I doubt if anyone was much surprised by the UAE’s decision yesterday to both restrict and censor Blackberry usage. Islamic countries are almost universally intolerant of criticism and scared of new ideas….as in, anything thought up since the Crusades. Further evidence of Turkey’s accelerating direction was provided last month when its Islamist ruling Party AK began moaning that Google and Facebook had allowed ‘inflammatory’ things to be said about Allah.

Equally, few will be surprised (terrifyingly, most will be bored) by this morning’s breaking news that gunmen killed over 40 people in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi. Dozens of vehicles and shops were set on fire as security forces struggled to gain control of the city, which has a history of Al Qaeda and Taliban militancy.

The latest unrest came after Raza Haider, a provincial lawmaker, was shot dead; he was a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the political party that runs the city and represents mainly descendants of migrants from India who settled in Pakistan when it was created in 1947….ie, the more tolerant end of the religion.

Allegedly, it is to stop more of this homicidal fanaticism that we are trying to build an Afghanistan fit for heroes, but almost every day a cultural event – be it corruption, violence or gender bigotry – makes me ask why.

There’s an Afghan TV star-cum-presenter called Nasto Nadiri who’s running for Parliament there at the minute, and he says he wants a clampdown on women’s shelters in Afghanistan. Theseare places where women threatened with everything from domestic violence to stoning can go in search of sanctuary.

The TV host wields considerable power in shaping the national debate in Afghanistan, and has been using it to rail against women’s rights and foreign aid organizations. He frequently suggests on prime time that international aid workers are forcing these ladies into prostitution, which I guess is the sort of thing you’d do, being an unpaid volunteer worker.

“The shelters are not acceptable for our people, who have fought 30 years to put the word ‘Islam’ in front of Afghanistan. We live in an Islamic country, but some of these people come and want to make another way for our country,” he remarked yesterday.

In a sign of the influence of Mr. Nadiri’s show, the government expelled two aid groups from Afghanistan earlier this year, after the host broadcast footage purportedly showing them converting Afghans to Christianity, a crime punishable by death under Afghan law. Ah yes, that’ll be the tolerant dimension coming through strongly again.

I have little doubt that the steady stream of Slog articles trying to demonstrate the nature of Islamic intolerance and Islamist lunacy will by now have earned me a fat file in the ISI’s offices. Given that the Slog has accused Pakistan’s security agency three times of obvious double-dealing when it comes to sheltering and promoting Islamism, it could well be that a Jihad is heading my way.

Either way, the bollocks that has been written and yelled by critics of Cameron’s recent remarks on the subject is (although predictable) astounding. But then, the Establishment here and our Islamic brethren are good on denial – if less good with criticism…..which probably explains the censorship now rife at the Guardian. The paper is obviously getting itself in shape for the day when Sharia Law takes over.