Allahu Akbar

 So the game in town now, is to claim that these people who shout Allahu Akbar (God is great) as they blow themselves up, or submit to a hail of bullets having committed some atrocity, that they are mentally unbalanced and therefore our supine western media now claim that these people are mentally unsound and therefore, in an oblique way, they are victims.

The politician recognising the deep hole he has dug in the fabric of our society by encouraging people from all over the world to come over and mix, believing that in so doing some sort of osmosis would turn us all into tolerant, benign citizens, has backfired big time. The politician, he/she, have of course  no idea what to do now. 

Never having understood the power of religious conviction, politicians who seem to hold no long term convictions of their own, other than re-election, can only wring their hands whilst a "commoner " in  Bradford would say, "I told you so and have been telling you so since 1968".

The difference between theory and practice is as strong as ever but 'we', sorry, 'they' have gambled with the taut nature of what balances and holds a nation together. Numbers count, identity counts, wealth counts, recognisability counts, and above all, the collegiate group nature, the bond which each feels for the other, beyond the familial.

How can we keep a lid on this phenomenon, this marginalised religious based hatred when the common cause lies in the writings and the interpretation of the Quran.

Admittedly it is only an extreme, ultra-orthodox Wahabi sect that lead the onslaught against the infidel (you and me) and yes you could describe then as having mental problems. 

They would supposedly say that they are gifted with the true clarity, manifest from gods teaching through his holy book and it's we who are mentally disturbed.

The difficulty is that there is a subtle attraction for young struggling Muslims, particularly growing up in the Sodom and Gomorrah of the West with its 'anything goes' mentality. Our own youth who on reaching the bottom, stay there. The young Muslim has his religious book and his community, which itself conforms to a rigorous observance unknown within the Christian community. The Imam (depending on the Mosque) will highlight the contradictions in life style and as is the logic of youth, they want to go and find out for themselves.

Returning home with a religious ideology firmly in place it's easy to see how we might question their mental probity but remember, they also question ours !!