A must-listen interview for anyone clinging to the belief that there really is an ‘authentic’ Islam that is a religion of peace and tolerance.

For far too long, the bien pensant, kumbayaist tendency in both Australia and Britain has swallowed uncritically the claim by Islam’s apologists that it is, in its authentic form, a religion of peace and tolerance. With Britain seething with discontent over the failure of successive governments to curb the volume of immigration, with Judeophobia, cloaked as ‘pro-Palestinian’ sentiment on the rise in both our countries, and with the emergence of sectarian politics, it’s time to see this dangerous delusion for what it is – the triumph of hope over experience.

It’s been easy enough to dismiss as ignorant bigots and xenophobes people like me who for decades have expressed scepticism about the compatibility of Islam with Western social tradition. It’s much harder to dismiss the opinions of apostates, who know Islam, literally inside out, and who have first-hand experience of what it does to those who reject it. There is a handful of prominent apostates writing and speaking against their former faith, and risking life and limb in doing so. Of these, I suppose Ayan Hirsi Ali and of course Salman Rushdie are the most prominent, but I confess that the name of Ibn Warraq was a new one to me. Perhaps that’s understandable, as he wisely writes under a nom de plume! Be that as it may, I thoroughly recommend this interview with Winston Marshall to Harrumpf readers.