COVERAGE of Geert Wilders being refused access to the UK was explained today on the BBC News Channel in terms of Wilders’ own views on Islam.

Islam, according to Wilders (according to the BBC), when practised according to a strict interpretation of the Koran, is incompatible with western values.

I have no knowledge of the Koran, so I can’t verify if that proposal has any validity. I do know that the Muslims with whom I’m friendly seem to have no problem integrating with British society.

But at the risk of being accused of “appeasing” anyone, you could argue that Christianity, like Islam, is similarly incompatible with western values: the Bible teaches that women should be subservient to their husbands, that homosexuals and adulterers should be killed (or, in New Testament terms, at least condemned as sinful), that slavery can be tolerated and that a man whose testicles have been crushed can’t go to church (check out Deutoronomy if you don’t believe me, though I imagine that if you had just suffered that fate you might have concerns other than whether or not the kirk elders are going to let you into the 11.30 am service).

But most Christians, like most Muslims, manage to reconcile their personal faith with living in a westernised secular society. 

My immediate instinctive response to Wilders being declined UK entry was similar to Iain Dale’s. But I’ve supported government decisions in the past to exclude Islamist hate preachers, and complained when decisions to exclude them haven’t been made, so I probably couldn’t sustain a coherent argument in favour of Wilders’ admission.