“Bloggers have attacked a Times writer over an article comparing Islamic fundamentalism to Nazism and his links with a rightwing US website. Anthony Browne, the Times’ European editor and an outspoken critic of British immigration policy, has sparked furious online debate over his article ‘Fundamentally, we’re useful idiots’, published in the Times.”

Chris Tryhorn reports in the Guardian, 3 August 2005

In fact, it wasn’t just “Islamic fundamentalism” that Browne compared to Nazism but such mainstream organisations and figures as the Muslim Association of Britain and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

For Browne’s links with US racists see Newshog, 1 August 2005

It’s worth noting that David T at Harry’s Place initially recommended Browne’s anti-Muslim rant as a useful “summary of the issues which we’ve been highlighting over the past few years” and had no problem at all with Browne’s characterisation of MAB and Dr al-Qaradawi as fascists. The objection David T eventually raised was not to “the argument which Browne makes about the fascist nature of radical Islamism” but to the fact that it was “part of a broader argument which he is making about ‘third world colonization’. The case for treating radical Islamism seriously can do without his support”. In short, David T finds little wrong with racist bigotry as long as it is directed exclusively against Muslims.