Precisely up there

Each to his own, it is said. Now Al-Qaeda reckons to suggest that Britain should watch its step in accordance with Al-Qaeda convictions. In fact, according to The Times of London, Al-Qaeda is preparing a "precise response" to the honours bestowed upon Mr. Rushdie earlier this year by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain. There is a distinctly ominous tone to that phrase, "precise response".

But the whole affair reeks of arrogance on the part of Al-Qaeda that can stem only from a petrified mind steeped in prehistoric religious entrapment. Let Al-Qaeda do as it pleases in its own territories and let Britain do as it pleases on its own land. Britain never has been a traditionally Muslim country and does not intend to become so in the foreseeable future, rampant immigration notwithstanding. It does not submit to Muslim dictates and decrees. It may bestow whatever honours it pleases upon members of its society without asking permission from outsiders.

Al-Qaeda can put its precise response precisely up there and that is that.