Douglas Murray (author)
Encyclopedia
Douglas Murray is a British writer and commentator who was the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion
from 2007 until 2011 and is currently an associate director of the Henry Jackson Society
. Murray appears regularly in the British broadcast media, commentating on issues from a conservative standpoint, and he is often critical of Islamic fundamentalism
. He writes for a number of publications including Standpoint and The Spectator
. In 2009, he was awarded the Charles Douglas-Home memorial prize for journalism. Murray has authored a number of books, including in 2005 Neoconservatism: Why We Need it
.
, Eton College
, and Magdalen College
at the University of Oxford
, where he studied English.
, which has been described by Christopher Hitchens
as "masterly". Formerly hailed as Britain's youngest published biographer, this record was taken away by the publication of Charles Read's biography of the 2nd Earl de Grey
at the age of 16 in 2007.
Murray later wrote a play, Nightfall, based on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg
's attempts to dissuade Adolf Eichmann
from implementing the Final Solution
.
In 2005 he published a defence of neoconservatism
, Neoconservatism: Why We Need It and undertook a related promotional tour of the United States. During the course of this tour he gave an interview to the New York Sun
in which he outlined his "instinctive" support for Israel and was dubbed a "self-described neoconservative and Zionist".
In 2007 he assisted in the writing of Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership by Gen. Dr. Klaus Naumann
, Gen. John Shalikashvili, Field Marshal The Lord Inge, Adm. Jacques Lanxade
, and Gen. Henk van den Breemen
. Upon publication, The Guardian
reported that among its recommendations was that, as a last resort, NATO should be prepared to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack
in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction
.
's Question Time
, Newsnight
, HardTalk
, Today Programme
, The Big Questions
, BBC Wales
, and has written for The Guardian
, The Sunday Times
, "NPR
's "Intelligence Squared
",, Standpoint
. and The Commentator
that led to the loss of his own faith.
In 2010 Murray wrote "It is grotesque to argue that Europe has failed its Muslims. It has been made repeatedly obvious that it is Islam that has failed Europe". Murray is fundamentally opposed to the presence of Islam in Europe, saying: "Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition."
Murray has described what he sees as, "a creed of Islamic fascism – a malignant fundamentalism, woken from the dark ages to assault us here and now". He believes that "we live…in a thought culture – but it is one in which the thought has gone bad". He sees the main problem as being cultural relativism which he has described as, "the primary disease – the AIDS of the West – the disease which has made the opportunist infection of Islam so deadly".
Murray supported Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri
's Fatwa on Terrorism
and wrote that it has "the possibility of being respected by a far wider range of people than any of those individual non-scholarly Muslim voices who have also condemned terrorism without caveat."
His comments about Islamic extremism
in Holland mean that he has to have a police guard when travelling there.
He has labelled "Islamophobia
" a "nonsense term", as "there are a considerable number of reasons to be fearful of some – though certainly not all – aspects and versions of Islam".
: "will routinely describe Awlaki as a vital and highly respected scholar, [while he] is actually an al-Qaida-affiliate nut case."
Douglas Murray wrote an article criticising Malcolm Grant, chancellor at University College London, and radicalisation on university campuses after it emerged that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – who attempted to explode a bomb on a flight to Detroit – was formerly president of the UCL Islamic Society. Malcolm Grant denied there was a problem with extremism on campus, yet the CSC issued a press briefing highlighting the extremists that had spoken at UCL after being invited by its ISOC.
In March 2009, Douglas Murray and the Centre for Social Cohesion applauded the decision to bar Ibrahim el-Moussawi, spokesman for Hizbollah, from entering Britain. El-Moussawi had been due to lecture government officials and police on political Islam at a course arranged by the School of Oriental and African Studies
; Murray was highly critical of the prospect that while el-Moussawi was set to be welcomed into Britain, elected Dutch MP Geert Wilders
had been barred from entering the country just weeks before. He subsequently wrote to Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith
warning that he was planning to instruct his lawyers to issue an international arrest warrant against el-Moussawi if he entered Britain. The Home Office
eventually refused el-Moussawi a visa.
- that the behaviour of western societies is "better" than Al Qaeda, stating that we "just don't need to show it".
in January 2009. Murray was set to chair a debate titled "Islam and Liberalism: Which is the Way Forward?" between Dr Alan Sked
and Hamza Andreas Tzortzis. However the LSE decided that, as it was experiencing student protests and significant unrest on campus in the context of Israeli incursion into Gaza, Murray's presence "might provoke further unrest". He was subsequently asked by the university to stay away from campus in the interests of "public safety", Murray claims. The LSE publicly denied that he had been banned, and stated that he had previously spoken at a number of LSE events, and said that they had at the last minute reinvited him to chair the meeting, which Murray later confirmed, though he was too upset to do so. Damian Thompson
in the Daily Telegraph called LSE "gutless" and threatened to return the PhD he had earned at the university. Journalist Melanie Phillips called the decision "another victory for the forces of darkness".
Centre for Social Cohesion
The Centre for Social Cohesion is a British think tank headquartered in London and founded in 2007.-Foundation and constitution:CSC was established with funding of circa £275,000 from Civitas. The organisation is constituted as a company limited by guarantee, and was incorporated and registered...
from 2007 until 2011 and is currently an associate director of the Henry Jackson Society
Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a non-partisan association. The society's goals include the promotion of "democratic geopolitics". The society is named after after Henry M. Jackson, the late Democratic Senator from Washington State...
. Murray appears regularly in the British broadcast media, commentating on issues from a conservative standpoint, and he is often critical of Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
. He writes for a number of publications including Standpoint and The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
. In 2009, he was awarded the Charles Douglas-Home memorial prize for journalism. Murray has authored a number of books, including in 2005 Neoconservatism: Why We Need it
Neoconservatism: Why We Need it
Neoconservatism: Why We Need it is a 2006 book written by Douglas Murray. The book's main aim is to describe how neoconservatism offers a coherent platform from which to tackle genocide, dictatorships and human rights abuses in the modern world...
.
Education
Murray was educated at St Benedict's SchoolSt Benedict's School
St Benedict's School is a co-educational independent Roman Catholic school situated in Ealing, West London. The school is part of Ealing Abbey and is governed by the Abbot and monks of Ealing. As the only day school of the English Houses of the English Benedictine Congregation, the school does not...
, Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where he studied English.
Publications
At Oxford, aged 20, he published a biography of Lord Alfred DouglasLord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas , nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde...
, which has been described by Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
as "masterly". Formerly hailed as Britain's youngest published biographer, this record was taken away by the publication of Charles Read's biography of the 2nd Earl de Grey
Thomas Robinson, 2nd Earl de Grey
Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey KG, PC, FRS , known as The Lord Grantham from 1786 to 1833, was a British Tory politician and statesman of the 19th century...
at the age of 16 in 2007.
Murray later wrote a play, Nightfall, based on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
's attempts to dissuade Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
from implementing the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
.
In 2005 he published a defence of neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
, Neoconservatism: Why We Need It and undertook a related promotional tour of the United States. During the course of this tour he gave an interview to the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
in which he outlined his "instinctive" support for Israel and was dubbed a "self-described neoconservative and Zionist".
In 2007 he assisted in the writing of Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership by Gen. Dr. Klaus Naumann
Klaus Naumann
Klaus Naumann is a retired German General, who served as Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, the German armed fources, from 1991 to 1996, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1996 to 1999, succeeding the British general Richard Frederick Vincent, Baron Vincent of Coleshill...
, Gen. John Shalikashvili, Field Marshal The Lord Inge, Adm. Jacques Lanxade
Jacques Lanxade
Jacques Lanxade is a French admiral and former navy chief, and co-author of a recent proposed reform of NATO. He was a private chief of staff of François Mitterrand, President of the French Republic, from 1989 to 1991, and became chief of defense of the French Armed Forces from 1991 to 1995...
, and Gen. Henk van den Breemen
Henk van den Breemen
Hendrik Gijsbert Bernhard "Henk" van den Breemen is a retired Dutch military officer.Van den Breemen started his military career as a Midshipsman for the Marines in 1960. From June 1987 till June 1998 he served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps...
. Upon publication, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported that among its recommendations was that, as a last resort, NATO should be prepared to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack
Pre-Emptive Strike
Pre-Emptive Strike is the first release by Five Finger Death Punch on July 10, 2007. It was only released as a digital download to the American iTunes Music Store. The live version of "The Devil's Own" was recorded at a performance in Las Vegas, Nevada....
in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
.
Media appearances and journalism
He has appeared on the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
, Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
, HardTalk
HARDtalk
Hardtalk is a flagship BBC television programme, consisting of in-depth half-hour one-on-one interviews.It is broadcast four days a week on BBC World News and the BBC News channel. Launched in 1997, much of its worldwide fame is due to its global reach via BBC World...
, Today Programme
Today programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
, The Big Questions
The Big Questions
The Big Questions is a faith and ethics television programme usually presented by Nicky Campbell. It is currently broadcast live on BBC One between 10:00am and 11:00am on Sunday, replacing Heaven & Earth as the BBC's religious discussion programme....
, BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
, and has written for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, "NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's "Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared is a UK based organisation that stages debates around the world. It began in London, but now operates globally in the US, Australia, Hong Kong, Ukraine and Nigeria...
",, Standpoint
Standpoint (magazine)
Standpoint is a monthly British cultural and political magazine. Its premier issue was published at the end of May 2008 – the first launch of a major current affairs publication in the UK in more than a decade....
. and The Commentator
Views on Islam
Murray frequently appears in the broadcast media criticising aspects of Islamic fundamentalism, and he has written that it was through studying Islam and the Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
that led to the loss of his own faith.
In 2010 Murray wrote "It is grotesque to argue that Europe has failed its Muslims. It has been made repeatedly obvious that it is Islam that has failed Europe". Murray is fundamentally opposed to the presence of Islam in Europe, saying: "Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition."
Murray has described what he sees as, "a creed of Islamic fascism – a malignant fundamentalism, woken from the dark ages to assault us here and now". He believes that "we live…in a thought culture – but it is one in which the thought has gone bad". He sees the main problem as being cultural relativism which he has described as, "the primary disease – the AIDS of the West – the disease which has made the opportunist infection of Islam so deadly".
Murray supported Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri
Tahir-ul-Qadri
Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri is a Pakistani Sufi scholar and former professor of international constitutional law at the University of the Punjab....
's Fatwa on Terrorism
Fatwa on Terrorism
Fatwa on Terrorism is a 600-page , 512-page Islamic decree by scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri which demonstrates from the Quran and Sunnah that terrorism and suicide bombings are so unjust that their evil is un-Islamic. The English edition was published in the UK by Minhaj-ul-Quran Publications....
and wrote that it has "the possibility of being respected by a far wider range of people than any of those individual non-scholarly Muslim voices who have also condemned terrorism without caveat."
His comments about Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism refers to two related and partially overlapping but also distinct aspects of extremist interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:...
in Holland mean that he has to have a police guard when travelling there.
He has labelled "Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
" a "nonsense term", as "there are a considerable number of reasons to be fearful of some – though certainly not all – aspects and versions of Islam".
Criticism of Islamic Extremism
Murray said that the followers of senior al-Qaida leader Anwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
: "will routinely describe Awlaki as a vital and highly respected scholar, [while he] is actually an al-Qaida-affiliate nut case."
Douglas Murray wrote an article criticising Malcolm Grant, chancellor at University College London, and radicalisation on university campuses after it emerged that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – who attempted to explode a bomb on a flight to Detroit – was formerly president of the UCL Islamic Society. Malcolm Grant denied there was a problem with extremism on campus, yet the CSC issued a press briefing highlighting the extremists that had spoken at UCL after being invited by its ISOC.
In March 2009, Douglas Murray and the Centre for Social Cohesion applauded the decision to bar Ibrahim el-Moussawi, spokesman for Hizbollah, from entering Britain. El-Moussawi had been due to lecture government officials and police on political Islam at a course arranged by the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
; Murray was highly critical of the prospect that while el-Moussawi was set to be welcomed into Britain, elected Dutch MP Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...
had been barred from entering the country just weeks before. He subsequently wrote to Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Jacqui Smith
Jacqui Smith
Jacqueline Jill "Jacqui" Smith is a member of the British Labour Party. She served as the Member of Parliament for Redditch from 1997 until 2010 and was the first ever female Home Secretary, thus making her the third woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State — after Margaret Thatcher and...
warning that he was planning to instruct his lawyers to issue an international arrest warrant against el-Moussawi if he entered Britain. The Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
eventually refused el-Moussawi a visa.
Moral Superiority
Murray is famous for stating - on an episode of Question TimeQuestion Time
Question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers , which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances...
- that the behaviour of western societies is "better" than Al Qaeda, stating that we "just don't need to show it".
"Banned" from the LSE
Murray claimed that he was "banned" by the London School of EconomicsLondon School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
in January 2009. Murray was set to chair a debate titled "Islam and Liberalism: Which is the Way Forward?" between Dr Alan Sked
Alan Sked
Alan Sked is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics . He studied History at Glasgow, then Merton College, Oxford. His doctoral supervisor at Oxford was A. J. P. Taylor, who was a major influence on Sked. In particular, Sked's writings on the Habsburg Monarchy owe much...
and Hamza Andreas Tzortzis. However the LSE decided that, as it was experiencing student protests and significant unrest on campus in the context of Israeli incursion into Gaza, Murray's presence "might provoke further unrest". He was subsequently asked by the university to stay away from campus in the interests of "public safety", Murray claims. The LSE publicly denied that he had been banned, and stated that he had previously spoken at a number of LSE events, and said that they had at the last minute reinvited him to chair the meeting, which Murray later confirmed, though he was too upset to do so. Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson is a British journalist, author and blogger.Thompson was educated at Presentation College, Reading, and read history at Mansfield College, Oxford University. He received his Ph.D in the sociology of religion from the London School of Economics for a thesis on the management of...
in the Daily Telegraph called LSE "gutless" and threatened to return the PhD he had earned at the university. Journalist Melanie Phillips called the decision "another victory for the forces of darkness".