De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I watched Sky News this morning as I was getting ready to go to work and noted will a sigh and a roll of my eyes how much coverage celebrities at the Golden Globe awards got for sporting slogans which (apparently) demonstrate their solidarity with those killed for penning rude and offensive cartoons in Paris. The BBC is exactly the same of course. What I didn't hear mention of was the 2,000 people killed in Nigeria recently by Boko Harem in Nigeria. Here is the story in The Guardian . It was left to the Catholic Archbishop of Jos and president of the Nigerian Bishops Conference, Ignatius Kaigama, to speak out about that attrocity. Archbishop Kaigama highlighted the stark difference between the west's willingness to act when 17 people were killed by militants in France and the approach to the slaughter in Africa. Estimates of the death toll in Baga and surrounding villages, which were razed by fire, have been put at up to 2,000. Most of the dead were women, children ...

The Charlie Hebdo tragedy unleashed a tide of liberal comment which seemed to suggest that we all have some sort of moral duty to be as rude and insulting as possible to each other in the name of free speech. Lots of people who would not read Charlie Hebdo , or condone its grotesque attempts at humour were asserting "Je suis Charlie!" Freedom of speech as an absolute right is nonsense; all rights have to be tempered by responsibility. Surely the more accomplished human being might be recognised by their ability to get their point across, no matter how delicate, without causing undue offence? At what point did we de-evolve into a society that thinks being offensive is a trait we should applaud and defend as something key and vital to our healthy operation? Also, satire attacks power and comforts those who are subjugated in some way by this power. The Charlie Hebdo cartoons are salacious, rude, sexual, and plain filth as far as I'm concerned. Following my comme...

Obviously, I am utterly appalled by the violence in Paris. But I am also appalled by the violence in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. Yes I am cross about the people who have been killed for poking fun at Islam, the gloating gunmen shouting "We have avenged Mohammed" as they make off, but I am also cross about the "collateral damage" and innocent people killed in Muslim countries. War begets war, violence begets violence and despite the fact that, at the time of the 7/7 bombings in London, Tony Blair stated that the violence we are suffering was not "in response to a particular policy", what we see time and time again is Muslims making the claim that it is: This is not an isolated opinion. Twitter is rife with such statements this morning: Muslim friends have tried to tell me before that Muslims like this are not Muslims. Or that Islamic violence is not motivated by religious zeal but by political motives (see here ). Is the Charlie Hebdo atro...

I was really impressed with Pope Francis' insight and courage when, on the way back from his trip to Turkey he urged Muslim leaders to condemn violence done in name of Islam, as Francis X. Rocca reported on Catholic News Service . The Holy Father made his comments aboard the Papal flight from Istanbul, where he called on political and religious leaders across the Muslim world to condemn violence done in the name of Islam. Personally, I have always advocated this fundamental stance should be one we are all united in. All our leaders and politicians should be asking with increasing regularity and volume for Muslims to condemn the violence carried out daily in their name. The more this happens, the more their silence will be obvious and unacceptable. The pope said he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov. 28 that   "it would be beautiful if all Islamic leaders -- whether they be political leaders, religious leaders, academic leaders -- would say clearly ...