Indeed, Jade. I had some sarcastic things to say about The Church's record in such matters on the 'Tommy Tiernan A Racist?' thread [qv], to demonstrate that the pleas of 'context' & 'satire' aren't always enough. But neither, in this instance, is the plea of 'you used to be just as bad'. 'Not any more,' is the answer to that. The Saudis &c are still doing it: unashamedly; selfrighteously — & claiming meanwhile that their 'Sharia' is the ONLY true Islam. I know all religions suffer from such fundamentalism: but they are not generally, you will surely admit, so MAINSTREAM as the imposition of Strict Sharia in these influential [OIL!] sovereign states. And as long as this situation persists, I don't see how 'Love Of Peace' can reasonably be claimed as an attribute of Islam.

I say again that this is perhaps a bit of 'drift', and intended in no way to justify EDL, which, I repeat, I despise. But it still seems to me a point to be made as part of this general discussion.