When a stark raving bonkers Tafkiri starts to talk about subjects out of their comfort zone (the Hadith and murdering people) you tend to get statements which are beyond even Pythonesque parody. Gobby Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al Zawahiri recently held forth on Global Warming, stating that the problem showed "how criminal, brutal and greedy the Western crusader world is, with America at the top". Which made him sound like a cross between George Monbiot and Genghis Khan. After Zawahiri’s version of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ we had Saud Arabia’s top judge trying his hand at the role of chief Tafkiri TV critic. Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan condemned the immoral nature of Arabic satellite TV and stated "There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them. It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties." Although, to be fair, I do have similar feelings when ever I see ‘The Catherine Tate Show’ and at least the sheikh had one foot anchored in reality when he called for the murder of actual living people. Saudi cleric Sheikh Mohammed Al-Munajid meanwhile denounced Mickey Mouse as a messenger sent by Satan and issued what is probably the greatest fatwa of all time, “Mickey Mouse should be killed." I kid you not.

Anyway this week saw the annual General Assembly at the United Nations, a body which began with noble ideas but is now in danger of becoming a parody of itself. The General Assembly saw such democratic leviathans as Dimitry Mdevedev and Robert Mugabe dropping by for some diplomatic chit chat. Mugabe deftly swatted away questions about torture and murder with an absolutely hilarious sarcastic laugh; at which point any self respecting human would have punched him in the nose. Also in town was the rather dapper President Ahmedinejad who likes to use the occasion to hold forth on subjects outside his usual subject of, well, the destruction of Israel. In a wide ranging speech Mr Ahmadinejad managed to cover the global credit crisis, which is the fault of the Zionists; the collapse of the ‘American Empire’, which is also the fault of the Zionists; and the US presidential candidates, who are in thrall to the Zionists. Mr Ahmadinejad then announced “the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters”, all of which is presumably the fault of the Zionists. Despite such a wide ranging speech the president still found some time to predict the establishment of a global Islamic Caliphate and to criticise the global influence of the, er, Zionists.

Islamists have of course been predicting the collapse of the American Empire since 1989. Osama bin Laden, for example, seriously believes that he caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the Arab Mujahideen were only involved in one rather farcical skirmish in Afghanistan, the Afghan Government only fell when the Soviet Union fell and the Soviet Union collapsed because its economic policy was utterly bonkers. Bin Laden believes he destroyed the Soviet Union and he believes the same thing will happen to the USA. Except the USA isn’t about to collapse and the rhetoric of Islamists is worthless and empty. Islamists can only offer hatred and violence and when they try to discuss other issues they can only discuss hatred and violence. Thousands will swallow their ideas but many more will choose their own path. They can influence events but they can never achieve their aims. Arabs will continue to watch tacky talent shows, America will continue to lead the world and Mickey Mouse will continue to spread his evil message of sin and corruption.