OpEd: Isis 05-03-15

The commentators 05-03-15

Renu Begum showing police a photograph of her 15-year-old sister Shamima, who flew to Turkey with her schoolfriends Kadiza Sulatan and Amira Abase last week, apparently to join Isis in Syria.

...on Isis

The three girls who have gone to Syria in pursuit of Jihadism have less excuse even than the Nazis of 1930s Germany, for the horror of the Holocaust was yet to happen. These girls know the horrors of Jihadi John right now and have gone to Syria with their eyes wide open. How pathetically thin is the veneer of civilisation
- Ann Widdecombe, Daily Express

The Koran couldn’t be clearer about how Muslims should co-exist with peaceful people of other beliefs: "Allah only forbids you from those who fight you because of religion and expel you from your homes". For everyone else, it is taught that you should be kind and act fairly towards them. So just to be clear: Islam is not simply a matter of interpretation, because the Koran itself tells us how to interpret it. Any other interpretation is either wilfully dishonest or just plain ignorant - Adam Walker, Independent

Let’s make Jihadi John and his cronies objects of ridicule to shatter their demi-God status. Anyone drawn to Isil needs to know we will laugh at them, rather than fear their senseless barbarism. In this era of political correctness gone mad, it’s time we met the brave satirists half way and showed that we are not afraid to snigger confidently in the face of evil.
- Emma Barnett, Daily Telegraph

There are people, particularly on the Left, who so hate this country’s institutions, such as the security services, that they would rather defend the indefensible — even if that entails making grotesque excuses for so palpable a monster as Jihadi John.
- Stephen Glover, Daily Mail

Up until five or ten years ago, it would not be unusual for editorial to throw out or move an ad if it sat uncomfortably with the news on a given page. That tended to be in everybody's interests: BA no more wants its ad on a page devoted to an air crash than the journalist placing the story. This may still be the case, although I suspect that these days pressure would be on editorial to reposition the story rather than the other way about.
If so, that is an example of fissures starting to appear in that dividing wall. If a story, however insignificant, has to move from its optimum position in the paper because of advertising considerations, a line has been crossed.
A layman's guide to the relationship between editorial and advertising