Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan: I despise militant Islam
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:16PM BST 22/06/2008


The award-winning novelist Ian McEwan has launched an outspoken attack on militant Islam, accusing it of "wanting to create a society that I detest".


Ian McEwan has been criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain
The author said he "despises Islamism" because of its views on women and homosexuality.
But predicting a backlash against his comments, which were made in an Italian newspaper, he insisted he was not a racist.
The writer of Atonement and Enduring Love condemned religious hardliners as he defended his friend, the writer Martin Amis, against charges of racism.
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Amis was accused last year of being Islamaphobic after he said that "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order".
In an essay written the day before the fifth anniversary of the bombing of New York's Twin Towers, the novelist suggested "strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan", preventing Muslims from travelling, and further down the road, deportation.
In The Age of Horrorism, Amis argued that fundamentalists had won the battle between Islam and Islamism.
McEwan, 60, said it was "logically absurd and morally unacceptable" that writers who speak out against militant Islam are immediately branded racist.
"As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark-skinned, he who criticises it is racist," he said in an interview in Corriere della Sera.
"This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist. And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on - we know it well."
McEwan recognised that similar views were held by some Christian hardliners in America.
"I find them equally absurd," he said. "I don't like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others. But those American Christians don't want to kill anyone in my city, that's the difference."
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised McEwan's defence of Amis.
"Mr McEwan is being rather disingenuous about his friend, Martin Amis's remarks. Of course you should be allowed to criticise the tenets of any religion. However, Amis went much further than that," he said.
"He was advocating that the Muslim community be made to suffer 'until it gets its own house in order'. And what sort of suffering did Amis have in mind? In his own words, 'Not letting them travel. Deportation - further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan ... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.'"
He added: "Those were clearly very bigoted remarks and the fact that McEwan prefers to whitewash them tells us much about his own views too."

Claude Michelet

Firelight and Woodsmoke, Applewood, Scent of Herbs by Claude Michelet

Written from personal experience by French writer Claude Michelet this is a wonderful epic of one family – the Vialhe Family – set in rural France from the turn of the twentieth century up to the 1980s. It follows the fortunes of the family as they live out their lives in the village of Saint Libéral in the southern Corrèze region, close to the Dordogne. As an example of a social history written in narrative style it is first class. The first book sees the family begin to fall apart as the younger generation rebel against the ‘old ways’ and the terror of WW1 takes its toll.
The second book continues from the 1930’s through to the early 70’s taking in the horrors and after-effects of WW2. The final book in the trilogy shows how the Vialhe family and the villagers have to move with the times if they are to survive in modern day France. This comes highly recommended.

Next Book for July.......

The next book we are studying is "Firelight & Woodsmoke" by Claude Michelet. It is a powerful saga of one family at the heart of rural France.

Should go down well in rural Limousin then!!

Meeting usual place.

Calling Ex-Pats..........

Are You A British Ex-Pat In France Considering A Move Back To The UK?

Are You In A Dilemma About Whether To Return?

If so ITV1 are making a documentary series about expats who are weighing up the merits of returning home. It is the great British dream to find a place in the sun which offers tranquility and a better quality of life. It is no surprise then that many people turn to France with its stunning weather, cultural heritage and fiscal benefits.

Yet despite this one in three people who leave Britain are returning home every year.In many cases this has nothing to do with their adopted country but more to do with personal circumstances.

Upon making the decision to return some find they fall back in love with the country and decide to stay for good but others are surprised about how much has changed since they left and end up ruing their decision to return.

So how can you be sure the Britain you left offers you the opportunities you crave? How can you reconcile so many factors such as career, property and schooling decisions whilst abroad?We are offering expats the opportunity to be flown back home to see what the UK has to offer them.

They will spend a week back in the UK with a relocation expert who will show them some of the things they have missed about Britain whilst also highlighting the reasons why they moved in the first place. We hope by the end of the week our contributors will have either developed a new appreciation for what their adopted country offers them, or been inspired to return home.

If you would like to find out more please contact us on

michael.hanney@fevermedia.co.uk

or call 0044 207 4285752.