Real Madrid and the offence of the cross
It was a really tiny cross. Honestly, it was barely noticeable in all that pearly pizzazz and gaudy gold. The Crown of Alfonso XII has been a sacred symbol of…
Caliphate
Mehdi Hasan: "No Reformation in Europe without Muslim theologians"
Mehdi Hasan delivered an oratorically brilliant if rather sanctimonious speech at the Oxford Union in May 2013, which now rings in the head like tinnitus in the wake of the jihadi butchery in Paris. The consequences of the Charlie…
Alan Henning’s compassion made him more Muslim than any member of ISIS
Our prayers and our thoughts have been with the family of Alan Henning over these last weeks, during which his life has been so publicly threatened. In his life Alan…
Welby: we wrestle not against ISIL, but against Jihadi principalities and powers
We are, once again, a nation at war. And, rather like World War I, it won't be over by Christmas. The Prime Minister has identified our target: "We should be…
We are about to enter World War III
Last week Pope Francis took stock of all the regional conflicts, bloodshed, struggles and strife, and joined the dots. "We are now in World War III,” he told journalists on…
God bless America: Obama pledges to "degrade, and ultimately destroy" Islamic State
13 years ago today.. We remember. Almost in commemoration of the image of that apocalypse, President Obama has made the speech he really ought to have made two years ago.…
The flaw in the Fatwa on the so-called Islamic State
This really is quite magnificent. To those who insist Muslims cannot or will not integrate with or conform to British values, customs and traditions, this fatwa (= religious opinion; not…
The Islamic State presents us with a wholly abnormal situation of national emergency
Say we catch the barbarous "Jihadi John" or "John the Beatle" or "John the Jailer" or whatever he's called. And say we then gather the evidence against him and bring…
As long as Obama spouts the fallacy that the Islamic State "speaks for no religion", we will never kill the root
It would appear that the barbaric Islamist who decapitated US journalist James Foley was a dude named John, probably from East London, who took a brief sojourn in Syria with…
Why can bishops organise to condemn foodbanks but not genocide?
After the Holocaust, the whole of civilisation united behind two simple words: "Never Again". If the free world is not prepared to eradicate the Islamist evil spreading over the…
None dare call it evil – except Archbishop Justin Welby
Our politicians are at last speaking about the terror, torture, mass murder and genocide being meted out upon Christians and other minorities by the Islamic State in Iraq. Their assessment…