Is the response to Pickle's plea for help from Muslim leaders an answer in itself?

I've been advocating, for months now, that government should ask our Muslim communities whose side they're on in the current, highly dangerous situation in the UK and Europe generally.

Clearly my use of the term 'whose side are you on?' is my blunt shorthand and not a form of words that the government would or should use in reality, but overall, the line of questioning is really about establishing this fact.

Again, without being too diplomatic about it, the fact is that we are at war against radical Islam which will inevitably come out of our Muslim communities and it is therefore right that Mr Pickles should be asking them for help in rooting out the problem alongside government, security services and the rest of the population.

All eyes are on our Muslim communities and Pickles' letter, which was respectful and civilised, is therefore fully justified in my opinion.

I am not in a position to have seen all of the responses to his letter from the Muslim community, but what I have seen so far does not fill me with much hope.

It seems that the initial response has been to question why Pickles is directing the question - plea for help really - towards British Muslims. And not in a friendly way but in a way which demonstrates their outrage at being singled out.

Perhaps the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) might like to suggest another area of our country - other communities - that we should be looking at? Radical Jews perhaps? Or radical Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, radical atheists perhaps? Given that they're running amok on a global scale killing and beheading people willy nilly?

Perhaps we shouldn't be focusing or attention on these other groups for the simple reason that they're not fucking killing or threatening anybody whereas radical Muslims are doing?

In THIS Guardian piece Areeb Ullah seems to be arrogantly infuriated by Pickles' approach, questioning any suggestion that Muslims don't bring up their children to know right from wrong.

Firstly that was not the tenet of the letter although mention was made about the problem of radicalised young Muslims (significant numbers of whom have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS). Is Mr Ullah unaware of this?

And since he raised the issue about raising children to know right from wrong, might I mention FGM - the mutilation of young girls which practise is widespread in this country although it is illegal? Or forced marriages, the arrangement of child brides and polygamy, also illegal but a widespread practise in UK Muslim communities. Not an issue for children per sé, but perhaps seeing their parents trying to take-over UK schools to introduce a Muslim curriculum, in breech of UK law might be an indicator that the laws of the land are not to be adhered to? Or vote rigging in Tower Hamlets and Bradford?

Or perhaps the nationwide grooming for sexual exploitation of 'white trash' girls, many of whom are under age, by Muslim gangs, might not be the best example to set your youngsters?

None of these issues was mentioned by Pickles in his conciliatory letter asking for help.

However these Muslim leaders would do well to remember that their fellow Muslims are not exactly an asset to this country at the moment, given all of the above. It might be an idea, therefore, for them to respond positively to a request for help - a request that is designed to make our streets safer not just for non-Muslims, but also for members of the Muslim community in the UK who will almost certainly face a massive backlash when, as seems inevitable now, the Charlie Hebdo madness is visited on the streets of the UK.

If they continue to turn their back on our legitimate concerns, refuse to engage much less to help, it will be difficult to have much sympathy for them when such a backlash occurs.

I have tried (but perhaps not always succeeded) to make my comments based on the assumption that the majority of British Muslims are moderate and repulsed by the violence we have seen being enacted in the name of Islam around the world. I truly hope that this is the case, but I don't actually know for sure - I don't think anyone does. Which is why Pickles' letter was so welcome from my perspective this week.

The response, so far, does not fill me with any kind of relief. Quite the opposite in fact. So I've done a little digging on the subject.

I don't know about you, but the above figures, produced by reputable research organisations don't suggest to me that we're talking about a 'tiny minority' of Muslims who are antagonistic towards the West or towards UK laws.

Sharia Law being the sort of medieval system of governance that has reduced all Muslim dominated countries around the globe to backward-looking, poverty stricken, corrupt shitholes where women's rights are virtually non-existent and where stoning and beheadings are common-place. Where women can be prosecuted and put to death if they're the victims of rape. You may think that's a harsh thing to say. So humour me; tell me of a single Muslim country that doesn't fit this description to the letter. Take your time.

Immigrants who want to come to the UK, to share in our way of life are welcome (so long as it happens in a controlled way). The deal is -and must be - as David Aaronovitch said in the Times last week:

If, on the other hand you come here with the motive of trying to change our laws and our lives in line with your religious beliefs you are not welcome. It is not what we want. And if you are not prepared to accept that you need to live by our standards and laws (irrespective of your privately held religious beliefs) then we will have to re-think our welcome.

If you think - and will either fight or, equally dangerously. ignore the fight that is coming out of your communities in an attempt to achieve it - that this image represents 'progress' then I'm sorry but we cannot live together in peace and harmony.

If this is what you want, you can have it. Anywhere in the Muslim world. And if you don't support our attempts to protect our population it is your destiny. And that destiny is not in the UK.

So work with us; respond positively to Mr Pickles' letter. There are only two possible solutions to the problem of radical Islam that we face in the UK: One is for the authorities working with the co-operation of leaders in our Muslim communities to root out the problem. The other is neither pretty nor peaceful.

It's time British Muslim Leaders justified that epithet and started to be more outraged by the barbaric killings being carried out in the name of radical Islam than they are outraged at being - entirely justifiably - 'singled out' as a crucial part of the solution.


Thanks for reading.