This week I received a rather angry email from somebody called Glyn Rhys who insisted that as "a white British woman" I am unaffected by sharia and Islamism and that by commenting on it, I am (of course) an "Islamophobe". Putting aside the deep immorality of this "I'm all right Jack" attitude, the fact is that his claim is simply untrue. 

I have written before about how non-Muslim women, even in the West, are expected to alter their actions to accommodate the misogyny of some Muslim men. Sharia therefore affects me as a woman, just as it affects everyone who wishes to express an honest opinion about Islam or Islamic extremism. 

My friend Chris Moos, and his colleague Abishek Phadnis, at the London School of Economics Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASH), found out again recently just how much Islamism continues to affect freedom of speech in Britain, and freedom of expression more broadly. 

On October 3, Abishek and Chris were manning the ASH stall at the LSE Students' Union Freshers' Fayre. They were approached by the Students' Union's Community and Welfare Officer Anneessa Mahmood, its Anti-Racism Officer Rayhan Uddin, its Deputy Chief Executive Jarlath O'Hara, and several others.