Alex Ballinger MP

The wilful misunderstanding in this post says everything about the people behind the “Islamophobia” definition. The point is not that Sikhs have danced on Trafalgar Square. Or that the Passion Play has been hosted there. Neither is the point that Muslims gathered on Trafalgar Square. The point is that mass ritual prayer in public - in this case next to a church - is an act of domination. So is the public call of the Adhan, which explicitly denies other religions including Christianity. That is the difference. And yet neither Dominic - nor the Labour MPs who were instructed by No10 to attack me last night - will engage with the substance. Instead he claims he knows my personal views when we haven’t talked, and incorrectly describes me as a spokesman for the Free Speech Union. People like Dominic can’t work out why the ideological world they built is falling apart. They never pause to wonder if perhaps they might have got things very badly wrong.

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.