“Islamist extremism in Britain must be stopped and British values reasserted and stoutly upheld. To defeat such extremism, we have to make it abundantly clear that we will not give an inch to those who want to destroy our values. But we appear instead to be doing nothing to stop the spread of radical Islamism. Indeed, in a myriad different ways we are giving out the lethal message that we have neither the will nor the courage to defend our way of life….

“Despite the Prime Minister’s promise to outlaw the radical group Hizb ut Tahrir (which believes that Britain should be an Islamic state), the Government refuses to do so….

“Above all else, we should absolutely refuse to countenance the spread of Sharia law, which is not only inimical to our own deepest principles but aims to supplant our own laws. Yet we are turning a blind eye to the steady Sharia-isation of our country. We have ignored the development of informal parallel Sharia jurisdictions, enforced by Sharia courts, in areas heavily populated by Muslims….

“Now Gordon Brown has said Britain should become the centre of global Islamic banking. But this is heavily backed by Saudi Arabia which will use it to further its objective of Islamising the West and may even provide a cover for the financing of further terror.

“This craven appeasement of extremism gives Islamists the unmistakable message that Britain is theirs for the taking….. all of us are put in infinitely greater danger not just from terrorism, but from a culture that still seems to be sleepwalking to oblivion.”

Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail, 1 May 2007

You can see why BNP supporters say Phillips is one of their favourite newspaper columnists, can’t you?