Although I think he’s mistaken in his assessment of the Tower Hamlets Council controversy, I fully agree and appreciate the insight into how a Burkean should approach Ramadan:

As mentioned previously on Burke’s Corner,
I am disturbed by both the secularists and the neo-cons whose hostility
to Islam – not merely Islamist radicalism – ignores a profound Burkean
truth: “man [sic] is by his constitution a religious animal”. Back in March I said:

“An
authentically Burkean analysis would, indeed, critique the theocratic
pretensions of the ideology of Islamism and its cult of holy violence.
But Burkeans would carefully qualify this with a prior expression of
respect for Islamic civilisation, for the ability of mosque and Koran
to shape societies over centuries”.

As Ramadan begins today – in
spite of those who pervert Islam for the ideology of hate and in spite
of the dangerous fools in Tower Hamlets – it is appropriate to
reiterate that respect.

I’ve some Burkean leanings myself, it seems. I found the Wikipedia entry on Edmund Burke’s life and works to be very compatible with my own views on religion and politics. It’s interesting that he is claimed by both modern conservatives and liberals alike as an intellectual forebear.

(via Talk Islam)