British author and political commentator (born 1979)
Douglas Murray (born 16 July 1979) is a British neoconservative political commentator, cultural critic, and journalist. 
He is currently an associate editor of the conservative British political and cultural magazine "The Spectator," and has been a regular contributor to "The Times", "The Daily Telegraph," "The Sun," the "Daily Mail," "New York Post, National Review", "The Free Press", and "Unherd".
His books include ' (2005), "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam" (2017), ' (2019) and "The War on the West" (2022). Murray was the associate director of the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative think tank, from 2011 to 2018. 
Murray is a critic of immigration and Islam. He became more well-known internationally due to his advocacy of Israel after the October 7 attacks in 2023.
Murray has been praised by conservatives, and criticised by many progressives. Articles in the academic journals "Ethnic and Racial Studies" and "National Identities" associate his views with Islamophobia and he has been described as promoting far-right ideas such as the Eurabia, Great Replacement, and Cultural Marxism conspiracy theories.
Early life and education.
Murray was born in Hammersmith, London, to an English school teacher mother and a Scottish, Gaelic-speaking father who had been born on the Isle of Lewis and who worked as a civil servant. He has one elder brother. In an interview with "The Herald", Murray stated that his father had intended to be in London temporarily but stayed after meeting his mother, and that they "encouraged a good discussion around the dinner table" when he was growing up but "neither are political."
Murray was educated at his local state primary and secondary schools, before going to a comprehensive which had previously been a grammar school. Recalling this experience in 2011, he wrote, "My parents had been promised that the old grammar school standards and ethos remained, but none did. By the time I arrived the school was what would now be described as 'an inner-city sink school', a war zone similar to those many of the children's parents had escaped from." Murray's parents withdrew him from the school after a year. He won scholarships to St Benedict's School, Ealing, and subsequently Eton College, taught briefly at a school near Aberdeen, then took a degree in English at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Publications.
At age 19, while in his second year at the University of Oxford, Murray's "Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas" was published, which Christopher Hitchens described as "masterly". "Bosie" was awarded a Lambda Award for a gay biography in 2000. After leaving Oxford, Murray wrote a play, "Nightfall", about the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
In 2006 Murray authored a defence of neoconservatism – "" – and went on a speaking tour promoting the book in the United States. The publication was subsequently reviewed in the Arabic newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat" by the Iranian author Amir Taheri: "Whether one agrees with him or not Murray has made a valuable contribution to the global battle of ideas." In 2007, he assisted in the writing of the Center for Strategic and International Studies's report "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership", written by Klaus Naumann, John Shalikashvili, Lord Inge, Jacques Lanxade, and Henk van den Breemen. His book "Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and The Saville Inquiry" was (jointly) awarded the 2011–2012 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and longlisted for the 2012 Orwell Book Prize. In June 2013, Murray's self-published e-book "Islamophilia: a Very Metropolitan Malady" was released.
In 2017 Bloomsbury published Murray's "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam", which spent almost 20 weeks on "The Sunday Times" bestseller list and was a No. 1 bestseller in non-fiction. It has since been published in over 20 languages. In "The Strange Death of Europe", Murray argued that Europe "is committing suicide" by allowing non-European immigration into its borders and losing its "faith in its beliefs". The book received a polarized response from critics. Juliet Samuel of "The Daily Telegraph" praised Murray, saying that: "His overall thesis, that a guilt-driven and exhausted Europe is playing fast and loose with its precious modern values by embracing migration on such a scale, is hard to refute." An academic review in the "Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs" acclaimed the book as "explosive" and "an elegantly written, copiously documented exposé of Europe's suicidal hypocrisy". Rod Liddle of "The Sunday Times" called the book "a brilliant, important and profoundly depressing book".
Other reviews of the book were highly negative. In "The Guardian", the political journalist Gaby Hinsliff described "Strange Death" as "gentrified xenophobia" and "Chapter after chapter circles around the same repetitive themes: migrants raping and murdering and terrorising", also pointing out that Murray offers little definition of the European culture which he claims is under threat. Writing in "The New York Times", Indian novelist Pankaj Mishra described the book as "a handy digest of far-right clichés". Mishra accused Murray of defending Pegida, of writing that the English Defence League "had a point", and of describing Hungarian politician Viktor Orbán as a better sentinel of "European values" than George Soros. Writing in "The Intercept", Murtaza Hussain criticised what he called the "relentlessly paranoid tenor" and "apocalyptic picture of Europe" portrayed in the book, while challenging the links Murray made between non-European immigration and large increases in crime. In "Middle East Eye", Georgetown University in Qatar professor Ian Almond called the book "a staggeringly one-sided flow of statistics, interviews and examples, reflecting a clear decision to make the book a rhetorical claim that Europe is doomed to self-destruction".
Murray wrote about social justice and identity politics in his 2019 book "" which became a "Sunday Times" bestseller. It was also nominated as an audio book of the year for the British Book Awards. In the book, Murray points to what he sees as a cultural shift, away from established modes of religion and political ideology, in which various forms of victimhood can provide markers of social status. He divides his book into sections dealing with different forms of victimhood, including types of LGBT identity, feminism, and racial politics. Murray criticises the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault for what he sees as a reduction of society to a system of power relations. Murray's book drew polarized responses from critics. Historian Tim Stanley in "The Daily Telegraph" praised the book, calling Murray "a superbly perceptive guide through the age of the social justice warrior". Katie Law in the "Evening Standard" said that Murray "tackled another necessary and provocative subject with wit and bravery". Conversely, William Davies gave a highly critical review of Murray's work in "The Guardian", describing the book as "the bizarre fantasies of a rightwing provocateur, blind to oppression".
"The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason" was published in 2022. The book was characterised by columnist Gerard Baker as an examination of attempts to destroy Western civilisation from sources within.
Career.
He founded the Centre for Social Cohesion in 2007, which became part of the Henry Jackson Society, where he was associate director from 2011 to 2018.
Media career.
Murray is an associate editor of "The Spectator".
In 2016 Murray organised a competition through "The Spectator" in which entrants were invited to submit offensive poems about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with a top prize of £1,000 donated by a reader. This was in reaction to the Böhmermann affair, in which German satirist Jan Böhmermann was prosecuted under the for such a poem. Murray announced the winner of the poetry competition as Conservative MP Boris Johnson (former editor of the magazine, and former Mayor of London, and later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom).
In April 2019 Murray spent weeks urging "New Statesman" journalist George Eaton and editor Jason Cowley to share the original recording of an interview between Eaton and Roger Scruton, with Murray branding the published interview – which attributed a number of controversial statements to Scruton – as "journalistic dishonesty". Murray eventually managed to acquire the recording, which formed the basis of an article in "The Spectator" defending Scruton, arguing that his remarks had been misinterpreted. It is unclear how Murray obtained the recording. The "New Statesman" subsequently apologized for Eaton's misrepresentation.
In October 2023, Murray reported from Israel for 6 months following the October 7 attacks. He visited the kibbutzim that were attacked in the October 7 war and interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Political views.
Ideology.
Academic and journalistic sources have variously described Murray's ideology and political views as conservative, neoconservative, far-right, alt-right and Islamophobic. Murray is a regular critic of immigration and Islam. British journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne described Douglas Murray as an anti-Muslim polemicist. Murray has argued that there is an effort by the left to destroy Western culture, and has argued that criticisms of Western leaders and philosophers are motivated by attempts to hurt the West. 
Murray has been accused of putting a socially acceptable face on far-right ideologies. British writer Nafeez Ahmed argued in "Middle East Eye" that Murray's support for free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting and the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks was "really just a ploy for far-right entryism". In 2019 an article in "Social Policy Review" described Murray's views as a kind of "mainstreamist" ideology that defies easy categorization as extremist while remaining "entangled with the far right". Murray has also been described as promoting far-right conspiracy theories, including the Great Replacement theory, the Eurabia conspiracy theory and the cultural Marxism conspiracy theory.
Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy has said of Murray, "Whether one agrees with him or not" he is "one of the most important public intellectuals today". Writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and columnist Sohrab Ahmari have praised Murray's work and writing on Islam in Europe.
In 2020 columnist Bari Weiss placed Murray within the intellectual dark web, a loosely affiliated group of commentators including Bret Weinstein, Dave Rubin, Joe Rogan, and Sam Harris. Murray has rejected his placement within this group.
Islam and Muslims.
In a February 2006 speech to the Dutch Parliament, Murray said "conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition." and that "All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop." Murray's former coworker at the Centre for Social Cohesion, James Brandon, interpreted this speech as calling for the collective punishment of Muslims. After Murray refused politician Paul Goodman's offer to disown these comments, the Conservative Party frontbench severed formal relations with Murray and his Centre for Social Cohesion.
According to Brandon, Murray failed to distinguish Islam from Islamism. Brandon said he attempted to "de-radicalise" Murray to ensure that only Islamists were targeted and not "Muslims as a whole". Brandon writes that Murray has privately retracted some of his comments. In 2010, during an Intelligence Squared US debate titled "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?", Murray argued in his contribution against the motion that "[Islamic Prophet] Muhammad was a bad man", citing episodes from Muhammad's private life and his beheading of Jews.
In 2008 Murray listed the cases of 27 writers, activists, politicians, and artists – including Salman Rushdie, Maryam Namazie, and Anwar Shaikh, all three of whom had received death threats due to their criticism of Islam. Murray said that "Unless Muslims are allowed to discuss their religion without fear of attack there can be no chance of reform or genuine freedom of conscience within Islam."
In 2009 Murray was prevented from chairing a debate at the London School of Economics between academic Alan Sked and philosopher Hamza Tzortzis on the topic "Islam or Liberalism: Which is the Way Forward?", with the university citing security concerns following a week-long student protest against Israel's attacks on Gaza. The debate took place without Murray chairing. The move was criticised by the conservative press, such as "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Spectator".
In June 2009 Murray accepted an invitation to a debate with Islamist Anjem Choudary, leader of the banned militant group Al-Muhajiroun, on the subject of "Sharia" law and British law at Conway Hall. Members of Al-Muhajiroun acting as security guards tried to segregate men and women at the entrance of the event. Clashes broke out near the entrance between Choudary's and Murray's supporters, and Conway Hall cancelled the debate because of the attempted forced separation of men and women. Outside the building, a confrontation between Choudary and Murray over the cancellation of the event occurred. Murray's Centre for Social Cohesion later published