Well, it seems that my little video about Islam has caused a storm in a teacup in Berkeley, California,

where somebody on the grandly named Peace and Justice Commission circulated it in an e-mail,

and everybody was shocked and disgusted.

Well, they said they were shocked and disgusted, which is not really the same thing.

One person even called it hate speech, as if I'm some kind of neo-Nazi.

Give me a break. I'm not even a Catholic any more.

Of course I don't want to offend Muslims. What do you think I am, insane?

But I don't think any intelligent Muslim would be offended by anything I've said.

Indeed, I've had e-mails from Muslims who agree with me.

On the other hand, I don't really mind the idea of offending a bunch of politically correct jackasses

which is what seems to have happened in Berkeley.

If any of you dishonest wretches are watching this video, I want to say to you that having an opinion about

Muslim women covering their faces is not racist, and by calling it that you simply devalue that word

even more that it has already been devalued by people like you.

I don't care what your race is, if you're walking around in public with your face covered up

dressed like a giant pepper pot, then I think that you've got something wrong with you.

And this has got nothing to do with religion, or God, or anything like that. This is a social issue.

This is a controlling device which has been imposed by men; ignorant, cowardly men

who are too insecure in themselves to allow women to be themselves.

It's a statement of segregation and of separation, and it's a wilful refusal to assimilate.

And too often it's used cynically as a political weapon to cause division in society.

They insist on working as teachers dressed in this costume, knowing it's going to cause problems

because the kids can't hear what they're saying. And so it all ends up in court

because that's what they really wanted all along, and then it's all over the news again,

because some Muslims have gone out of their way to be offended, yet again.

I think that for any woman in a free country like Britain, or America, to deliberately wear this symbol of oppression,

which is what it is, is an insult to all the brave women in Muslim countries who have already died horrible deaths

trying to shake off this ridiculous medieval nonsense. I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

And if you think that's racist, then I think you're the one who has the problem, not me.

I live in Britain, and we're a very tolerant society. Some people say we're too tolerant for our own good,

but I'm proud of how tolerant we are, and that's why we tolerate people calling us racists

while simultaneously calling us kaffirs and devils.

We tolerate people teaching their children to hate Jews.

We tolerate people using free speech to protest against free speech.

We even tolerate people who despise the values that make this country the kind of place they'd want to come to

from whatever repressive hellhole they couldn't wait to get out of.

We couldn't be less racist if we tried, and we try all the time,

because we know that being tolerant means you have to tolerate intolerance.

and you have to put up with people who don't want to put up with you,

and that's what we do in Britain. We bend over backwards for Muslims, all Muslims,

almost as far as we bend over forwards for the American government, and that's all the way.

Peace. And you can take that any way you like in Berkeley.