Islamic Education In Britain: Jews "Look Like Monkeys And Pigs," Gays Deserve Death

If Europeans aren’t careful they’re going to find that tolerance of religious extremism is ultimately going to lead to extreme intolerance.  The BBC ran a program about about British Muslim schools that are viciously anti-western with a big emphasis on antisemitism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia and general barbarism.  Todays nytimes.com carries a summary:

The 30-minute “Panorama” program quoted the Saudi government-supplied textbook as saying that Jews “looked like monkeys and pigs,” and that Zionists set out to achieve “world domination.”

...One of the textbooks, according to the BBC program, prescribed execution as the penalty for gay sex, and outlined differing viewpoints as to whether death should be by stoning, immolation by fire or throwing offenders off a cliff. Another set out the punishments prescribed by Shariah law for theft, including amputation of hands and feet. A BBC video accompanying an article on the program’s Web site showed a textbook illustration of a hand and a foot marked to show where amputations should be made.

Behind all of this?  Saudi Arabia, once again setting the standard for Islamic medievalism.  Am I being Islamophobic?  I don’t believe such a thing exists.  Phobias are irrational fears and there’s nothing irrational about fearing a genuinely hate-ridden ideology.

It’s a shame that the Christian and Jewish right have established a monopoly on opposition to Islam.  It’s a bigger shame that religious liberals and moderates hide behind misguided notions of “tolerance,” burying their heads in the sand and ignoring this growing menace.  

We non-theists are neither engaged in the right wing’s ongoing theistic competition with Islam nor blinded by the need to “co-exist,” as those irritating bumper stickers say.  We feel no need to join hands with those who promote religious backwardness.  That’s why outspoken non-theists like Hitchens, Harris and Coyne (whose blog alerted me to this) are speaking out.

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