I don’t subscribe to The Economist and don’t intend to waste my money doing so, so I cannot see the rest of this article. It is conceivable that within it, The Economist lays out some convincing case for making a distinction between “Islam” and “Islamism,” and shows how such a distinction actually exists within Islamic theology and among Muslims. But I highly doubt that anything like that is in there. It is much more likely that The Economist simply takes the distinction for granted, in order to further its agenda of shaming Infidels into not daring to oppose Islamization, mass Muslim migration, and the advance of Sharia.
The problem is that their central claim is based on a false premise. Islamism, i.e., political Islam, is part of Islam proper. The West will never figure out a way to have its fantasy of a benign and pluralistic Islam without having jihad terrorists and Sharia supremacists who are working to make their countries into Islamic states. And when one of the great states of Western Europe becomes the first to become an Islamic Republic, The Economist and its allies can pat each other on the back and tell each other “Job well done.”
“Islamism is a threat to Britain. Islam is not,” The Economist, September 10, 2026:
The government is struggling to deal with the problem
Sohail Ahmed, a former Islamist, was six years old when his parents radicalised him. He remembers music being banned from the house, and his teddy bear having its head cut off (many radicals prohibit representations of sentient creatures). The catalyst was the Bosnian genocide of 1992-95. “This is how much white people hate Muslims,” Mr Ahmed recalls being told. It was the first wave of radicalisation among British Muslims, he says. The second came with 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Gaza, he fears, is the third—allowing extremists “to drive a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims”….
Buraq says
Myopia is a problem, being completely blind is not!
ploome says
the “wedge” is from islam
the koran separas dar ul islam from dar ul herb
islam considers all peoples and lands witch do not submit to islam
the “land of war”
Islam is not the victim here
Tony says
Dumb, deceitful Schitts! Islamization, like Cultural Marxism, deceives, manipulates, propagandizes, and virtue-signals against the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, by: Islamic Law dba Islam, discrimination, deception, theft, segregation, violence, and terrorism through our Western Institutions with Muslim MONEY and Muslim LIVES as taught in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 2:191; 3:54; 4:89, 91; 7:99; 8:30; 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). Actually, Islam is the daily practice of Islamic Law, Sharia, which is created from the Qur’an, the Sira, the Hadith, the Tafsir, the Tarikh, past Islamic Legal Rulings, etc. Furthermore, Muslim Islamization includes Muslim Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Organizations using Governments, Bureaucracies, Mosques, Muslim Homes, Muslim Schools, Halal Organizations, Islamic Centers, Sharia Courts, Muslim Non-Profits, etc. to fund, to educate, and to support Islam Law and Muslim Propaganda against all Non-Muslims(Qur’an 1:5; 3:51, 101, 118; 5:3, 48; 8:60, 45:18; 48:29, etc.).
Public funding is a privilege that should not be granted to organizations that are against the US Constitution or Western Constitutions. Islam and its Organizations including Muslim Schools and Mosques are against the US Constitution due to Muslim funding, teaching, and promoting discrimination, segregation, hatred, violence, and terrorism. Islam’s Muslims are murderous, Totalitarian Terrorists of Allah operating as a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise under Islamic Law to ultimately conquer the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, with Islamic Law DBA Islam(Qur’an 8:60; 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
Beans🫘 says
Irish people overwhelmingly support Palestine and Iran- Set to protest against Trump visit to show support for Islamic terrorism, and Islamic migrations.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/11/majority-do-not-welcome-him-trump-heads-to-ireland-amid-fury-over-gaza
Muslims are popular in Ireland, patriotic pro Israel Irish are a small group but growing and clashing with the pro islamist, pro global terrorism majority
Ireland even had protests requesting more Islamic migration.
Wellington says
Ireland is like Russia—it never learns.
crown says
I wish upon the Irish people the blessings of that greatest enrichment: Islam, Islam and more Islam!
May that island be overwhelmed with Muslim migration! No people deserve that blessing more than the Irish.
I think that, perhaps fortunately for the Irish, they are not bright enough, or self-aware enough, to have, in 50 years’ time, a Colonel Nicholson moment. That is, as in the finale of “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, when he finally realizes the magnitude of his stupidity and hubris, he briefly laments “What have I done?”
40 rounds says
A lot of the Irish morons deserve Islam and all it’s “wonderful” benefits but I couldn’t accept handing over such a beautiful place to the desert rats
somehistory says
There are innocent Irish people, just as there are in all of the other nations’ innocent citizens who have not wanted, nor supported, the islime.
Beans🫘 says
Crown
They literally get angry when interviewers ask them, but what about Christians being killed, in Nigeria in Pakistan in so many places?
Why don’t they protest that ? Why only do you flood the streets for Muslim issues, what about Christian concerns and violence? They get pissy and dismissive.
The answer is, the Muslims have them in the palms of their hands with Palestine, and nothing else matters, no amount of Nigerian villages killed and burned will make a single dent in the west, especially Islamist supporting Ireland. I wouldn’t be surprised if terrorist financing happens there.
The folks celebrate mosques being built.
gravenimage says
I don’t want to see Ireland destroyed by Islam. And even if you care nothing for the Irish, your idea that Ireland becoming part of Dar-al-Islam is somehow beneficial to the rest of the Infidel world could not be more mistaken.
somehistory says
g, every nation which falls to islime, is like a nail in the coffin of the freedoms God gave us to enjoy life, but which muzzies seek to destroy, seek to put those freedoms to death.
The U.S. is increasing in giving over to muzzie demands, but who, besides those ones and their supporters, would want America to fall to islime?
There are Irish people who have no desire to be under islime’s evil thumb.
mgoldberg says
The myth about all the snakes being thrown out of Ireland… unfortunately never realized.
Wellington says
A distinction without a difference. So, anyone still pushing this rubbish, such as the editors of The Economist, are clowns and should not be taken seriously.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
That publication has been one of the most pompous and sanctimonious publications I have ever read – and I used to read it in the 80s, when it was still very insufferable
What those cretins don’t realize is that mohammedans will not appreciate islam being “spared” by drawing these distinctions. They will still lambaste even critics of “islamism” as being “islamophobic”
Exit question: Is the story of al-Zutt a part of islam or “islamism”? 😈
gravenimage says
I used to read The Economist pretty regularly–but not in recent years, for just this reason.
somehistory says
The snake’s bite is a danger to humans. The snake is not.
Without the snake, there is no snake’s bite. Without islime, there is no *ism.*
Without muzzies practicing islime, there is no islime.
some people like to deceive themselves….because they want to seem *trendy* or they are *afraid* or just plain evil. Above all, they are stupid, dangerously stupid.
Raja says
Somehistory, Agreed 100 percent. They say economics is very complex subject. They probably lack common sense and cannot discern the good and the ugly. For them the world is a hunky-dory place with no space for evil because “evil” does not exist. It is grotesque because islime is the epitome of evil.
somehistory says
Thank you, Raja, and I agree with you. And most, if not all, will stick to their opinion because otherwise, they would have to admit to error.
John Pepple says
Nice analogy.
somehistory says
Thank you, John
gravenimage says
+1
Donald Breyer says
There are two kinds of Moslems. The ones who actively commit terror, and the ones who silently cheer them on
Walter Sieruk says
Two pseudo words are ‘Islamism” and “Islamist” that had made up after September 11th 2001 in order not to offend non-violent peaceful Muslims. As for the later made up word “Islamist,” the term should be used is Muslim terrorist.
It’s very important to call individuals and religions for what they really are .Therefore, the real word is “Islam”. As the devout Muslim President of Turkey, Erdogan, rightly, declared “Islam is Islam.”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, Walter, these terms originated in 1920, after WWI. A Turkish intellectual by the name of Ziya Gökalp came up w/ this term and introduced them in the context of the Ottoman Empire to distinguish between those who viewed Islam purely as a personal faith and those who saw it as a comprehensive political and social system
Only problem w/ his approach: it’s impossible to come up w/ a comprehensible faith once one strips it of all its political and social attributes
gravenimage says
Thanks, Infidel. Whitewash, in any case.
tgusa says
“Islamism is a threat to Britain. Islam is not,”
That is the dumbest thing I have read in a long time. It is hard to believe the economist wrote that. It is harder to believe the economist published it. It is super hard to believe the economist could show their faces in public after writing and publishing that.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Oh, I can perfectly believe that the Economist wrote that. I remember in the early 90s them writing pompous articles about why Americans who opposed the dumping of Japanese cars in the US markets were wrong, and the Free Trade was the answer to everything. At that time, Ross Perot had the answer, although he ran outside the GOP. If we had someone like him we would never have allowed something like China’s WTO entry
Essentially, it was a globalist rag masquerading as a Right wing publication. And apparently, not much has changed
tgusa says
“Oh, I can perfectly believe that the Economist wrote that. I remember in the early 90s them writing pompous articles about why Americans who opposed the dumping of Japanese cars in the US markets were wrong, and the Free Trade was the answer to everything.”
Thanks for that info Infidel. I have always been an avid reader and thinker who has always tried to keep up on whats going on everywhere and in everything. But the Economist, never heard of them before here and now.
tgusa says
I have been an avid reader since the late 60s but I do have limited time. There is only 24 hours in a day and so I trained myself in filtering out bullshit.
tgusa says
I already know what they will write so why waste precious time reading it?
ConcernedReader says
Where does islamism come from?
Where are its roots, what breeds it?
Is it islam?
Then is it a logical conclusion to state that islam leads to islamism? Or islamization?
In which case if islamism is dangerous, then how is it possible that islam the ground basis for islamism is not dangerous? Islam from where islamism originates or grows out of?
Seems like a logical disconnect.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Concerned Reader
That’s a very astute observation. All those “islamist” concepts arise from islam itself, and not anything else
gravenimage says
Good questions, ConcernedReader.
rick says
As long as people like Burnham are put in charge of Britain, the crazies of Islam which run from terrorists to rapists, will find things to their liking. And the rest of Muslims will never stand up to the worse in their own grouping.
Beans🫘 says
Ricky
They’re not “put” in charge. The British people wanted this, voted for it. Also, the latest polls say the left is actually booming in the polls, while the right plummeted in the last few months.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. They have a wave of new citizens coming in. Migrants who will be enthusiastically voting for the the left, for more benefits and more family members to join them. Who wouldn’t bring their sick parents to England for a feee house and free healthcare? Voting does that.
gravenimage says
Beans, your idea that violent military-aged Muslims are flooding into Britain and the rest of the West is concern for their supposedly sick parents is *much* mistaken. I *wish* they were just coming here for free healthcare.
Beans🫘 says
PRIVATE JETS FOR MUSLIM MIGRANTS
“The UK spent tens of thousands of pounds to charter a plane to transport one migrant, according to a report by The Telegraph, citing Home office data.”
This was not the first instance of a single plane being chartered for use by a single migrant. Other migrants did not want to be touched by peoples of other faiths, or women while being transported to their destination.
gravenimage says
More insanity, Beans.
Jim Heller says
Sohail Ahmed, a former Islamist, was six years old when his parents radicalised him. He remembers music being banned from the house, and his teddy bear having its head cut off (many radicals prohibit representations of sentient creatures). The catalyst was the Bosnian genocide of 1992-95. “This is how much white people hate Muslims,” Mr Ahmed recalls being told. It was the first wave of radicalisation among British Muslims, he says. The second came with 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Gaza, he fears, is the third—allowing extremists “to drive a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims”.
That wedge may be growing. “Their doctrine is simply not compatible with our culture,” wrote Charlie Downes in a recent social-media tirade. The campaigns director of Restore Britain, a far-right party, was referring to Muslims. Last year a YouGov poll found that 41% of Britons think Muslim immigrants have a negative impact on the country, more than double the figure for any other religious migrant group; 53% agreed that Islam is incompatible with British values.
Some of that anxiety comes from the speed of change. Over the past 25 years Britain’s Muslim population has more than doubled, to 7% of the total. Around 38% are of Pakistani heritage. Bangladeshis make up 15% and the rest are a mix from South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Half were born in Britain, but over the past five years roughly as many Muslims have immigrated to Britain as in any previous decade.
Scandal has bred suspicion. Synagogue attacks and the abuse of British girls by gangs of men of predominantly Pakistani heritage have amplified worries about Islam’s role in the country.
The idea that Muslims pose a threat is unfounded. But Islamism, in Europe a fringe ideology that believes government and society should be guided by Islamic principles, is indeed a threat. It is an attempt to administer Islamic principles through state institutions—for sharia to become the law. It is an authoritarian ideology that rejects integration and opposes pluralism, free expression and equal rights. This can lend itself to violent tactics. But jihadists are just one type of Islamist. Others seek influence through lobbying and protests. Non-violent Islamism is an issue Britain has struggled to deal with.
Chart: The Economist
It is hard to estimate the prevalence of Islamist sympathy. A new poll commissioned by The Economist finds that 52% of Muslims in Britain think same-sex relationships are “morally wrong” (see chart), compared with 13% of the general public who “opposed” same-sex relationships in the 2021 British Social Attitudes survey. A majority (62%) say that a woman should wear the hijab (headscarf) in the presence of men other than their husband or close relatives; 20% say that it is not a matter of personal choice.
Being a social conservative does not make you a threat to Western values. Being an Islamist does. Counter-extremism researchers estimate that perhaps 20% of British Muslims have Islamist sympathies. Our poll finds that 33% of Muslims in Britain think that “Islamic principles should guide public life, laws, politics and government”; 29% think sharia should play some role in British law; and 20% think Islamic teaching should take priority over British law if there is a clash. According to 32% of those surveyed, violence can be justified if someone insults the Prophet Muhammad; 76% believe it should be against the law to deliberately damage a religious text.
Most Muslims The Economist spoke to for this article said they had never met an Islamist, and knew little about the ideology. “I think we are attacked unfairly,” says Mukhtar Ali, a former trade unionist in Bradford. “We are a part of Britain and we are very proud of that.” Sometimes the line is blurrier. Shahid Ali, an imam, says, “It is stupidity to want sharia law in England.” But on Facebook he castigates Muslims for not working harder to create a caliphate.
Network effects
According to Sir Ken McCallum, head of MI5, Britain’s domestic-security service, some 75% of its counter-terrorism workload concerns Islamists. But most Islamists are not violent. They prefer a strategy of “entryism”: the idea that a small group of ideologues can wield outsize influence by occupying positions of power.
Several big Muslim organisations remain beyond the pale for the government. In 2014 an inquiry by the Department for Education discovered a “co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained” effort to introduce an “aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools in Birmingham”. The Metropolitan Police have had to cut ties with a number of advisers on Muslim issues after concerns were raised about their views, connections and social-media posts. In July the head of the Al-Khair Foundation, one of Britain’s biggest Muslim charities, was arrested after America’s FBI accused him of funnelling funds to Hamas.
Gaza is a flashpoint. Hostility to Israel and Western intervention in the Middle East has nurtured an alliance between Islamists and the populist left. The Green Party mayor of Lewisham, in London, has close links with Shakeel Begg, a local imam described by a judge in 2016 as an “extremist” who “encouraged religious violence”. Given their opposing views on most social issues, a Green-Islamist alliance may look odd. But hardline clerics tell British Muslims to focus on more urgent matters, like Gaza. A survey by 5Pillars, an Islamist blog, found that 20% of its readers had planned to vote Green in recent local elections.
Patchwork presence
England and Wales, Muslim population as % of total
2021
92
50
20
10
5
Bradford
Blackburn
Wakefield
2
Manchester
1
Batley
0
Birmingham
London
Source: UK Census
The impact of these Islamist networks is most obvious in how local authorities respond to issues of faith. In 2021 a schoolteacher in Batley, Yorkshire, received death threats after showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad during a religious-studies lesson (he remains in hiding). An autistic schoolboy in nearby Wakefield received similar threats after allegedly dropping a Koran. Following protests led by local imams, and criticism from Muslim councillors, both the teacher and schoolboy were suspended. Those issuing death threats faced no serious police action.
Underlying that response is the false premise, promoted by Islamists, that all Muslims share their religious sensitivities. The problem, as Hazem Kandil of Cambridge University puts it, is that “decision-makers don’t understand that a lot of the Muslims they come across in these spaces represent Islamism and not Islam.”
Hannah Stuart, director of the Counter Extremism Group, a think-tank, worries that nationally, too, Islamist framings are too often allowed to dominate policy debates—notably around “Islamophobia”. She points to the government’s recently published definition of anti-Muslim hostility, which critics, including many Muslims, argue undermines free speech by conflating criticism of Islam with bigotry against Muslims. Some suspect it was drafted with input from Islamist-leaning organisations.
Some Muslim campaign groups say that the government should close down Prevent, its counter-radicalisation programme, which they consider to be “Islamophobic”. The effect, Ms Stuart says, is “to cast concerns around Islamism as evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice”.
This has had an impact. In 2016 Andy Burnham, now prime minister, called Prevent “toxic” and said it should be scrapped. Islamist extremism accounted for just 8% of Prevent referrals last year, despite making up most of the security services’ anti-terrorist caseload. In 2023 a controversial independent review found that “the narrative that Prevent intends to harm Muslim communities” had led to a “hesitancy” on “reporting Islamist-related concerns”.
Nuts and bolts
The Muslim Vote, a campaign group, hopes that an expanding Muslim population will elect many more independent Muslim MPs at the next election. Already, three of the four it has endorsed have been a voice for the anti-Prevent campaign.
Islamist networks thrive in dense, segregated, poor Muslim communities such as Blackburn, Lancashire. Half of its 12 council wards are over 60% Muslim; two are over 80%. Saima Afzal, a former councillor who campaigns against abuse of women in the South Asian community, describes sustained intimidation from male Muslim leaders well-connected to local politicians.
Nationally, Muslim segregation is falling. But averages can obscure local trends. Using census data for England and Wales, we calculate that in 2001 just 66 neighbourhoods had a Muslim population of over 70%. By 2021 that had risen to 237 (out of a total of 35,000). Arguably, Islamists have more space to work in than ever before.
The victims are often other Muslims. When secular Bangladeshis in east London receive threats from Islamists, they complain that police turn a blind eye. Women are most vulnerable. A 2018 government investigation estimated that up to 85 sharia councils exist in Britain. They are voluntary, with no legal weight, but worriers argue that they enable misogyny and coercion—and the police and local councils are reluctant to intervene. “Many professionals are terrified of being called racist or Islamophobic,” says Ms Afzal.
Mosque seen at the end of a Street, Manningham.
Photograph: Peter Dench for The Economist
Right-wingers often claim that new arrivals import extremist beliefs. A greater danger, warn counter-extremism experts, is that newcomers live in isolated, conservative communities where they never experience multicultural Britain. A 2016 review found that pupils at one primary school in Blackburn estimated that Britain’s population was between 50% and 90% Asian. “There are schools in this country that don’t have a single white British child,” says Ghaffar Hussain, director of Groundswell, an organisation working on counter-extremism. “If you tell new immigrants to blend in, they will ask: ‘Blend into what?’”
Islamists and the far right agree that Islam is incompatible with Western civilisation. Both portray Islamism as the normative version of British Islam. It is not. Sohail Ahmed found his way out of radicalism thanks partly to seeing that Muslim scholars who embraced scientific reasoning long before the European enlightenment offered a form of Islam that bears little resemblance to that of today’s Islamists. “I was taught to hate other Muslims even more than non-Muslims,” he says.
In Whitechapel, a Muslim-majority area of London, Kismet is a cosy café celebrating Muslim culture. Set up by Muddassar Ahmed, it hosts jazz nights, Muslim comedians and a spectacular collection of Ottoman-era maps. It does not host hardline groups which “want to tell other Muslims they’re doing Islam wrong”, explains Mr Ahmed. “I won’t have them here,” he says. “I think they’re nuts.” ■
Beans🫘 says
That’s all very informative. But the Anglican establishment does not mind islamism.
ANGLICAN CHURCH CALLING FOR SHARIA LAW:
SHARIA UNAVOIDABLE:
Archbishop Rowan Williams gave a lecture suggesting that adopting some aspects of Sharia law in the UK seemed “unavoidable” to help achieve social cohesion for British Muslims.
MUSLIMS INSULTED BY TRINTIY, DONT SPEAK ABOUT IT IN PUBLIC:
In an extensive open letter to Islamic leaders responding to “A Common Word for the Common Good,” Williams wrote that the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity—stating that God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—”is difficult, sometimes offensive, to Muslims.” He also added that historical Christianity had often promoted its faith “at the point of the sword.”
WESTERN LAW NO GOOD ( BOKO HARAM MOTO) LETS MOVE TO SHARIA: Williams argued that modern liberal states should move away from the idea that uniform state law is the only valid authority. He suggested that allowing Muslim communities to settle certain civil, marital, or financial disputes through their own internal religious arbitration tribunals.
BOKO HARAM CHURCH (ANGLICAN) : Williams frequently pushed back against British secularists who wanted religion entirely out of the public square. He argued that a healthy society must accommodate “overlapping loyalties”—meaning a citizen can be intensely loyal to Islamic law while remaining a law-abiding citizen, and that the state shouldn’t force people to choose between their cultural/religious loyalty and state loyalty.
SHARIA IS SIMPLY BETTER:
In various lectures on faith and society, Williams expressed admiration for how Islamic theology maintains that public life, economics, and law must be anchored in a moral/religious framework. He often contrasted this with Western secular capitalism, arguing that Western societies had lost a shared moral language and could benefit from dialogue with religious traditions that treat ethics and public law as inseparable.
PRO ISLAMIC MIGRATION: Williams has consistently pushed back against political rhetoric that treats migrants and asylum seekers—many from conflict-torn Muslim-majority regions—as economic threats, “frauds,” or security dangers. He has argued that anxiety over migration is frequently exploited by populist or nationalist political movements to channel anti-Islam sentiment.
WE NEED MORE MUSLIM MIGRANTS BECAUSE THEY WILL MAKE MUSIC: “Migrants are at the heart of our art, our music, our whole history. That’s what the right won’t admit to you.” “We need to pay attention to the imagination of newcomers, rather than resorting to rhetoric that effectively depicts every migrant either as an individual in search of security at all costs, or as a plain enemy of all we think is humanly significant”
HOTELS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR MUSLIM MIGRANTS: Williams has fiercely condemned the common government practice of housing asylum seekers in commercial hotels and isolated hostels, comparing the approach to mass incarceration:
MIGRANT NUMBERS ARE TOO LOW, WE NEED TO LOBBY FOR MORE MUSLIMS: He has joined multi-faith coalitions publicly criticizing government refugee quotas as “too slow, too low, and too narrow”. He has specifically lobbied Prime Ministers to relax rigid visa restrictions so that refugees already living in the UK can legally bring over and house family members trapped in conflict zones
gravenimage says
Just grotesque stuff. Thanks for this post.
Beans🫘 says
Yes any time. It’s extremely important this doesn’t sneak under the flying carpet….
They must be exposed. This one literally literally has no limits to how low he would stoop to Gina the praise of Muslims and terrorists. But they simply see him as a useful fool.
Williams , first one to the Islamist gallows.
Lenny Leaps In says
Concerned UK voters must get out at the next election and vote Reform…
gravenimage says
The Economist: ‘Islamism is a threat to Britain. Islam is not’
……………………………………………………
A distinction without a difference. Absurd.
Jos Haynes says
Better not to even look at the front page of The Economist – it will drive you crazy if you have an ounce of sense.And it is not a recent development. I cancelled my subscription around 2000 when it started its progressive globalism, all men/countries/societies etc are equal. etc. And global warming was going to destroy the planet. A bunch of left-wing kids.