“Why is this man regarded any more favourably than Pat Robertson or Stephen Green’s Christian Voice?”

The question is posed by one Max Dunbar in the current issue of Democratiya, house journal of the “decent left”, and the man in question is Tariq Ramadan.

This sort of thing does our job for us. As we’ve remarked in the past, those who promote the view that Professor Ramadan represents some sort of fundamentalist threat to Western society discredit themselves more effectively than we ever could.

Elsewhere in the same issue, Tom Gallagher complains about the SNP’s establishment of close relations with Muslim communities in Scotland: “Alex Salmond has cultivated young Muslim activists, as well as businessmen, for many years, but he is deaf to warnings that engaging with Muslims on the basis of an ethno-religious identity will fuel Islamist radicalism.”

Needless to say, Gallagher has a go at Osama Saeed of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, who “has a track-record of collaborating with UK Islamist bodies, such as the Muslim Association of Britain”.

Gallagher even takes exception to the formation of a Muslim Police Association in Scotland, approvingly quoting an email from Boris Johnson’s culture director Munira Mirza, who asserts that “this reinforces tribalism and division”.

For an overview of the entire contents of Democratiya, see Aaronovitch Watch, 2 September 2008