Beat Islamic fundamentalism by studying Henry V - Starkey

David Starkey, the controversial television historian, has said that the West’s failure to deal effectively with Islamic fundamentalism stems from a lack of understanding of its religious fervour – a fervour similar to the beliefs of medieval English kings.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Starkey said that although modern Britons find it hard to understand religiously motivated violence, it has a long tradition in our own country’s history.

After he appeared on Newsnight in 2011 to discuss the London riots, Starkey was branded a racist for saying that “the whites have become black”. He provoked a similar reaction last year, when he said that a Rochdale sex gang who groomed white girls for sex had values that were “entrenched in foothills of the Punjab”.

Starkey’s new remarks stem from his BBC Two series Music and Monarchy, which starts this Saturday. “Again, you know, it’s one of the great problems of the current world that we’re in, the world of radicalised Islam and the deliberate deployment of violence in the name of religion, we find it almost impossible to take it seriously,” said Starkey. “One of the reasons we’re handling it so badly is we don’t understand the religious motive.”

Though Starkey said he had no specific prescription for better handling of Islamic fundamentalism, “it would be best if we started by understanding it”.