Douglas Murray

There is a superb piece in the magazine this week by the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, titled 'Atheism has failed: only religion can defeat the barbarians.'  Whether you agree with his diagnosis or his preferred remedy, it is a characteristically thought-provoking and vital piece. It is the third piece in the magazine this year to address this theme. In January there was a piece by me, 'Call off the faith wars: atheists vs Dawkins'.  Then in April came Theo Hobson's piece 'Richard Dawkins has lost: meet the new new atheists' I know there are some non-believers in particular who find this debate uncomfortable or frustrating.

Readers might like to know that I have a new book out today. It is called ‘Islamophilia: a very metropolitan malady’ and is available on kindle, e-readers and all that sort of thing. It is available from the publishers, emBooks here and from Amazon here. I will have more to say in the coming days, but in the meantime here is what the publisher – Melanie Phillips – has to say: 'This is not a book about Islam, Muslims or terrorism.

I thought readers might be interested in this piece from me in the new issue of Standpoint which is just out. It is titled 'Forget "Islamophobia". Let's tackle Islamism'. In the wake of recent attacks there has been an upsurge in claims of 'Islamophobia'. As I explain in the piece, even if such a thing as 'Islamophobia' did exist it would be a reactionary phenomenon. If we dealt with Islamism, then what is rightly or wrongly called 'Islamophobia' would disappear. The whole piece is here.

Readers may like to know that I have a cover piece in this week's magazine titled 'The Enemy Within'.  It is available here for subscribers. (Non-subscribers can subscribe here.) It looks at what - if anything - will change after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich. It is also an account of just some of the difficulties going on inside the British government in the fight against extremism. On a separate but related note, my colleague at the Henry Jackson Society, Robin Simcox was testifying in front of the US House of Representatives last week. His testimony is here. Robin is one of the authors of our latest report on Al-Qaeda related terrorism in the US.

Nigel Farage has just met one of the most fascinating aspects of modern politics. He was surrounded in Edinburgh by left-wing 'anti-fascists' shouting 'Racist scum. Go back to England'. The same mob also screamed 'scum' repeatedly at the top of their voice until they made him leave. This is probably the best demonstration so far of something which has gone un-remarked upon for too long. Among the closest thing we have to fascists in modern Britain are people who call themselves 'anti-fascists'. Not all people who call themselves 'anti-fascist', thank goodness. But a sizable portion.  If you ever see these people in action you will notice that they behave in exactly the way you would expect their alleged opponents to behave.

The verdicts have been delivered in the Operation Bullfinch trial. Seven of the nine men have been found ‘guilty’. The case involved the highly organised sexual and physical abuse of underage girls in the ‘care’ system. This was carried out by a gang of men in Oxfordshire over the course of nearly a decade. As I wrote of one of the most shocking aspects of the case: ‘One of the victims sold into slavery was a girl of 11. She was branded with the initial of her "owner" abuser: "M" for Mohammed. The court heard that Mohammed "branded her to make her his property and to ensure others knew about it".’ There is bound to be considerable debate now around this case.

It was Dean Howells who first said, ‘The problem for a critic is not making enemies but keeping them.’ On this account I have been diligent and fortunate in my life so far. There is Nick Griffin of the BNP, for instance, who attacks me for many things including being ‘a cheer-leader for multi-racialism’ and, like some others, for being gay. In recent days two other critics who I regard as equally insignificant have once again been active. I generally try not to get into this kind of thing because I have a lot of work to do and deadlines to meet. But I thought it might be time to deal, briefly, with both. They are called Marko Attila Hoare (of a publicly-funded body called Kingston University) and Sunny Hundal. Let me take them in order.

You do not need to have read the book or even seen a film adaptation to feel a thrill at the word ‘Gatsby’. More than a novel, a film or a character, ‘Gatsby’ is an aspiration. The golden age of jazz, cocktails and evening dress, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is one of those works which has been subsumed and overtaken by its own myth. Such is The Great Gatsby’s enduring glamour that even the release of trailers for the latest film version (starring Leonardo di Caprio and Carey Mulligan) made news. You can see why. The film promises everything: beautiful people, luxurious locations and great clothes.