Carol, once again, I have not said I think they COULD; I say I think they would go on trying — surely you can see that that is where the danger lies? The 'dividend' they will have got is the knowledge that their methods have worked thus far. There will surely be more than a mere insignificant minority who will wish to go on to the next stage (which, as others have pointed out above, COULD just work via chronic disruptions &c, tho I tend to agree with you here that it is not v likely to have permanent FX in the long term). How can you be so sure that there won't, but that they will all [or even significantly most] turn all their energies away from us to consolidation of their own parts of the world? & small, sideline disruptions, like the persecution of Rushdie & his publishers & the Danish cartoonist & the recent Luton demos,, which all surely part of same ultimate gestalt, will continue, will they not?, to make the world a less agreeable & more dangerous place in which to continue living — despite the efforts of their own well-intentioned majority like the Canadian fatwa-ists. I honestly can't see an end to it all.

I am glad, Carol, if you see I really didn't mean anything personal in any of my responses to you. I am truly sorry if it appeared so. But I really am alarmed at what I see as the prospect opening up.