Uganda has finally woken up and seen the light.

Uganda has indicated it will sensibly bow to international pressure and amend draconian anti-homosexual legislation that includes the death penalty for HIV-positive people convicted of having gay sex. This controversial bill was put forward by a member of the ruling party in Uganda.

Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, said the bill had become a "foreign policy issue" and needed further consultation before being voted on in parliament.

The proposed law, which has been pushed by local evangelical preachers and vocally supported by senior government officials, threatens life imprisonment for anyone convicted of gay sex. While broadly supported domestically, the legislation has caused a storm of protest abroad and consternation from western donors who fund a large chunk of Uganda's budget.

Addressing a party conference, Museveni said numerous western leaders had spoken to him about the bill. "When I was at the Commonwealth conference, what was [the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper] talking about? The gays. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ... what was he talking about? The gays," said Museveni.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, had also called him to express strong concerns about the proposed law, he said. "It's a foreign policy issue, and we must handle it in a way that does not compromise our principles but also takes into account our foreign policy interests."

Museveni said the proposed law did not necessarily reflect party or government policy and his cabinet would discuss the bill with David Bahati, the MP who introduced it, before it was put to a vote.

Homosexuality is already outlawed in Uganda under colonial-era legislation. Such is the stigma attached to gay people that no public figure has ever come out. But in recent years some religious leaders have been warning that tougher measures are needed to prevent an increase in same-sex relationships. Accusations that gay Europeans are offering money to "recruit" Ugandan schoolchildren – a claim repeated by Museveni during his party speech on Tuesday – also seem to have raised the level of homophobia in the country.

Giving Mutallab seat 19A at Schiphol was a mistake that should lead to repaired airline security strategies. Homeland Security agencies worldwide have naturally stepped up their vigilance in case there are any other nut-exploding nutters out there with the same thing in mind.

One should not forget that it’s the failures of the likes of Al Qaeda bombers Mutallab, Reid, al-Owhali and (Hizb ut Tahrir’s) Bilal Abdulla, amongst many others, which go so far to show that the bogeyman (however brainwashed) is frail and fallible - something the hysteria of 9/11 too often implied he was not. Every bully is ripe for crushing - in every bully there hides a scrawny coward.

The extreme Islamist movement (as with other extremist movements like the BNP and Extreme Left) is full of scrawny cowards. The future promises to continue to teach the extreme Islamists a tough lesson until they snap out of their unrealistic, anti-social, dreadful plans for a world run by bearded Islamist nutters (a grim world where Sports Illustrated features a series of vomit-inducing Yvonne Ridley burkhini photographs and Lord Ahmed is promoted to Caliphate Transport Minister; his mantra “Don’t bother to stop - keep moving.”)

2009 has been a dreadful year for Al Qaeda and this next decade looks even grimmer for the terrorist network which has zero chance of fulfilling its chief goal of taking over a failed state. As Russia and China start to exert a heavier hand on the world’s tiller, so Guantanamo will come to be seen as a Butlin’s holiday camp for captured Al Qaeda cadres.