the UK”: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism-in-the-uk-accessible
Excellent work. Thank you. This should be mandatory reading for every Westerner.
What can we do? There must be a strategy to prevent this. Kier wasted no time in silencing us during the riots. That is just an indication of what’s to follow. Anyone got any ideas?