Londonistan
(amazon)Melanie Phillips (View Bio)
Hardcover: Encounter Books, 2006.
When London was hit by suicide bombers in July 2005, the dirty little secret inside the historic cradle of liberty was out. Notwithstanding the staunch resolve of Prime Minister Tony Blair after 9/11, Great Britain had been the European hub of Islamist extremism for more than a decade. Under the noses of British intelligence, a network of terrorists and their sympathizers had used Britain to plot, finance, recruit and train for atrocities in the United States and around the world. The scale of this activity was so large that exasperated European security agencies, in a mocking reference to the Afgan training grounds for al-Qaeda, dubbed Britain's capital city "Londonistan." But this was merely the most visible sign of a much more intractable problem that had turned America's principal ally into a potential fifth column within Western civilization. In this ground-breaking book, the acclaimed British journalist Melanie Phillips reveals how the advance of the global jihad is being facilitated by a wholesale collapse of Western values and national identity in Europe— a trend in which Britain is taking the lead, and which finds many troubling echoes in America. While attention is fixed on foreign battlegrounds, the war is in danger of being lost at home. As Britain sleepwalks towards cultural oblivian, the disorientation of the once-implacable British bulldog threatens its special relationship with America and the very future of the West. Londonistan is a warning to America, to Britain, and to all who care about freedom.
"Melanie Phillips's LONDONISTAN is a last-minute warning for Britain and for much of the free world. In the 1930s, Britain was the leading appeaser of the world's most intransigent foe, refusing to see the gathering signs of danger until it was almost too late. Today, the same tendency to appeasement and self-delusion is evident again—only now, the threat is within. Britain refuses to recognize the clear and present danger of Islamism inside its own borders, which steadily corrodes its social values and moral compass. Once again, only the good sense of the British can save their country—and the same may be true in many other democracies. This book is powerful and frightening, but also courageous. In dictatorships, you need courage to fight evil; in the free world, you need courage to see the evil. " — Natan Sharansky, author of The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
"LONDONISTAN is one of the most compelling books you will ever read on the ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism, violence and intimidation in the West. Melanie Phillips exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil. This book will both enlighten and enrage. Although its story is focused on the United Kingdom, it could be applied to any European capital or to the United States. " — Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
"In this groundbreaking study, Melanie Phillips shows how Britain's imperial policy of 'benign neglect' towards radical Islamist groups in the 1980s and 1990s came close to malign complicity in the activities of some of the most determined terrorist organizations ever to emerge in Europe." — Amir Taheri, author of Holy Terror and other books
