Islamists as Run-of-the-Mill Socialists

LAST month, I participated in a debate at the Oxford Union. It was a delightful affair. I stayed in a lovely hotel. The debate was black tie, preceded by a cocktail party and a formal dinner with “freedom fries” on the menu (a nod to the visiting Americans in the last days before the Sarkozy Restoration). The whole place swarmed with comely British lasses in evening dresses and earnest, larval Tony Blairs eagerly calling me “sir.” Everything was wonderful, except of course that I was there only because the Oxford Union was questioning whether my country should ever have been born. The proposition that night: “This House regrets the founding of the United States of America.”

The other speakers taking my side were Peter Rodman, until recently an assistant secretary of defense, and Matt Frei, BBC’s Washington correspondent. Our opponents included two prominent Islamists—Jamal Harwood, the chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, and David Pidcock, head of Britan’s Islamic party. The head of the UK Communist party was supposed to debate as well, but he apparently chickened out for fear of losing. The irony of a Communist’s being afraid to fight a lost cause seemed lost on just about everyone.

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Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

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LAST month, I participated in a debate at the Oxford Union. It was a delightful affair. I stayed in a lovely hotel. The debate was black tie, preceded by a cocktail party and a formal dinner with “freedom fries” on the menu (a nod to the visiting Americans in the last days before the Sarkozy Restoration). The whole place swarmed with comely British lasses in evening dresses and earnest, larval Tony Blairs eagerly calling me “sir.” Everything was wonderful, except of course that I was there only because the Oxford Union was questioning whether my country should ever have been born. The proposition that night: “This House regrets the founding of the United States of America.”

The other speakers taking my side were Peter Rodman, until recently an assistant secretary of defense, and Matt Frei, BBC’s Washington correspondent. Our opponents included two prominent Islamists—Jamal Harwood, the chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, and David Pidcock, head of Britan’s Islamic party. The head of the UK Communist party was supposed to debate as well, but he apparently chickened out for fear of losing. The irony of a Communist’s being afraid to fight a lost cause seemed lost on just about everyone.